Matt L. Stephens

matthewstephens@coloradoan.com

Of all places, Longmont will go down in history as the city that saved the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

Twice.

It was at a McDonalds there in the early 1980s where former CSU and University of Colorado athletic directors Fum McGraw and Eddie Crowder, respectively, met to reconcile their differences and renew the annual football rivalry in 1983. And with the apparent end of the Rocky Mountain Showdown looming in 2020, Longmont, an unofficial midway point between Fort Collins and Boulder, is again playing a role in peace talks.

"(CU athletic director Rick George and I) have a secret meeting spot. We go to The Egg and I in Longmont and I think we've connected three times there. The first was August of last summer," Colorado State University athletic director Joe Parker said. "We've met twice after that (at AD meetings in Phoenix and Dallas).

"Those have been the times we've had to visit and make quick intersections about scheduling with football and even other sports. We don't have anything documented yet, but my expectation is that we'll probably have an agreement in place to extend the series before the end of the summer."

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Though nothing is in writing, the targeted resumption of the rivalry will be 2023. Because of nonconference contracts already in place for both universities, the Rocky Mountain Showdown cannot be played in 2021 and 2022. In addition, the series will not be played in Denver, Parker said, noting plans for home-and-home series with CU.

When the Rams host the Rocky Mountain Showdown at their new on-campus stadium in the final year of the current contract in 2020, it will be the the first time CU will have played in Fort Collins since 1996 and only the fourth occasion since 1958.

"From my perspective, with the on-campus stadium and with what they've been doing for a while, I think the neutral-site play in Denver has kind of run its course," Parker said. "When you look across the country and you see the institutions of our profile in the same state that play one another, it's kind of just an electric week of football within those states. I think of Michigan-Michigan State. I think of, when they did play it, Texas and Texas A&M. Oklahoma-Oklahoma State; those rivalries that I've been a part of.

"It seems natural for us to do it. I love the idea that we're going to bring it back to campus. ... I've been here 15 months now and I'm so proud of this campus and this community; I want to show it off. I want people throughout this state to understand what Colorado State means and what this community of Fort Collins is."

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Parker added he and George don't want to sign an extended contract that locks CSU and CU into an annual rivalry game. CSU's scheduling of Texas Tech in 2025 and an almost-finalized game against a Power 5 school in 2026 won't allow for the Showdown in those years. Parker thinks the Rams and Buffaloes might get in a rhythm of two years on, two years off, with games at Folsom Field and Sonny Lubick Field during each cycle.

Whether the 2023 game will be played in Fort Collins or Boulder hasn't been decided, and while the hope is to continue the rivalry beyond one home-and-home series, nothing has been agreed to other than games in 2023 and 2024.

For insight and analysis on athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports editor and columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.