Colorado without a rival for first time as new Big 12 slate revealed

Bedlam, The Lone Star Showdown, Colorado against Nebraska on Black Friday—what’s better than these classic college football clashes? Money.

The pageantry may be what makes college football beautiful but as the sport further becomes a free minor league the NFL, its destruction of tradition and spectacle in the name of money continues. There’s not any one school to blame so much as the shifting landscape of the sport forcing each school to act in their own best interests. Colorado was one of the first big dominos in conference realignment in 2010 and again was a key domino this year as they rejoin the Big 12 after a decade in the Pac-12.

But do not mistake the Buffaloes roaming to their traditional homelands in the name of goodwill and restoring college football to glory—Colorado did it for money. Athletic Director Rick George has offered little more explanation other than finances to reason the move, and that’s pretty much his job.

However, when the Big 12 revealed the first slate of Colorado’s future opponents, the Buffaloes were left without a rival. In fact, most schools were left without a foe—only Arizona-Arizona State, BYU-Utah, Baylor-TCU and Kansas-Kansas State were listed as protected rivals, set to face off in each of the next four seasons.

“During the four years, all teams will play one another at least once home and away. Some matchups will occur over three seasons while others take place in all four. Matchups in 2024 that were also played in 2023 will not repeat at the same site,” the Big 12 said in a media release on Wednesday. “The Conference looked to maintain the current 5/4, 4/5 home/away rotation for all 16 members to minimize non-conference scheduling disruptions. Other important factors were balancing annual travel by distance and time zones as well as maintaining connectivity to rivalries without compromising a balanced rotation for all teams.”

The Holy War becomes a conference game again for the first time since 2010 when BYU and Utah each left the Mountain West. They however ended up playing in the regular season each year but 2014, 2015 and 2020. And in 2015 they played a Bowl Game and 2020’s contest was canceled due to COVID-19.

Of course, The Holy War had been a conference rivalry from 1922-2010 and it’s cool to see them back. By protecting only just that one rival for the Utes, Colorado loses who had been their rival since 2011 when the Rumble in the Rockies resumed annually after a 50-year hiatus. The fifth-most played game in Utah’s history and eighth in Colorado’s had a chance to become a heated affair, but never took off despite the Pac-12’s trying.

When the Buffs and Utes have met recently it’s been right after Thanksgiving, taking the slot each school had before for the Holy War and the Nebraska Rivalry respectively. But what gets lost is that traditional date for Colorado-Nebraska only began in 1996 when the Big 8 became the Big 12. While the two met for each year going back to 1948, it was actually the University of Denver, who were the Buffaloes biggest rivals for a longer period.

CU and DU met on the gridiron 44 times, with the Buffs winning the series, 26-14-4 before the Pios dropped football. The series became a regular Thanksgiving Day game in 1925, when the two met almost annually until the matchup ended in 1947 when CU joined the Big Seven. From 1948 until 1995, Colorado played another Big Seven team, often Kansas State or Iowa State, for Thanksgiving weekend.

And the Buffaloes had their non-conference Rocky Mountain Showdown in most years, except for a hiatus from 1958 until 1983 when CU and CSU did not meet at all.

The point in all of this is to say, Colorado’s rivalries in who they are against and when they are played have evolved. But the Buffs have pretty much always had somebody to hate. Heading into the immediate future the Buffaloes don’t really have an in-conference rival, nor will they have yearly rivalry games of any kind. Next season this will likely be glossed over given the Buffs will travel to Lincoln and Fort Collins in the non-conference season and host the Utes during Big 12 play, but slowly it will become apparent.

Sure the Buffs will always have the Rocky Mountain Showdown, but the Rams aren’t scheduled to meet CU again until 2029, when they’ll resume with games in 2030, 2033, 2034, 2037 and 2038. Meanwhile, Nebraska doesn’t occupy any future dates for CU. The Utes will keep their eyes on the Cougars and Colorado will have to measure themselves up to an unknown school as of today.

CU does have a little rivalry going with Arizona on the hardwood that will carry over from the Pac-12 to the Big 12, but that isn’t protected even in hoops and it doesn’t at all translate to the gridiron.

Maybe in the future, the Buffs develop something with a relatively nearby “rival-less” school or one with a shared history like Texas Tech or Iowa State. Maybe things in the Big 12 can heat up enough for Utah, Arizona State or Kansas State to get a second rival in Colorado.

But for the coming years in Boulder, it’ll be a mix of colors and dates with no annual marquee—and that’s how it’ll be for most of the college football world in the coming decade of money-first results.

***