The Colorado Buffaloes are the home team heading into Friday’s 89th playing of the Rocky Mountain Showdown with Colorado State at Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High. While both teams’ head coaches say there is no real home-field advantage at the neutral site game, one coach does say there’s an edge.
Colorado State Head Coach Mike Bobo can’t for the life of him figure out why his team has been placed on the same sideline every year – specifically the sideline that is exposed to the hot Labor Day Weekend sun the longest.
“I don’t think [home field] matters. The one thing I don’t understand is, we’ve been here three years and we’re on the same sideline every time. I haven’t figured that one out. I keep asking. We were over there in the sun,” Sorry – this audio content is no longer available. on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 Wednesday.
He also pointed out another discrepancy about the sideline assignments.
“And then their press box looks at our sideline. That’s not to say anybody does anything like this, but you’re looking at signals,” Bobo noted.
He wasted no time raising issue with the matter, but hasn’t yet received an answer that fully satisfies him.
“When I asked that first question when I first got here it was, ‘Well, it’s so the fans can know where their seats are, so we’re going to keep them on the same side every year,’” Bobo said.
Really, it sounds like it’s a matter of convenience for the organizers to keep ticket allotments the same year to year, and to keep the schools on the corresponding sideline.
That’s a shocker to Bobo, who was party to one of the largest annual neutral site games in college football for many years as an assistant at Georgia.
And I’m like, ‘It says where the seat is on their ticket. I’ve been playing in the Georgia-Florida game every year and you flip. I don’t understand why we’re on one sideline every year.’”
If it can be done in the SEC, surely the Pac-12 and Mountain West can figure it out along with the operations staff at Sports Authority Field at Mile High and Colorado’s two flagship schools.
The schools have two more years to get it sorted out in Denver before the Showdown moves to Fort Collins in 2020. The future of the Showdown beyond that date is still to be determined. It appears they may resume the series again in 2023, but the details are still being worked out between the schools.
For the next two years, CU Head Coach Mike MacIntyre can enjoy the only thing that really comes to mind about home-field advantage at SAF. Sorry – this audio content is no longer available. on Wednesday to share his thoughts about the upcoming game.
“No, [home field] doesn’t really matter. I don’t think it really matters who the home team is, because we switch locker rooms really every year. So like last year, I think we were the home team last year, we were in the biggest locker room. This year, we’re still the home team, but we’re in the auxiliary locker room. So they switch the locker rooms every year, no matter if you’re the home or visitor so it’s fair locker room wise. It really doesn’t matter. The auxiliary locker room is really nice, too. There’s nothing really bad about the Broncos’ stadium, locker room wise.”
The Buffaloes lead the all-time series between the schools 64-22-2. The Buffs are 10-6 in games played in Denver (beginning in 1998), including a 44-7 victory last year.
Bobo, meanwhile, isn’t going to dwell on his team being on the undesirable sideline. His Rams are fresh off a 58-27 beatdown of another Pac-12 opponent, Oregon State. They’ll be plenty warm as they try and make it two-for-two against power conference opponents this year.
“We’re in the sun. That matters when you’re out there. It does. But it is what it is,” Bobo said. “We’re going to go play, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity.”
Kickoff for the Rocky Mountain Showdown is 6 p.m. MDT Friday.
Listen to the full interviews with Bobo and MacIntyre in the podcasts below.
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