FORT COLLINS, COLO. ? Colorado and Colorado State agreed Tuesday to keep their football rivalry alive past 2010, but it’s unclear if the game will ever return to the Denver Broncos’ stadium.
CU athletic director Mike Bohn and CSU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk announced they will extend the Rocky Mountain Showdown past the 2010 expiration of the current contract.
The length of the extension wasn’t announced, and the schools said the dates and locations haven’t been worked out.
For nine of the past 11 years, the game has been played in Denver – the largest alumni base for both schools – at the 76,000-seat Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver. It’s about 60 miles from Fort Collins and 25 miles from Boulder.
The 2004 and 2005 games were played in Boulder.
Colorado State has made it clear it likes having the game in Denver, but Colorado moved next year’s game to Boulder so it would have a sixth home game. CSU responded by moving the 2010 game to its home field in Fort Collins.
Each school is guaranteed about $650,000 when it visits the rival city, but the payout is about twice that when they play in Denver because of Invesco Field’s size. Folsom Field seats nearly 52,000 while CSU’s Hughes Stadium seats 34,400.
Colorado won this year’s game, 38-17, played before nearly 70,000 at Invesco Field.
CU and CSU have played 80 times since 1893. The series was dormant for 25 years starting in 1958, but the teams have played 21 times since 1983 and every year since 1995.
