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2023 Rocky Mountain Showdown Preview Thread (9/16/23)
- Thread starter TDforTD
- Start date
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't even put Utah on there for right now. Same view of them as I do any of the old Big 12 foes we'll play next year.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Another reason why the PAC move was a disaster.
You alone have 14 posts and counting in this thread, but keep telling us how you don’t care and nobody cares about the CSU game.If it drove so much fan engagement, why skip it for two years? Why skip it for another five after 2024? The reality in my view is this-the students love that game. This fanbase does not to the extent you think.
CU AD: Buffs won’t ever again play CSU Rams “the way we’re playing them now”
At this point, it’s still anyone’s guess when — or if — the Rocky Mountain Showdown will return to Denver, as the last game of the current Colorado-Colorado State contract ends in Fort Collin…www.denverpost.com
The only people who are unhappy about it not being every year are a segment of that fanbase and the Denver media. If you don't like me complaining about wasting OOC slots on a game that does NOTHING for this program, I really don't give a flying ****.
Last thing-find me a series/"rivalry" played between a power program and a Group of 5 with the kind of frequency of this series. There isn't one.
So now we care about boomers?
God forbid we do something that the students enjoy.
Lots of CU students know lots of CSU students, and vice versa. It’s good to play them on a semi-regular basis. It’s an easy win, more often than not. It’s a game that gets a lot of local attention, and the students love it. The downside is a possible loss to a team that has no business being on the same field. But if/when that happens, it can be an indication that there’s a problem with the team that needs correcting.
I can understand not wanting to have this game in Denver, but it should be played.
Lots of CU students know lots of CSU students, and vice versa. It’s good to play them on a semi-regular basis. It’s an easy win, more often than not. It’s a game that gets a lot of local attention, and the students love it. The downside is a possible loss to a team that has no business being on the same field. But if/when that happens, it can be an indication that there’s a problem with the team that needs correcting.
I can understand not wanting to have this game in Denver, but it should be played.
Utah has been a tricky rival to develop.
While both Colorado and Utah are chock full of transplants, there just don't seem to be that many people who move between UT and CO. The Front Range and Wasatch Front are not close to each other in any meaningful/easy to travel way, despite the shared border.
I meet people from and see flags and T shirts, bumper stickers, etc. of almost every other B12 and most other Pac 12 schools with way higher frequency than Utah. That's not to say they don't have fans, they clearly do. But they just don't seem to live in or move to Colorado (which makes sense given the general similarity of the two places). Almost every Utahn in Denver I know came here to go to CU and stayed, and thus like the Buffs.
Add in their deep, well known rivalry with BYU and it just doesn't jive.
There's 10 people in my office I can razz about their CSU connections. I don't know a Utah alum at all.
While both Colorado and Utah are chock full of transplants, there just don't seem to be that many people who move between UT and CO. The Front Range and Wasatch Front are not close to each other in any meaningful/easy to travel way, despite the shared border.
I meet people from and see flags and T shirts, bumper stickers, etc. of almost every other B12 and most other Pac 12 schools with way higher frequency than Utah. That's not to say they don't have fans, they clearly do. But they just don't seem to live in or move to Colorado (which makes sense given the general similarity of the two places). Almost every Utahn in Denver I know came here to go to CU and stayed, and thus like the Buffs.
Add in their deep, well known rivalry with BYU and it just doesn't jive.
There's 10 people in my office I can razz about their CSU connections. I don't know a Utah alum at all.
This state is extremely apathetic to college football. The CU/CSU game has continually shown as the highest draw with attendance and viewership in the state (outside of Nebraska) from any other non con game. It's silly to fill your entire non con with P5's, so this game gives some juice and a little extra money.
I don't want the game as an every year type game, but with how drastic college football is changing I think CU can make demands that CSU would adhere to if CSU wants to keep their AD afloat.
Plus, why are we so upset with another guaranteed W every year? CSU fans will always talk, so might as well give them what they want with another L.
I’m assuming you’re not talking about Navy v Notre Dame because something something probably an excuse, but Notre dame has also played Army the 6th most of anyone they’ve played
Arkansas has Tulsa as their third highest number of match ups all time
Louisville has Cincinnati number one of all time matchups
Penn State has UPenn as their number four (with a losing record at that)
Stanford has played San Jose St almost every year since 1949.
CU has 91 games v CSU. UVA has 88 games against VMI…not even FBS.
Virginia Tech has VMI, William & Mary, and Richmond all their top 5 of all time matchups…again, not even FBS.
That wasn’t a rivalry until Coach Mac willed it into existence in the late 80’s.
I said 20, idot!
Anyway if CU were a lower division team and not in the same conference as Nebraska then we probably would have preferred not to play them every year back then.
It also wasn’t viewed as a rivalry during those 20 years. Those 20 years created were from the late 60’s to late 80’s. They inronically probably created the rivalry (along with Mac).
3 thoughts:
- The decision to take a hiatus on the series has nothing to do with fan engagement. As many others have noted, CU/CSU is one of the best attended games for both teams in seasons when it happens (especially true when it was in Denver). It was a business decision. CSU wanted to keep getting half or a little less than half of the money when bringing far less than half the viewership on TV and in person and concession sales. CU wanted a deal that was more reflective of the split. CSU balked so CU walked. This isn't rocket science.
- My anecdotal experience is that students from the Pac12 era care about that game more than any of the P12 rivalries. Like it or not, that represents a growing chunk of the fanbase and pretty soon us oldheads will be in the minority. Consider that any student starting at CU in 2011 has only seen CU play nubs twice since starting at CU, but they've seen CU play CSU 9 times, and it's been one of the very few matchups that CU could take pride in winning over that timeframe.
