Cowherd makes a ton of sense when you're talking about professional teams. I have no more reason to be loyal to a local professional team than I do to be loyal to Celestial Seasonings. If CS started laying people off because they weren't "winning" their marketing battles, was threatening to move its facilities to another state, etc.... then I'd buy Bigelow or stop drinking tea.
But a college is different. It's part of the fabric of the community and, in this case, the state since it's the University of Colorado. Many of us went there, or plan to go there. Some of us have been employed there or had family members employed there. And some of us either played there or have friends that did. We're invested. CU athletics, especially football, is part of who we are. You can't just turn that off.