The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football in the nation.
The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) is a public university in Greeley, Colorado. The university was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School of Colorado and has a long history in teacher education. The institution has officially changed its name three times, first to Colorado State College of Education, at Greeley on February 16, 1935, Colorado State College on February 11, 1957, and its current form since May 1, 1970. Approximately 10,000 students are enrolled in six colleges. Extended campus locations are in Loveland, Denver/Aurora, and Colorado Springs. UNC's 19 athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Big Sky Conference.
Colorado State University is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It was founded in 1870 as Colorado Agricultural College, and in 1935 was renamed the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. In 1957, the Colorado General Assembly approved its current name, Colorado State University.
Edward Thomas McCaffrey, Jr. is an American football coach and former wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons. McCaffrey played college football for Stanford University, where he earned first-team All-American honors. He entered the 1991 NFL Draft, and was selected by the New York Giants in the third round with the 83rd overall selection. He played for the Giants from the 1991 through 1993 seasons, for the San Francisco 49ers in 1994, and for the Denver Broncos from 1995 to 2003.
Folsom Field is an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder. It is the home field of the Colorado Buffaloes of the Pac-12 Conference.
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium was an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was the home field of the Colorado State Rams of the Mountain West Conference from 1968 through 2016; the team moved in 2017 to the new on-campus Colorado State Stadium.
Danny Clarence Hawkins is an American football coach at UC Davis. A former player and sportscaster, he served as the head football coach at Willamette University (1993–1997), Boise State University (2001–2005), and the University of Colorado (2006–2010), compiling a career college football record of 112–61–1. Hawkins was the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) for five games in 2013 before he was fired mid-season. Between 2011 and 2016, he served as a college football analyst for ESPN. He has served as head coach for UC Davis since the beginning of the 2017 season.
Gary Lee Barnett is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005), compiling a career college football record of 92–94–2. His 1995 Northwestern team won the Big Ten Conference title, the first for the program since 1936, and played in the school's first Rose Bowl since 1949. At Colorado, Barnett was suspended briefly in the 2004 offseason due to events stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct by several members of the football team.
The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado Boulder. The university sponsors 16 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes or, rarely, the Golden Buffaloes. "Lady Buffs" referred to the women's teams beginning in the 1970s, but was officially dropped in 1993. The nickname was selected by the campus newspaper in a contest with a $5 prize in 1934 won by Andrew Dickson of Boulder.
The Rocky Mountain Showdown is the name given to the Colorado–Colorado State football rivalry. It is an American college football intrastate rivalry between the University of Colorado Buffaloes and the Colorado State University Rams; the winner of the game receives the Centennial Cup. It began in 1893 and was played annually from 1899 to 1958, except for 1901, 1905, and 1943–44. It was revived in 1983 and played periodically until it became an annual rivalry once again from 1995 to 2019.
The 2006 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The previous year's team won the Big 12 North Conference. That marked the fourth Big 12 North championship for Colorado in the past five years. The team has its 23rd new head coach Dan Hawkins. The Sporting News gave out the only A+ to Colorado in the category of coaching hire. The Buffaloes will play their home games in Folsom Field.
The Colorado Buffaloes football program represents the University of Colorado Boulder in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level. The team is a member of the Pac-12 Conference, having previously been a charter member of the Big 12 Conference, and will rejoin the Big 12 beginning in the 2024 season. Before joining the Big 12, they were members of the Big Eight Conference. The CU football team has played at Folsom Field since 1924. The Buffs all-time record is 716–520–36 as of the 2022 season. Colorado won the 1990 National Championship. The football program is 27th on the all-time win list and 40th in all-time winning percentage.
The 2005 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. The previous year's team won the Big 12 North Conference. That marked the third Big 12 North championship for the Buffaloes in four years. The team had expectations to improve on their winning and appeared to be on the right track with a 7–2 record to begin the season. But in the end, head coach Gary Barnett had his contract bought out and Colorado suffered four straight losses including an embarrassing 70–3 loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. They finished the season 7–6. In the 2005 Champs Sports Bowl against Clemson, Mike Hankwitz acted as interim head coach, even though Dan Hawkins had been hired as the new head coach. Hawkins coached his final game with Boise State in the MPC Computers Bowl game the day after Colorado played.
Joel Klatt is a college football color commentator and analyst for Fox Sports. Klatt played college football for the University of Colorado (CU) Buffaloes. He was the first three-year starter at quarterback for Colorado since Kordell Stewart ('92–'94). He also played minor-league baseball for two seasons.
The Colorado State Rams are the athletic teams that represent Colorado State University (CSU). Colorado State's athletic teams compete along with 8 other institutions in the Mountain West Conference, which is an NCAA Division I conference and sponsors Division I FBS football. The Conference was formed in 1999, splitting from the former 16-member Western Athletic Conference. CSU has won nine MWC tournament championships and won or shared 11 regular season titles. Rams football teams won or shared the Mountain West title in 1999, 2000 and 2002.
Melvin Gene Tucker II is an American football coach and former player. He is the former head football coach at Michigan State University from 2020–23 and was the head football coach at Colorado for the 2019 season.
Cody Norman Hawkins is an American college football coach and a former professional and college football player. He is the head football coach at Idaho State University. Hawkins played as a quarterback for the Colorado Buffaloes and professionally in Sweden for the Stockholm Mean Machines in the Superserien league for two seasons. He is son of UC Davis head coach Dan Hawkins.
The Colorado State Rams football program represents Colorado State University and is a member of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Mountain West Conference. The Rams have long-standing rivalries with Colorado, Wyoming, and Air Force. The team is currently led by head coach Jay Norvell, who was hired in December 2021.
Coaches of the Big 12 Conference bestow the following individual awards at the end of each football season.
The 2016 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado Boulder during the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Led by fourth-year head coach Mike MacIntyre, they played their home games on-campus at Folsom Field in Boulder and were members of the South Division of the Pac-12 Conference. They finished the season 10–4, 8–1 in Pac-12 play to win their first Pac-12 South Division Title. They represented the South Division in the 2016 Pac-12 Football Championship Game where they lost to Washington. They were invited to the Alamo Bowl where they lost to Oklahoma State. It was their first winning season since 2005.
