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Rocky Mountain Showdown

Collegiate football rivalry between Colorado and Colorado State

Summary

Collegiate football rivalry between Colorado and Colorado State

Field	Value
wide	yes
name	Rocky Mountain Showdown
team1	Colorado Buffaloes
team1logo	Colorado Buffaloes wordmark.svg
team2	Colorado State Rams
team2logo	Colorado State Rams wordmark.svg
firstmeeting	February 10, 1893
Colorado 70–6
mostrecent	September 14, 2024
Colorado 28–9
nextmeeting	September 15, 2029
at Fort Collins
total	93
series	Colorado,
largestvictory	Colorado, 67–0 (1894)
longeststreak	Colorado, 12 (1934–1947)
currentstreak	Colorado, 7 (2015–present)
trophy	Centennial Cup

The Rocky Mountain Showdown is the name given to the Colorado–Colorado State football rivalry. It is an American college football intrastate rivalry between the University of Colorado Buffaloes and the Colorado State University Rams; the winner of the game receives the Centennial Cup. It began in 1893 and was played annually from 1899 to 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 2019, it has again been played periodically.

From 1998 to 2019, the game was usually played in Denver at Mile High Stadium and its replacement, Empower Field at Mile High, although the 2004, 2005, and 2009 games were played at CU's Folsom Field in Boulder. Empower Field, the home of the NFL's Denver Broncos, is considered neutral ground for both teams and has a greater capacity than either home stadium. Since 2019, the game has returned to being played at campus sites.

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 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 game was canceled for 2020, which marked the first year since 1994 without the rivalry game. The teams met for the first time in four years in 2023 at Boulder, and again in Fort Collins the following year. The next scheduled game is not until 2029 in Fort Collins on September 15.

Game results

Rivalry beyond football

While football is the main aspect of the Colorado–Colorado State rivalry, the two schools are rivals in every sport.

In men's basketball, Colorado holds a 94–42 all-time record over Colorado State as of 2025.

In women's basketball, Colorado holds a 39–12 all-time record (since 1975) over Colorado State as of 2019.

In women's volleyball, Colorado State holds a 30–19 all-time record over Colorado as of 2025. 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.

References

(September 1, 2018). "Rocky Mountain Mowdown: CU Buffs dominate Colorado State".
(May 2, 1979). "Colorado schools may meet again by 1981". Lawrence Daily Journal-World.
Kensler, Tom. (February 4, 2015). "Colorado likely to end football series with CSU after 2020 meeting".
(February 2, 2015). "Colorado-Colorado State Football Series Could Be Ending". Fbschedules.com.
Rooney, Pat. (July 10, 2020). "No Rocky Mountain Showdown: Pac-12 cancels nonconference games for all fall sports".
"Future Colorado Football Schedules".
"Winsipedia – Colorado Buffaloes vs. Colorado State Rams football series history".
(July 23, 2020). "Ranking the top 10 greatest rivalries in the state of Colorado".
"Men's Basketball History vs Colorado State".
"Women's Basketball History vs University of Colorado".
"Volleyball History vs Colorado State University".
"Buffs Take On CSU In Double-Header".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

college-football-rivalries-in-the-united-states colorado-buffaloes-football colorado-state-rams-football 1893-establishments-in-colorado

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