Despite coaches wishes, Rocky Mountain Showdown's future in jeopardy

Kelly Lyell | The Coloradoan

Show Caption Hide Caption CSU, CU football coaches don't want Rocky Mountain Showdown to end Football coaches Mike Bobo of Colorado State University and Mike MacIntyre of the University of Colorado don't want Rocky Mountain Showdown to end.

COLORADO SPRINGS — The coaches don’t want it to end, and neither do the players.

But the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown football game between CSU and the University of Colorado will go away for at least two years following the 2020 game in Fort Collins.

CU, with just three nonconference games to schedule each year around its nine Pacific-12 Conference games, filled those slots for the 2021-22 seasons without the Rams.

Colorado State University, with eight Mountain West games to play each season, can play four nonconference games per year and five in seasons in which they travel to Hawaii.

“You need to play each other,” CSU coach Mike Bobo said earlier this week at the Sports Corp College Football Kickoff Luncheon in Colorado Springs. “It doesn’t make sense to get on a plane and fly somewhere and spend a bunch of money to play somebody else.

CSU coach Mike Bobo: No excuses. We got beat Colorado State coach Mike Bobo did not use his postgame press conference to complain about the officiating in CSU's loss to Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

“I think we need to play each other every year.”

CSU athletic director Joe Parker has said repeatedly that a verbal agreement exists for the state’s two largest universities, located just 45 miles apart, to play a home-and-home series again in 2023-24 on the campuses of each school. But there’s not yet a signed contract for those games, a CSU spokesman confirmed. And there are no commitments beyond that to continue a series that has produced the 17 largest crowds ever to see a college football game in Colorado.

Every game the two schools have played against each other in Denver has drawn more fans than either has drawn for a home game. Six games, including last year’s, have drawn more than 73,000 fans since the Showdown was played in Denver starting in 1998.

CU coach Mike MacIntyre wouldn’t get into the politics that led to his athletic director, Rick George, declining to keep the series going on an annual basis after the current 10-year contract expires.

WATCH: Rocky Mountain Showdown: CSU band enters stadium

But he agrees it’s an important game for the state and one the players, coaches, students and fans look forward to every year.

“I think it’s a great game,” MacIntyre said. “Our kids enjoy playing in it; I enjoy coaching in it. But I don’t have any control over what they do in the future.”

MacIntyre likes having the game in Denver, where the two schools will play this year, on Aug. 31 at the newly renamed Broncos Stadium at Mile High, and again next year on Labor Day Weekend.

Both schools include the game in their season-ticket packages, and last year’s contest drew 73,932 –— the largest crowd for the game in more than 10 years. CU, with a larger season-ticket base, receives 55 percent of the stadium’s 76,125 seats to distribute to its fans, while CSU receives 45 percent. Each school sets its own prices for those tickets.

MORE: Who wore it best for Colorado State University football team: No. 11

It’s a unique atmosphere, a nearly sold-out NFL stadium full of fans nearly equally divided between the two teams.

Bobo, though, would like to see the series moved back to the campuses of the two schools now that CSU has a new stadium that can hold 41,200. The 2020 game is already scheduled to be played there under terms of the 10-year contract that expires after that contest.

CU’s Folsom Field, where the Rams and Buffs have played three times since 2004 and 43 times since 1893, seats 50,183. The schools have met annually since 1995 and 89 times in all, with CU holding a 65-22-2 advantage.

CU filled its three slots for nonconference games in 2021 with games, all at home, against Massachusetts, Texas A&M and Minnesota, and in 2022 with a home game against TCU and road games at Air Force and Minnesota.

MORE: CSU football coach won't rule out having QB Hill back for season opener

CSU has nonconference games scheduled in 2021 at home against South Dakota State and Vanderbilt and on the road against Toledo and Iowa. The Rams only have one nonconference game scheduled so far for 2022, at Washington State.

“I hope we come back with a home-and-home, to be honest,” Bobo said. “I think we’ve got a great setup there at the stadium and a beautiful campus, and I’d love to have them on campus and us go there every other year.

“I think it makes sense. You’ve got a rivalry game; we’re 45 minutes apart. I think it’s good for the state, I think it’s good for high school football in this state.”

MORE: How does Madden video game rate Colorado State football stars?

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310) and 10:45 a.m. Saturdays on Denver’s ESPN radio (AM 1600).

Rocky Mountain Showdown attendance

For games played in Denver

1998 – 76,036

1999 – 73,438

2000 – 67,567

2001 – 75,022

2002 – 75,531

2003 – 76,219

2006 – 65,701

2007 – 68,133

2008 – 69,619

2010 – 60,989

2011 – 57,186

2012 – 58,607

2013 – 59,601

2014 – 63,363

2015 – 66,253

2016 – 69,850

2017 – 73,932