The Professional Bull Riders’ Bulls and Beats festival took over Canvas Stadium July 10-12 for the inaugural Collegiate All-Star Rodeo and the opening weekend of the PBR Teams season, giving Fort Collins the chance to witness the best college rodeo stars and some the top bull riders in the world.
The PBR weekend kicked off Friday, July 10, with the first-ever Collegiate All-Star Rodeo, showcasing 60 student-athletes from across the country, including Colorado State University’s very own McKinlee May, CSU’s rodeo club captain and a senior studying equine science.
In 2026, May led the collegiate barrel racing standings, and despite being the very last competitor of the night, she posted the fastest time of the night: 16.051 seconds.
May’s team, South, ultimately lost the rodeo 15-13, but she said just being able to perform on a stage of this level was a high honor for all of the student-athletes involved.
“I’m speechless, honestly,” May said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve never been a part of something like this. Just being in a stadium with the light shining down, the stage behind you, the noise … that was a new level. So it’s just an honor.”
The All-Star Rodeo involved 10 different events, including barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat tying, steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping — all of which were timed events. As a team competition, PBR and co-host Learfield College Rodeo introduced a new format for the timed events.
Rather than having each athlete perform alone in the arena, PBR had one athlete from each team go at the same time, replacing the traditional starting method with a red-light, green-light system. The format placed extra emphasis on timing, as athletes had to leave precisely when the light changed.
“The red light, green light system is a lot different than the usual just leaving whenever you want,” said Josie Mousel, a University of Wyoming goat-tying athlete. “So it was a mental game. You had to math it out, but it was fun.”
In the first competition of the night, breakaway roping, Jill White — an East Texas A&M University athlete — never made it out onto the dirt. Despite a tough start, the South team almost completed a comeback when they tied the North team in the fifth event, saddle bronc.
The scored matches included bareback, bull riding and saddle bronc. Team South struggled throughout those events, not winning a single matchup. Tahj Wells, Metropolitan State University rider, had the highest bull riding score of the event, finishing with a score of 88.2 for the North team.
After Friday highlighted the future of rodeo, attention shifted to the sport’s biggest stars as the PBR Teams season officially began, showcasing all 10 teams each day.
The teams competition kicked off with the reigning champions, the Carolina Cowboys, beating the Nashville Stampede 176.55-175.15. With only two riders from each team completing a successful eight seconds on their bulls, the competition was tight.
Texas Rattlers rider Daniel Keeping won Saturday night’s MVP honors with a 90.10-point ride aboard the bull Tigger in Texas’ win over the Florida Freedom.
The final three matches of the night had large gaps in the final scores: The Austin Gamblers beat the Kansas City Outlaws 263.60-177.45, the Arizona Ridge Riders beat the New York Mavericks 347.65-172.10 and the Missouri Thunder beat the Oklahoma Wildcatters 265.00-87.75.
Saturday’s results quickly gave way to a fresh slate Sunday, as each team came back to compete against a different team, with different bulls and a few new riders.
No team rebounded more noticeably than the Wildcatters. Oklahoma bounced back with a 261.85-175.80 win over New York. The weekend marked the first games under the Wildcatters’ new coaching staff, led by veteran collegiate coach Greg Rhodes.
“We learned a lot from the first one, and it was a painful learn,” Rhodes said. “But, to bounce back, like the guys did, especially after we got together as a group and hashed some stuff out, that tells me they really want to figure out what it’s gonna take. And they came through today.”
Carolina shared a similar fate, finishing the second day with a brutal 175.05-0.00 loss to Kansas City. Despite getting a re-ride for Adriano Salgado, the Cowboys couldn’t hit the eight-second mark with any of their riders.
Sunday’s ride percentage was .420, meaning the majority of riders did not complete the full eight seconds. Despite the low percentage, four riders finished with an above 90 score, including MVP of the day, Austin Richardson, who posted a 92.40.
Richardson helped Florida get its first win of the season over Arizona with the final game of the day ending in a 273.50-178.30 victory for the Freedom.
Texas was the only team to finish the opening weekend 2-0 after defeating Austin 265.55-257.45. Nashville also picked up its first win of the season, beating Missouri 177.00-87.25 to finish the weekend at 1-1.
The inaugural Collegiate All-Star Rodeo added a new element to PBR Teams weekend, bringing the next generation of rodeo athletes to the same stage as the sport’s professionals. For the all competitors, it was a chance to bring the sport of rodeo under the spotlight of CSU’s Canvas Stadium and to enjoy concert performances from Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley and Bailey Zimmerman.
Reach The Collegian sports desk at sports@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegianSpts.
