The Rocky Mountain Showdown is the name given to the Colorado–Colorado State football rivalry. It is an American
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
intrastate
rivalry
A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...
between the
University of Colorado
The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...
Colorado State University
Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...
Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)1958, except for 1901, 1905, and 1943–44. It was revived in 1983 and played periodically until it became an annual rivalry once again from 1995 to 2019.
Since 1998, the game has usually been played in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
at
Mile High Stadium
Mile High Stadium (originally Bears Stadium until 1968) was an outdoor multi-purpose stadium located in Denver, Colorado from 1948 to 2001.
The stadium was built in 1948 to accommodate the Denver Bears baseball team, which was a member of the ...
and its replacement,
Empower Field at Mile High
Empower Field at Mile High (previously known as Broncos Stadium at Mile High, Invesco Field at Mile High and Sports Authority Field at Mile High, and commonly known as Mile High, New Mile High or Mile High Stadium) is an American football stadium ...
, although the 2004, 2005, and 2009 games were played at CU's
Folsom Field
Folsom Field is an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder. It is the home field of the Colorado Buffaloes of the Pac-12 Conference.
Opened in 1924, th ...
in
Boulder
In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive.
In c ...
. Empower Field, the home of the NFL's
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...
, is considered neutral ground for both teams and has a greater capacity than either university's home stadium (Folsom Field and CSU's
Canvas Stadium
Canvas Stadium, officially Sonny Lubick Field at Canvas Stadium, is an outdoor college football stadium in the Western United States, western United States, located on the campus of Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The h ...
in
Fort Collins
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
). Since the annual game was renewed in 1995, it has been played only once at Colorado State; in 1996 at the Rams' former home of Hughes Stadium.
In August 2009, both universities agreed to extend the Showdown until 2020, with the 2010–19 games all to be played at Broncos Stadium. The game was played in Boulder as planned in 2009. In 2015, Colorado athletic director
Rick George
Rick George has been the athletic director at the University of Colorado
The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Color ...
stated that he wanted to return the series to campus sites, but that it was not in Colorado's best interest to extend the series.
Because the Pac-12 restricted member schools to conference play in fall sports in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the game was canceled for 2020, which marked the first year since 1994 without the rivalry game. The next scheduled games are on September 16, 2023 in Boulder and September 14, 2024 in Fort Collins.
Game results
Rivalry beyond football
While
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
is the main aspect of the Colorado–Colorado State rivalry, the two schools are rivals in every sport.
In men's basketball,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
holds a 93–40 all-time record over Colorado State as of 2022.
In
women's basketball
Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
holds a 14–3 record (since 2003) over Colorado State as of 2021.
In women's
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
as of 2021. The two volleyball programs have competed for the Golden Spike Trophy — a trophy featuring a vintage railroad spike that has been painted gold — since 2019.
See also
*
List of NCAA college football rivalry games
This is a list of rivalry games in college football in the United States. The list also shows any trophy awarded to the winner of the rivalry between the teams.
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
...