CSU just gave some old friends the Bronze Boot.
The Rams are Pac-12 bound. and hallelujah. Or 2-Pac bound. Or Pac-6 bound. Or Pac-8 bound.
Who cares? The Big 12 plays with 16 schools. The Big Ten plays with about 450. Brands first. Math sixth.
CSU jumping from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 on Thursday is reason to celebrate, no question. I’d hold off on a parade, though, until we see who else is moving into the new neighborhood.
And if I’m new Rams AD John Weber, I’m making whatever calls, pulling whatever strings and ripping up whatever contracts it takes to keep my annual grudge match with Wyoming alive.
Alas, history says CU-Wyoming, which has been played continuously for the last 78 years, could soon be consigned to the “Remember When?” folder, next to CU-Nebraska, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Kansas-Missouri, Pitt-West Virginia and Stanford-USC.
Since 1968, the game’s been played for the Boot, which was originally an actual combat boot worn by Capt. Dan Romero, an assistant professor of military science at CSU and a Vietnam veteran. The CSU-Wyoming game ball is carried across Highway 287 before the tilt, handed off from one ROTC unit to another in one of the greatest traditions in all of college football.
The Rams are banking that their game balls can afford a limo ride to Canvas Stadium now. Or an Uber, at the least.
“These historic rivalries are important to our fans and institutions,” Weber said in a statement released by CSU, “and we very much want to ensure that they continue into the future.”
If CSU can keep the Border War alive and beat CU at Canvas Stadium on Saturday, welcome to FoCo’s Best Week Ever.
The Cowboys and CSU have been conference brethren since 1968. The Rams and Falcons have shared a league since 1980. CSU couldn’t lick Wyoming and Air Force on the football field, but the Rammies topped the Pokes and Zoomies where it counts. And where it hurts. In a board room. With the bean counters. With the television networks.
Let’s be clear: Traditions aside, this is a win for the Stalwarts who’ve long pined for a seat at a bigger conference table. Even if the size of that table is very much TBD.
The Rams — along with Boise State, San Diego State and Fresno State, their fellow Mountain West expatriates — will soon be members of the best of the best of the rest.
Better to be asked to join a Group of 5 super conference than not to be asked at all. Because not joining it would’ve felt like another missed opportunity, another train that passed through Fort Collins without stopping.
“We are taking control of our future at CSU by forming an alliance of six peer institutions who will serve as the foundation for a new era of the Pac-12,” CSU president Amy Parsons said in a statement released Thursday morning by the school.
The only hitch are the market forces that are out of CSU’s control right now. Just like the Big 12 without …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Sports