- It's embarrassing for everyone that this is a rivalry- it's embarrassing for CU that such a small time program would represent a rivalry, and the results are embarrassing for CSU. That doesn't mean that it's not a rivalry.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
1. Fair point. I would think RG's desire to play in Texas as often as possible (prior to 2 weeks ago) also had something to do with this. That probably becomes CA now with the Big 12 move.
2. You're right, and that's another element of the Pac 12 move being a Murphy's Law type of experience for the university.
3. My whole point was this-think bigger than CSU. Coach Prime is running our football program. He got us a sitting G5 HC as an OC. He pulled the best recruiter in the sport (and a guy who Saban should have promoted to DC) in Charles Kelly to run the defense. I feel as good about the state of CU football right now as I have in 20+ years. I get the feeling the perception is going to change within the program fairly quickly once the Pac 12 farewell tour ends. I mean I'm 36 and I remember playing Gundy's early OSU teams and Snyder's teams.
I forgot about Navy-ND when I wrote the post you responded to. I will give you that one. Arkansas and Tulsa have played four times since the year 2000. Stanford and SJSU haven't played since 2013. Louisville and Cincinnati? If you want to call Utah a rivalry of CU's, we can apply the same logic here. They played last year in a bowl game, but that's been it going back to the dissolution of the Big East.
FCS-FBS examples don't work here. Those games are all about who is willing to take the smallest check. If I'm CU and I think I need a game against a team from that subdivision, Northern Colorado gets first right of refusal if they're open. I'd rather give them extra tickets they can sell versus having to cut a big check for transportation expenses. The closer to Boulder, the better.
Posted elsewhere but also belongs here.
www.9news.com
I was just thinking that as the new media revenue and all the Coach Prime stimulated revenues rolls in... it might be a nice gesture to CSU's struggling AD if our AD did a solid by paying to have CU Buffs be the title sponsor of their stadium.
Only 2 college sports programs in Colorado make money
So, how do the other 190 stay in business? Depends on the size of the university.
www.9news.com
I was just thinking that as the new media revenue and all the Coach Prime stimulated revenues rolls in... it might be a nice gesture to CSU's struggling AD if our AD did a solid by paying to have CU Buffs be the title sponsor of their stadium.
‘Water for these shrubs paid for by CU’Posted elsewhere but also belongs here.
Only 2 college sports programs in Colorado make money
So, how do the other 190 stay in business? Depends on the size of the university.
I was just thinking that as the new media revenue and all the Coach Prime stimulated revenues rolls in... it might be a nice gesture to CSU's struggling AD if our AD did a solid by paying to have CU Buffs be the title sponsor of their stadium.
Looking at the 2024 non-conference schedule:
I wish we could buy out that CSU game and add a second home game. Maybe play Northern Colorado at home. Rick George needs to look at how Georgia schedules.
- 08/31 - North Dakota State
- 09/07 - at Nebraska
- 09/14 - at Colorado State
I wish we could buy out that CSU game and add a second home game. Maybe play Northern Colorado at home. Rick George needs to look at how Georgia schedules.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Bad idea. That will make them think we actually give a **** about them.Posted elsewhere but also belongs here.
Only 2 college sports programs in Colorado make money
So, how do the other 190 stay in business? Depends on the size of the university.
I was just thinking that as the new media revenue and all the Coach Prime stimulated revenues rolls in... it might be a nice gesture to CSU's struggling AD if our AD did a solid by paying to have CU Buffs be the title sponsor of their stadium.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Preach. I'd like to see us schedule CSU the same way we do Wyoming.
I don’t mind going to Fort Collins. It’s another game in the state. It doesn’t help revenues but as far as the team is concerned, it’s one less game that they have to actually travel for.
I’d rather them buy out NDSU. Nobody is terribly excited to see that matchup and it’s a zero upside, high downside game. Probably can’t do that and replace it with a ****ty FCS team for perception/PR purposes, but it was a dumb game to schedule
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
The time to do that would have been right after Dorrell got fired last year. Would it have even registered in Denver, much less nationally?
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Late last week, I was hiking out of the wilderness in another state; I hadn't encountered another person in four days. The first people I saw were two dudes on the trail, hiking in as I was hiking out. As they approached me, they started yelling, "GO RAMS! GO RAMS!". I realized it was in reaction to the CU hat I was wearing. Then one of them explained to me, "We went to Colorado State." I nodded and smiled at them. It was all so adorable.
We are probably getting five Big 12 home games next season. Our former Big 8 rivals in the Big 12 are tripping over each other to grab some Boulder games.
fify
Not only beat them but make it painful, eliminate the ability to make excuses.
I hate the game from a standpoint that I used to work with a bunch of sheep fans who never shut up in those few years that they won or could even make excuses for not winning, playing CU validates them as a program.
The game is a benefit to us though. It does sell out, it does generate a lot of media attention in state, it is a lot of fun for the students, and it is a game that we can use to pad our record without having to bring in a no-name out of state opponent.
We have to be willing to use our position as the dominant partner though in dealing with this game. That means we don't play it every year, we use OOC games to benefit the program so if we end up scheduling some teams in areas we want to recruit or where our alums are then we do it.
We also have to be willing to tell CSU that they need us much more than we need them. This means we don't do 1 for 1 scheduling, We do 2 for 1 or even 3 for 1 on campus games and if they don't like it they can find somebody else to schedule. Nothing impacts their fan base close to playing CU so they may not like it but they will do it.
I really want to get these next two before the next hiatus. If CU is able to win this year and next year (and they really should), CSU will show up to the 2029 game having not beaten CU in 14 years.
They want to drum up interest for TV so yes, they will call it that I'm sure.
It was called Rocky Mountain Showdown long before they moved the games to Denver