D ENVER -- One shining moment.

Colorado could use one.

Not to put any extra pressure on Jeff Bzdelik or anything, but if the head coach is able to experience some March Madness with the Buffs in the next few years it would do wonders for the budget.

And not just athletic director Mike Bohn's budget.

Because the Big 12 divvies up its postseason pot, CU will receive as much money watching the Big Dance from home as it would if Bzdelik were back coaching in Lo-Do again this weekend against Tom Izzo.

In fact, the Buffs would have lost some of the postseason purse had their victory over Baylor at the conference tournament burst the Bears' bubble.

But you can't put a price tag on how much good the exposure a deep NCAA Tournament run does for a university.

Or maybe you can.

George Mason University -- which played Notre Dame in the first-round nightcap on Thursday at the Pepsi Center -- is a different school today than it was before the Patriots left even Dick Vitale speechless by playing their way to a Final Four as a No. 11 seed.

"Our university admissions, our applications were rising faster than you could count them," George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga said when asked about the impact his team's Final Four appearance had on the school named after one of the fathers of the Bill of Rights. "Our hits on our Web site were growing by leaps and bounds. People were becoming more and more familiar with our university and our facilities. Our university decided to start expending."

The Patriots received $6 million from the NCAA that will be paid out through 2012. Dr. Robert Baker, who works in the sports management department at George Mason, did a study to figure out what it would have cost the school to pay for the amount of media coverage it receivedtwo years ago.

His findings: About $650 million.

"We were investing $2 million a week for the next five years, $500 million on campus improvements. We're adding more and more rooms to our dormitories," Larranaga continued. "So George Mason is just growing beautifully."

CU, despite the lack of basketball success in Boulder, is already pretty well known and respected.

But more 17-year-olds would be interested in studying under the Flatirons if Joe Lunardi was putting Bzdelik's Buffs in his bracket and Gus Johnson was calling CU games in March. ...

My daughter Madelyn broke her leg last month, which means I have to take her to school in a wheelchair (the administrators didn't want 6-year-old with crutches falling down at recess) every day.

We usually arrive a few minutes early and get to witness her teacher's final moments of peace and quiet. On Thursday, we heard the following announcement before they let the miniature mob in:

"Attention faculty, please get your brackets in before the bell rings."...

Obama or Clinton? Democrat or McCain?

I'd like to hear each candidate's position on March Madness. The economy is reportedly on the verge of a recession, yet there were 19,010 people inside the Pepsi Center on Thursday morning ditching work and spending money at the same time.

The audacity of bracketology. Not sure what it says about our country, but it sure is fun. ...

Did you know that Bzdelik's former team is in the tournament?

No, Air Force didn't make it. Bzdelik's first head coaching job was at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County where he compiled a 25-31 record in two seasons (1986-88) as the program made its Division I debut.

Twenty years later, UMBC will make its first NCAA Tournament appearance today as a No. 15 seed against Georgetown. ...

After watching Thursday's morning session up close and personal it's rather obvious that the basketball programs at Michigan State and Pitt have their own weight rooms.

Richard Roby was a great player at CU, but he's as skinny now as a departing senior as he was four years ago as a baby-faced freshman.

CU is putting the finishing touches on a new basketball operations center at the Coors Events Center and remodeling the men's locker room. There are also plans to add a weight room in the facility.

And that state-of-the-art practice gym Bzdelik's contract calls for? Well, that's going to require some serious fundraising.

Buffs fans, how does "Your Fortune 500 Company at Folsom Field" sound for the football stadium?

Either that or CU needs to become the next George Mason next spring.