Colorado-Fresno State Postponement & Possible Rescheduling...

It was announced that the University of Colorado was postponing their game against Fresno State, set for tomorrow Saturday September 14th, early Friday afternoon.  For the very few outside the state of Colorado that may not know, Boulder and its surrounding communities are dealing with some of the worse flooding they have seen in as much as a century.  The devastation is pretty massive with 3 people dead in Boulder county and as many as 80 that are reported missing.  While the stadium sits high on the campus hill and has not seen the affects of the floods and roadways into Boulder likely opening up before the game, there would have been many conflicts to keeping the game as scheduled.

The main being that Boulder police, paramedics, traffic and other resources are being used in a more proper manner currently in assisting those affected by these floods.  The amount of traffic, police and other areas to get people safely into Folsom with some roads most likely causing detours and congestion and difficulty getting parking around campus would have made for a nightmare.  The campus is a big piece of Boulder and while the football team is not priority in many Boulder residents minds, this shows that the University believes the well being of their neighbors is more important than the game. 

Let's be honest, the headache of getting to the game would have caused many low numbers and with resources being used more intelligently it would have put a negative atmosphere on this game and had the naysayers dogging the decision.  Fans will be there either way, it's the naysayers and question makers that will make the borderline fan or entertainment enthusiast to sway them away from Folsom and towards something else.  We have plenty of large publication columnists that provide enough negative image of Colorado Football and the University that causing more issues was not worth it.

We have seen the images, seen the potential for more rain this weekend and the difficulty many Colorado residents are going through.  While it is tough as a fan that wants to see the show go on as Queen would say, it's the right call.  While we can question Phil DiStefano and Bruce Benson's past decisions, they seem to have made many of the right calls since forcing the firing of Jon Embree and the "resignation" of Mike Bohn.  Mike MacIntyre and Rick George are great men that have a winning attitude to them.  MacIntyre points to the fact of making these young men great men for their lives, not just winning football games on Saturday's.  I agree that is first priority but they back it up with a priority of winning as well and do everything they can to do so.  This was a life lesson "winning" approach to take for the University of Colorado and their football program.

What are options for this game to be made up?:
The research team, of... myself, has combed through schedules and these are the most plausible scenarios:

• Game is played on Oct 19th: Fresno State and UNLV move their originally scheduled game of October 19th to November 16th-This makes the most sense out of all possibilities.  It gives all teams involved plenty of time to figure out logistics and
• Game is played on November 16th: Colorado and Cal move their scheduled game of November 16th to September 21st-This is a week turnaround and to be honest, there is probably still a lot of clean-up and other issues that not having a game in Boulder until October 5th makes the most sense.
• Play Game on December 7th: This is the championship game for both the Pac 12 and MWC.  While CU would have to have the biggest turnaround in NCAA history from one year to the next to make this happen (optimistic it can but unlikely) Fresno State plays in the weaker half of the division and has a very likely shot to be playing the MWC Championship game that day.
• Play the game between Championship game and bowl games: The problem with this is bowl games are announced after Championship weekend.  If Fresno State is somehow undefeated at 11-0, whatever happens against CU would have no effect on that after the final BCS rankings.  They need to play before Championship game in order for it to help Fresno most likely.  Additionally, CU could be 5-6 and not have a bowl bid but maybe be able to pull the upset against Fresno to get the 6th win.  This seems least likely out of group.
• Move the game to September 26, 2015.  Colorado plays at Hawaii that season and has an open date on the 26th of September.  This does nothing for this season.  I don't like this decision as a fan and the University could use the revenue this season.
• Cancel entirely.  Unless either UNLV or Cal agrees to a re-scheduled date, I don't see this working out.  I believe sportsmanship prevails and this doesn't happen.

For all of those affected by the floods, like my own family, I hope you and your family are safe and get through this difficult time.  For the fans, there is always another game and a way to make it up.  For the University of Colorado, you made the right decision and you can't please everyone. 

The city will be provided funding from many areas including fans of the team.  I believe that people have many avenues to assist both locally and nationally to this effort.  For the next game and the remainder of this season, I believe the city of Boulder and fans of Colorado should fill the stadium and show the same respect and love for this football team that is being shown in this selfless decision.  Also, donate to a program that wants to no longer be the laughing stock of the Pac 12 but to compete for a national title again.  For those that doubt Mike MacIntyre, the young men that have the talent and now the coaching to direct them that way and a businessman that was built through the game of football that WILL generate the funding to get the facilities in Boulder up to their competition in the Pac 12 and college football, I am sure they and the long time true Buff supporters look forward to the brighter days ahead and realize you never cared to see CU succeed so enjoy hating the success that began getting built December 2012.  Go Buffs!