FAQ

Why is the University of Colorado know as CU and not UC or U of C?
The same applies at Kansas-KU, Missouri-MU, Nebraska-NU, Oklahoma-OU and Denver-DU. "Midwestern casualness," says former CU historian Fred Casotti. It has always been this way at Colorado, for whatever reason, and at the other five listed above-but seemingly nowhere else in the USA. In the 1950s, there was a concerted effort to eliminate the use of "CU" on the Boulder campus, both as a symbol and in speech, but Casotti said that no one would buy into it. "Nobody would change," he said. "It's easier to say than U of C, UC sounds like slang or something (as in 'you see'), and it was traditional. By trying to eliminate it, they reinforced it."

What? Black is not an official CU color, what are the official colors?
The official colors of CU are silver and gold. According to the book Glory Colorado, these colors were adopted by the class of 1888, as a symbol of the mineral wealth of this state. But in 1921, as football became more popular, there were complaints from the students that silver and gold did not look good on football jerseys. In fact, silver and gold ended up looking like dirty gray and dark yellow. It wasn't until 1959 that the football team changed its jerseys to black with yellow. And although the football team seems to have set the trend with its color choice, CU still has the official colors of silver and gold.

What or who exactly is Ralphie?
The University of Colorado has the most unique mascot in all of intercollegiate atheltics, a real buffalo named Ralphie. The live buffalo mascot, now "Ralphie IV," will continue the tradition of leading the football team out on the field both at the start of the game and the second half. The buffalo first appeared in 1934, and since 1966 has been a regular at CU home and bowl games, and even a select few road and neutral site contests. Check out Ralphie's page for a complete history!

If the nickname Buffaloes started in 1934, what was CU known as before that and how did Buffaloes get it start?
A 1934 contest to select an official school nickname by the Silver and Gold newspaper gave us the mascot or nickname Buffaloes. The nickname was officially bestowed upon the school's teams at halftime of the Homecoming game against Utah that season. Prior to 1934, CU athletic teams usually were referred to as the "Silver and Gold", but other nicknames teams were sometimes called included Silver Helmets, Yellow Jackets, Hornets, Arapahoes, Big Horns, Grizzlies and Frontiersmen. The campus newspaper announced the contest in the fall of 1934, with a $5 prize to go to the author of the winning selection. Claude Bates of New Madrid, Mo., and James Proffitt of Cincinnati, Ohio, were co-winners for the prize as both submitted Buffaloes as their entry. Athletic Director Harry Carlson, graduate manager Walter Franklin and Kenneth Bundy of the Silver and Gold were the judges. Through the years, synonyms which quickly came into use included "Bison", "Buffs", "Thundering Herd", "Stampeding Herd", "Golden Avalanche", and "Golden Buffaloes".

Exactly what sports does CU offer?
The University of Colorado athletic department sponsors 16 intercollegiate, NCAA-affiliated sports. In alphabetical order, they are basketball (men's and women's), cross country (men's and women's), football (men's), golf (men's and women's), skiing (co-ed but counts as both a men's and women's sport), soccer (women's), tennis (women's) track and field (counts as four sports, men's and women's, indoor and outdoor) and volleyball (women's).

Why doesn't CU have baseball or wrestling (or some of the other sports it doesn't have)?
Those sports, along with men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming and women's diving comprised seven sports that were discontinued on June 11, 1980; the 1979-80 season was the last year of competition for each. At the time, schools needed 14 sports (any mix, men or women) to qualify for Division I status, and the cuts reduced our count to that minimum number (eight men's, six women's). It was purely based on dollars, as which non-revenue sports would be able to survive on shoestring budgets while we recovered from over a $1 million debt; sports like wrestling (No. 8) and the two gymnastics teams were nationally ranked when they were disbanded. The implications of Title IX and the growth of women's athletics led us to add three women's sports: volleyball (1986), golf (1994) and soccer (1996), while budget problems resulted in our dropping men's tennis (2006) bringing our count to 16 (skiing went co-ed in 1983, but still counts as one men's and one women's). As to adding any of these sports back, or adding new ones such as hockey, lacrosse, men's soccer or men's volleyball (the sports we get the most E-mails about), it still basically all comes down to budget. Once we're in a financial position where the sports we currently have are fully funded, we will consider expanding, but remember with Title IX, we would have to add sports in twos, one men's and one women's.

