CU-CSU is a rivalry worth saving. Really.

Amillion football lovers in Colorado can’t be wrong. Since the Rocky Mountain Showdown moved to Denver in 1998, there’s only one time during the entire football season when either the Buffaloes or Rams are the biggest game in town. It’s the night when Colorado and Colorado State buckle up the chin straps and bump helmets with each other.

Are CU athletic director Rick George and Joe Parker, his counterpart at CSU, the only guys in our fair state who actually have trouble understanding that?

Let’s do the math. While some of my friends from Boulder and Fort Collins like to howl about playing this game in Denver rather than at campus sites, the Buffs and Rams have attracted nearly 1.1 million fans during the 16 times they have met in the Queen City of the Plains. That’s an average of 67,668 spectators per contest, far more people than have ever attended

college football game on the Colorado or Colorado State campus during the past 125 years.

I kindly invite Parker or George to stand in Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Friday night and explain to me why the Rams playing the Buffs on an annual basis is somehow a bad thing.

The continuation of this series, however, is only guaranteed through 2020. Thereafter, George and Parker seem intent on becoming the Mr. Grumpypants and Crabby Appleton that kill the tradition of a CU-CSU football game as an annual pig- skin party.

The Buffaloes have already shunned the Rams in 2021 and 2022, preferring to fill their nonconference schedule with the likes of Massachusetts and Texas Christian.

While Colorado State is already filling its dance card far into the next decade, let me be the first to wish the Rams good luck at selling out their on-campus stadium when Vanderbilt visits Fort Collins.

Please don’t start with that stuff about the Buffs being a power five team and the Rams are not, or I’ll send Bradlee Van Pelt over to spike a football off your helmet. Yes, the business of college athletics is bigger than ever, and balancing the pros against the cons of your nona conference football schedule is never easy, but I’m here to offer George and Parker a helpful hint on how to start: Pencil in CSU and CU for Labor Day weekend. Every year. Forever.

Whether the Buffaloes want to admit it or not, the Rams are the best rivals they have, ever since Nebraska ran off to the Big Ten. If Mike MacIntyre or Mike Bobo wants a realistic shot at finishing in the top 25 of the national rankings in 2017, winning this game is a must.

Between the passing of CSU quarterback Nick Stevens and the running of Colorado’s Phillip Lindsay, the scoreboard might blow a fuse before the clock strikes midnight. I predict a final score of 38-35. Last team in possession of the football wins.

In a state where the Broncos dominate the news during the other 364 days a year, here’s one game where CU and CSU grab the state’s undivided attention for three hours. So what’s there about the Rocky Mountain Showdown that’s not to like?

George and Parker can rationalize the reasons the Buffs and Rams are too busy to play each other on a regular basis any way they like. But if Mr. Grumpypants and Crabby Appleton let the CUCSU football rivalry fade away and schedule each other only when it’s convenient, there’s only one word for it:

Stupid.