College football expansion: Big 12 offered Colorado $2.5 million signing bonus to join conference, per report

After losing Texas and Oklahoma, the Big 12 was on the warpath when it came to football realignment, and was willing to pay Colorado big money, a new report claims.

The Big 12 was willing to dole out a seven-figure signing bonus to bring Colorado into the conference during the realignment rush. / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Not long after losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC during last year's football realignment craze, the Big 12 got aggressive and brought on four schools to replace them, including Colorado, which the league was apparently willing to give a major financial incentive to join, according to new reporting.

Colorado was offered a $2.5 million signing bonus to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big 12, according to USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer.

The league offered Colorado that big payday as an "added enticement" to lure the Buffaloes from their former conference into their new league, according to documents obtained by USA Today.

Colorado was the first of four schools that would leave the Pac-12 for the expanded Big 12, with Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State ultimately joining the conference, as well.

That — combined with the departures of USC, Oregon, UCLA, and Washington to the Big Ten, and of Stanford and Cal to the ACC — left the Pac-12 with only two members heading into the 2024 football season: Oregon State and Washington State.

Part of the agreement to bring Colorado into the Big 12 stated the school "shall also receive a membership transition bonus upon execution of this Agreement of Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($2,500,000)," according to the report.

There is no mention of any financial bonus in the admission agreements the Big 12 offered to the other three schools, indicating that Colorado was the only school to receive such a bonus.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark declined to offer any details into his negotiations with Colorado, but noted that, "Ultimately, one got us four, you know, when you think about it. Whatever we did in those negotiations seemed to work out pretty well for us."

Colorado was a member of the Big 12 from its inception in 1996 to 2010, with seven of those years resulting in winning seasons.

Before then, the Buffaloes were a member of the Big Eight dating back to 1948, playing its best football in the late 1980s under Bill McCartney and winning the national championship in 1990.

The school had one winning season since joining the Pac-12, going 10-4 in 2016.

Deion Sanders went 4-8 (1-8 Pac-12) in his debut as Colorado head coach a year ago, and his team came in at No. 11 in the preseason Big 12 media football rankings, receiving no first-place votes.

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