BOULDER — On the second day of fall classes at the University of Colorado, or less than a week before the opening of the Buffaloes’ 2008 football season against Colorado State in Denver, several students among the hundreds walking across campus actually were not talking on cellphones.
At the Alferd Packer Grill in the University Memorial Center, freshmen were being told that at least until they were finished with lunch, they shouldn’t ask too many questions about what ol’ Alferd did to deserve the naming honor.
At Folsom Field, sprinklers sprayed across the unlined grass.
Across Broadway, on the Hill, the bars, bagel shops and other establishments welcomed the return of most of the student community from the summer break.
This is where CU’s designated home games against Colorado State belong.
Boulder.
It’s more than Folsom. It’s the atmosphere, the feel of the campus and the college town, and alumni tailgating in the campus lots and cringing at the memory of that biopsychology class in Muenzinger Auditorium.
The setting is energizing, even for new Coloradans who didn’t attend CU, but are open-minded enough to back up their talk about how much they love college football by sampling the Folsom experience and making the Buffs their second-favorite team — behind the school mentioned on their diploma.
When CU athletic director Mike Bohn recently hinted that the Buffs’ 2009 home game in the rivalry would be at Folsom, and not Invesco Field, he should have been applauded, not derided. Bohn’s cited reason, ensuring that the Buffaloes have at least six home-stadium games in 2009, in line with the rest of the Big 12, was sound, but unnecessary.
College football is the college town atmosphere. I’m aware of the rivalry exceptions. The World’s Largest Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida) in Jacksonville. The Red River Shootout (Texas vs. Oklahoma) in Dallas. Those are entrenched traditions, and none of the schools involved needs to be conscious of taking measures to fill its stadium for the rest of the home dates.
I attended an Auburn-Alabama “Iron Bowl” in Birmingham before the annual game returned to the campuses in 1999. That’s the hint CU and CSU should take, more so than noticing that some athletic departments, including in the Big 12, are selling out and moving nonrivalry home games to neutral sites for major paydays.
CSU officials should realize that one way to bring fans back to (or to, period) Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins would be to make the in-state rivalry a home-and-home series. Athletic director Paul Kowalczyk and president Larry Penley should be most concerned with the long-term benefits of selling Hughes Stadium as the place to go on Saturdays in the fall, even though the pitch would have a better chance of succeeding if it were on campus, rather than miles to the west.
After Sunday, the next CSU “home” game in the rivalry won’t be until 2010, the final year in the existing contract, and it should be in Fort Collins — as should all CSU home games in any new deal with CU. The financial sacrifice would be worth the long-term advantage.
Both schools have other home dates to try to hook fans and turn their programs into those where the tickets are on eBay for considerably marked-up prices. Yet part of the charm should be getting both constituencies to the other college towns — even if the number of tickets available to the general public and visiting team fans becomes scarce. That’s part of the allure.
The Invesco date as a sampler for move-ins hasn’t worked; those folks still are heading to LoDo bars to watch their schools’ games on television, and it’s one of the many reasons the Rocky Mountain Showdown isn’t an automatic sellout in Denver. The schools have a better shot of luring them as secondary fans if they can think of Hughes or Folsom and the college-town settings as at least a bit reminiscent of Ann Arbor, Columbus, Eugene, Tuscaloosa, Athens and (fill in the blank).
“I’m good either way,” CU coach Dan Hawkins said after the Buffs’ Tuesday practice. “I see positives to either side, I really do. I kind of sit on the fence. Plus, I’m also one of those guys who, hey, if they tell you to play out in a farm field, that’s where you play.”
Hawkins’ stance is understandable and sincere, and he went on to list the pros of playing the game in either place.
I fell off that fence long ago. If the series becomes home-and-home either in the remaining two years of the CU-CSU contract, or under a new deal, it would be a smart move for both schools.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