I heard CU had really good baseball, rowing and mountain biking teams, among others, why are they not on this website?
The University of Colorado's club sports is one of the most successful in the nation, as its mountain biking teams have won several national championships and other sports such as men's volleyball, rowing, baseball, and countless others have had a lot of success on the national level. However, these sports are not NCAA-affiliated and within the University, Club Sports is not a part of the Athletic Department. You can find out about all the club sports on their website.

When are schedules released?
It varies depending on sport. Football is unique in that we release a tentative non-conference schedule 5-6 years in advance. The Big 12 schedules in big blocks so we will usually know those several years in advance. Every other sport is released one year at a time. Fall sports (volleyball, soccer and cross country) are usually released in the early summer months. Most other sports are released around the beginning of the school year (sometime in August), but there are always extenuating circumstances and situations that play into the exact date of release.

Along with that, why does the football schedule always say time is TBA until about two weeks and sometimes just one week before the game?
We understand it is at times frustrating not knowing the time of the game well in advance, but we do not release the time of the football games until we know whether or not the game will appear on television through the Big 12 television contract. As frustrating as seeing TBA is, if we announced all the games will kick off at a certain time and ended up changing for television (all six of CU's home games were televised in 2006), we feel it would be more frustrating and confusing trying to figure out the correct time.

OK, so along with that, exactly how does the television contract work with the Big 12?
The Big 12 Conference has a contract with ABC Sports as well as FOX Sports Net when it comes to football television. Thus, ABC and FOX own all the television rights of every home game by all Big 12 schools in return for an annual payment to the Big 12, which is then divided among the member institutions.

ABC has the first right of selection for every weekend of the season; FOX then selects two games to air via its FOX Sports Net system (5 p.m. MT and 10:30 a.m. MT). The balance of ABC's games air at 1:30 p.m. MT, with an occasional game in prime time or on a non-Saturday (as is the case with the CU-Nebraska game). FOX will occasionally televise a doubleheader, thus the very rare 8 p.m. MT start is a remote possibility. All road games at non-Big 12 schools are subject to the television rights holder of the opposing team and its conference.

The contract calls for games the first three weeks of September to be selected by June 15 (though often done earlier). Starting with the last weekend(s) in September, games are selected by ABC within a 12-day window, meaning two Mondays before the date of the game (although ABC might select a few others in advance). The exception to this is that on two occasions per year, ABC can choose to wait to pick its game the Monday before the scheduled game (the 6-day window). FOX cannot select its games until ABC makes its choice, so it is directly affected.

ABC televises most of its games on a regional basis, and makes them available to the rest of the country through its pay-per-view plan. The FOX Sports Net games in prime time are national; they clear all their systems to televise them. Satellite coordinates are not available for ABC games, as they have scrambled signals, but usually are available for FOX games at their regular locations on satellite dish systems.

If ABC and FOX both pass on a game, that game can only be televised if the kickoff and finish would occur outside of the contractual window, which is 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. MT. That means for CU to televise games not selected, we'd have to go with a kickoff time that is either absurdly early (7 a.m.) or extremely late (8:30 p.m.), and those obviously inconvenience all of us. But that's why there is no televising of games not selected by ABC or FOX.

When and where does the Buffalo Stampede coaches show air?
The Buffalo Stampede coaches show airs on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, generally once a week during the season with some editions re-broadcast on Sautrday mornings. Due to the complex Fox Sports Net schedule, especially in the fall, the show won't necessarily air at the same time every week. Here is the broadcast schedule through September 2006 (All Times MDT):

• Show 1 -- Thursday, Aug. 24, 6:30 p.m.
• Show 2 -- Friday, Sept. 1, 6:30 p.m.
• Show 3 -- Wednesday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. (re-broadcast on Saturday, Sept. 9, 8:30 a.m.)
• Show 4 -- Thursday, Sept. 14, 7 p.m. (re-broadcast on Saturday, Sept. 16, 8:30 a.m.)
• Show 5 -- Saturday, Sept. 23, 8:30 a.m.
• Show 6 -- Thursday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m. (re-broadcast on Saturday, Sept. 30, 8:30 a.m.)

All editions of the Buffalo Stampede coaches show will also be available online at CUBuffs.com through The Stampede Online premium video subscription service. Shows will generally be posted on the site by the Monday following the original air date.