Two things can both be true at the same time: First, our state’s brand-new college football season kicks off for real this week (with apologies to Northern Colorado’s gutty effort last Saturday) and this Saturday, we will see our region’s final rivalry game of the year.
The new-look Colorado State Rams will host hated rival Wyoming at Canvas Stadium on Saturday in the Battle for the Bronze Boot. Few, if any, observers know what to expect from a CSU squad with an almost entirely new roster, new coaching staff and even a new conference. A new league, by the way, that does not include the Cowboys for the first time since 1968.
Wyoming is expected to be what Wyoming always is – moderately talented, tough as nails, and up to any fight. There’s no reason to believe that a huge crowd in Fort Collins won’t be treated to an entertaining contest.
Now that they’re no longer conference rivals, they didn’t have to play each other this season (are you listening in Boulder?) Thankfully, they still are.
Once CSU’s move to the Pac-12 became official, the two schools moved quickly to ensure the continuation of the rivalry, which dates back to the 19th century. Saturday’s meeting will be the 118th in the series. They don’t play next season, but the series resumes the following year, with games already slated for every year through 2036.
It’s always been an intense contest, fueled by genuine dislike. You know… the way rivalries are supposed to be.
Kudos to both schools for making that happen, because other than this game, on the rivalry front this season, we’ve got bupkis.
CSU’s new conference affiliation means the Rams don’t play in-state rival Air Force this season, or for the foreseeable future. Yes, the Falcons play Wyoming, and Army and Navy… but do the fans in this state get ‘rivalry-hyped’ for AFA vs. Wyoming? Not especially. And while the service academy games are big rivalries, they’re national, not regional.
CSU still plays plenty of familiar foes, like San Diego State and Boise State, but no one mistakes those games for true rivalry contests, either.
The Colorado Buffaloes’ game of musical conferences over the past 16 years cost them their annual game with hated rival Nebraska. They’ve played four times since, but there are no future games scheduled between those two, so that rivalry is deceased. It also seems like the Big 12 gave up on the old Pac-12’s idea of force-feeding us the annual CU-Utah contest as a rivalry game – which it’s never actually been. Utah has their own hated in-state rival in BYU.
The Buffs vs. Kansas or K-State? Oklahoma State? Just conference games; that’s it. Since they first left the Big 12 conference 16 years ago, CU has simply not had a real, live rivalry game. And as the Buffs’ former conference showed us, you can’t manufacture rivalries.
It can’t be for this year, but there is a solution. Along with CSU vs. Wyoming (almost) every season, if the powers that be were smart, they’d schedule CU vs. CSU for every season on the Friday after Thanksgiving. There are plenty of similar, non-conference rivalry games that get played annually on that weekend, like Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, Clemson vs. South Carolina and Florida vs. Florida State. Even if one or both teams were having down seasons, and even with students gone for Thanksgiving break, those stadiums are packed. The same would be true for the Buffs and the Rams. That’s the kind of atmosphere that true rivalry games create.
For now, all we’ve got is the Rams and the Cowboys and the Bronze Boot for a wonderful opener. Fingers crossed that the rest of the season isn’t all downhill after that.
