FORT COLLINS — Colorado State and Oregon State have agreed to move their originally scheduled game in Fort Collins from from Sept. 23, 2017 to Aug. 26, meaning the Beavers will now be the Rams’ first opponent in the soon to be opened on-campus stadium.
By rescheduling the game each program will now have a bye week on the originally scheduled date. This move was initially inquired by CSU upon learning its 2017 Mountain West schedule would be 12 consecutive weeks before its bye in the final week of the regular season.
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“We are very appreciative that Oregon State was willing to discuss the potential change and found that it also would benefit their program,” said director of athletics Joe Parker. “We understand the importance to coach (Mike) Bobo and the football program to have a bye week between the four non-conference games and the eight-game conference schedule. The change moves up the opening of our new stadium by two weeks, but the project remains on-schedule and on-budget and we expect to be fully operational in time for the first game.”
CSU will now open the season with Oregon State on Aug. 26 before traveling to Denver six days later to face the University of Colorado Boulder in the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown on Sept. 1.
The Rams will host Abilene Christian on Saturday, Sept. 9, in what was originally scheduled to be the stadium’s inaugural game, and will conclude the non-conference portion of their schedule at Alabama on Sept. 16.
“The first thing that stood out to us when we saw our conference schedule was that we open conference play with back-to-back road games and that we would not have a bye until the final week of the regular season,” head coach Mike Bobo said. “Playing 12 consecutive weeks without a bye is a significant challenge, so we began to look at our non-conference schedule and the Oregon State game was the logical date. Fortunately, they also saw benefit with their schedule and we were able to make the switch fairly quickly. We all are excited about the opening of the new stadium and playing football on campus and now we get to celebrate that historic day sooner than we all expected.”
The Aug. 26 game date will mark the second-earliest season-opening game in the modern era for Colorado State and the earliest date they have played a game in the Centennial state. The Rams opened the 2002 season on Aug. 22 with a 35-29 win at No. 22 Virginia.
In preparation for the inaugural season at the on-campus stadium, the Colorado State athletics department has launched a football gameday website that provides information on parking, tickets, tailgating, etc. The website can be found at www.CSURams.com/footballgameday.
2017 Colorado State Football Schedule:
Saturday, Aug. 26 vs. Oregon State
Friday, Sept. 1 vs. Colorado (Denver)
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Saturday, Sept. 9 vs. Abilene Christian
Saturday, Sept. 16 at Alabama
Saturday, Sept. 30 at Hawai`i
Saturday, Oct. 7 at Utah State
Saturday, Oct. 14 vs. Nevada
Saturday, Oct. 21 at New Mexico
Saturday, Oct. 28 vs. Air Force
Saturday, Nov. 4 at Wyoming
Saturday, Nov. 11 vs. Boise State
Saturday, Nov. 18 vs. San José State
Collegian sports reporter Justin Michael can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or Twitter @JustinTMichael.
