Strike 2: When the clock struck all zeroes in Fort Collins last Friday night, the victorious Colorado State Rams – still in the hunt for a berth in the Mountain West title game – sprinted across the field and took eager possession of the Bronze Boot, the traveling trophy that stays in the possession of the winner of each season’s heated rivalry game between CSU and Wyoming.
Winning the “Border War” and possessing the Boot means everything to both programs. That’s what rivalries mean.
Earlier in the week, the two schools announced that even though CSU is moving to the revamped Pac-12 in 2026, the two rivals are going to keep the series going. It won’t be a conference game, but the Border War will still be played for the Bronze Boot well into the next decade.
The following morning, the Colorado Buffaloes put a whipping on the struggling Utah Utes in another game between long-time rivals. Well, sort of rivals.
When both CU and Utah joined the Pac-12 in 2011, the league gave their annual game a name: “The Rumble in the Rockies.” But they forgot to create a traveling trophy. No matter. Despite the fact that the two schools – who also share a border – have now played 70 times, neither sees the other as their actual “rival.”
Utah has its rival in BYU. There’s not a more heated (hate-filled?) game than The Holy War. Now that they’re both in the same conference for the first time in more than a decade, The Holy War will continue unabated, to the delight of college football fans everywhere.
Meanwhile, with hated ex-rival Nebraska off the schedule for the foreseeable future, and CU giving the stiff arm to Colorado State in terms of a yearly rivalry game, who do the Buffs and their fans have to point to as their true “rival?”
The answer is, no one. The Buffs are now rival-less, as next season’s schedule will illustrate.
And that’s too bad, because college football – even in the mega-conference, transfer portal, pay-for-play era – still revolves around rivalries. You can probably count on one hand the number of prominent programs that don’t have at least one big rivalry game every season. Just around here, you see the Air Force games with Army and Navy and the Border War with CSU and Wyoming. Utah vs. BYU. Arizona vs. Arizona State. Kansas vs. K State. The list goes on and on.
That list could include CU v CSU. And it certainly should.
Just imagine if the Buffs day after Thanksgiving tilt this season was against the Rams (who are better competition this season than Oklahoma State.) CU may have already locked up a spot in the Big 12 title game at that point, but nevertheless the game against the Rams would have serious ramifications (pun intended.) Numerous prominent programs play their in-state/out of conference rival games on “rivalry weekend” like Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, Florida vs. Florida State, Clemson vs. South Carolina, etc.
It could be done. And it would be a big boost for both programs and for college football in the state.
Just think back to the build up for this year’s game, and imagine what that build up would be like over an entire season.
And before you look down your nose too far at those Rams fans, think about this Buff Nation: At this moment, the win over CSU is very likely CU’s best win of the season to date (just ask the folks at ESPN.)
About the only thing that could top the Border War in terms of football rivalry fervor in these parts would be a Centennial Cup game the day after Thanksgiving.
If only.
