Colorado wants to end series between rival Colorado State

According to an article that came out in the Denver Post on Wednesday, Colorado Athletic Director Rick George has announced that Colorado will not be signing an extension to continue their annual game with Colorado State. The Rocky Mountain Showdown is currently on contract until 2020 and George did say he will honor the current contract.

"After the current contract, playing the game in Denver is dead," George said. "And I'm not sure where our series with CSU goes after that either. Today, we would not extend our agreement (for CU to play CSU in football) past 2020."

Why is George and Colorado refusing to continue the annual game that thousands of alumni around the state enjoy every year? Simply put, the university isn't making enough money. George claims that Colorado needs at least six home games in order to make enough money to help fund other "Olympic" style sports, and being forced to play at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver has limited the amount of money that can be made.

This may sound unfortunate for fans across the state who look forward to this game. I am one of them. However, I am hopeful that the game can continue. What can make that happen? Moving the game back to campus sites. Due to the state of each program, Mile High Stadium is not being filled up and the game is being played in front of thousands of empty seats. Moving the games back to campus sites would almost ensure a full stadium for each game in the series and bring a little more excitement to the game. With the plans that Colorado State is supposed to open their new, on campus stadium in 2017, there could be even more excitement as they could potentially host the Buffaloes in their brand new stadium.

There is still a lot of time to figure out the future of this game, but right now Colorado holds the upper hand in deciding whether or not this game will continue. As a fan of the Rams and the rivalry, I sure hope that Colorado and Colorado State can come to an agreement over the next year or two and make sure the rivalry stays strong for years to come.

Kyle Ringo of BuffZone.com does make a good point about this rivalry.

Show me another series around the country between a power 5 team and non-power 5 team player every year on neutral field. Lose-lose for CU

— Kyle Ringo (@KyleRingo) February 4, 2015