BOULDER — The University of Colorado's 2018 season football opener against Colorado State has been moved to Friday night, August 31, as the Mountain West released the schedules for all member schools on Thursday.The game is set to be played for the ninth straight year at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, and will be televised nationally on the CBS Sports Network (CBS-SN), with the kickoff time set for 7:30 p.m. MDT.It will be the eighth game in CU football history that will be played in the month of August, with the Buffs owning a 3-3-1 record in those contests, including a 2-2 mark with the Rams. Colorado's first game with an August date came in 1990, when he Buffaloes and Tennessee battled to a 31-31 tie in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic on August 26.It will be the 24th straight year that one of the nation's most underrated rivalries, the "Rocky Mountain Showdown," will be televised on an either a regional or national basis, and for the third time on CBS-SN. It will be the 18th meeting between the rivals in Denver, where the Buffaloes own an 11-6 edge; the two will meet for the 90th time overall, with the Buffaloes owning a 65-22-2 lead in the series including last year's 17-3 win. CU has won three straight in the series, the first run of three straight wins since 2003-05 when the Buffs claimed three in a row; neither has won four or more in succession since Colorado won eight straight between 1987 and 1998.All ticket information will be forthcoming, though they will go on sale early this summer.CU will gain an extra day ahead of its road opener at Nebraska on Saturday, Sept. 8, and then will have its 2018 home opener against long-time perennial Football Championship Division power New Hampshire on Saturday, Sept. 15.This will also mark the sixth straight year that Buffaloes will open a season on either a Thursday, Friday or Sunday.Colorado now has three Friday night games this fall, one home (Sept. 28 versus UCLA), one road (Nov. 2 at Arizona) and the neutral affair with the Rams in Denver. The last time the Buffaloes played at least three regular season games that didn't fall on a Saturday was in 2009 (which as the first time since 1908); that year, the Buffs played five of 12 games on days other than Saturdays: CSU in Denver on a Sunday, following that the next week with a Friday game at Toledo, two Thursday road games at West Virginia and Oklahoma State, and then hosted Nebraska on the Friday after Thanksgiving.