Editor’s Note: All opinion content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.
Colorado and Colorado State feel miles apart when people talk about sports.
The brands, the spotlight, the way football takes over every national broadcast in Boulder while Fort Collins sits in more of a bubble. But when you look at what both schools actually did this past year, across more than just football, the distance between them gets a lot smaller than the rivalry wants you to believe.
It might be smaller than either fanbase is comfortable admitting.
Start with football since that’s always where the volume is highest. CU finished 2025 3-9 overall and 1-8 in the Big 12. CSU finished 2-10 and 1-7 in the Mountain West.
Different conferences, different budgets, different expectations, yet the final results almost sit right next to each other. CSU’s defense ranked No. 119 nationally in total defense while CU ranked No. 127.
Both teams gave up explosive plays, both struggled at the line of scrimmage and both fanbases walked out of the season thinking about what could’ve been. The Big 12 grind is real, MW fans won’t doubt that, but losing is losing, and neither team won enough to separate itself from the other in any meaningful way.
If anything, volleyball pushes things the other direction. CSU reached the Mountain West title game, and consistently lands in the top attendance numbers across the country. Moby feels loud even before first serve.
But CU volleyball is right there with an NCAA tournament bid this year and one more win than the Rams.
This is a sport where the “little sibling” dichotomy just doesn’t hold. CSU volleyball is consistently good and has garnered 32 tournament berths, but the Buffs have a strong program and 22 of their own as well.
Men’s basketball shows the two schools sitting on the same line again. In 2023, both teams made it to March Madness, and the Rams went on to make a run just a year later. Saturday is anyone’s matchup, even though CSU has gone through some growing pains this year.
Women’s basketball is one of the clearer differences.
CU has been better here overall, no real debate, but CSU still maintains a strong conference presence. Again, it’s not a case of two programs living in different universes.
Off the court, the culture piece shapes things in ways that aren’t always obvious.
CU students have to buy a sports pass before they can claim tickets, and CSU students walk into most home events for free. That small detail changes the texture of the stands. Boulder crowds tend to build around national buzz and big-picture hype. Fort Collins crowds grow from access and consistency. Both are real, both are meaningful, but they’re not the same.
The media environment is even more lopsided.
CU football turned to the national spotlight when Deion Sanders arrived, and everything filtered through that spotlight. CSU doesn’t operate within that ecosystem, and hardly any program in the country does. But underneath the attention gap, both athletic departments deal with the same pressure points nowadays. NIL chaos, the transfer portal, conference instability, roster churn — everything that defines modern college sports.
The logos change and the budgets change, but the reality doesn’t. And a rivalry only works when things feel close.
And when you look at these programs across football, volleyball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, attendance, schedules and the culture wrapped around everything, the margins really do get thin in a hurry. That part gets buried under the noise, and it gets drowned out by the chants and the history, which is long and storied.
And sure, most years in football are all Buffs, but the greater sports culture gets lost in a 69-22 overall domination from CU. If anything, the similarities tighten the rivalry instead of loosen it.
They give both sides something real to argue about, something measurable, something current. And when next season rolls around, it won’t take much at all for the narrative to tilt in either direction again.
Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey.
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