Toledo Replaces Miami On 2009 FB Schedule

BOULDER? Out are the RedHawks, in are the Rockets. School officials at both the University of Colorado and the University of Toledo announced Thursday the first-ever meeting between the two schools in football will take place later this summer, on Friday, Sept. 11.

The game will be played at Toledo’s on-campus stadium, the Glass Bowl, and will be televised nationally by ESPN. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. mountain time (9 p.m. eastern).

Toledo replaces Miami-Ohio on the CU schedule after several Mid-American Conference member schools adjusted their non-conference schedules in what was one big domino effect. The game at Miami was set to be the back end of a home-and-home series with the Buffaloes, who won the first encounter 42-0 in Boulder in 2007. Toledo is a replacement opponent, coordinated through the efforts of the MAC and ESPN, and thus will not be returning the game to Boulder.

Miami had an opportunity to play Kentucky at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, and needed to opt out of one of its four non-league games, selecting to cancel the Colorado game instead of against Boise State, Cincinnati or Northwestern.

It will be the first Friday regular season game for the Buffaloes other than the day after Thanksgiving since Oct. 10, 1975, when CU played at Miami, Fla.; the Hurricanes regularly played on Friday nights in the 1960s and 1970s, often when sharing the Orange Bowl with the Miami Dolphins the same weekend.

“We recognize ESPN’s leadership for pulling this together, it was no easy task,” CU athletic director Mike Bohn said. “At least eight schools were impacted and ESPN diligently coordinated everything to work out in the end.

“ESPN is also honoring the commitment of nationally televising the game that was in the contract with Miami, and that’s important for us as we continue our outreach efforts to our alumni and fan base,” he continued. “We were on national television a school record 10 times in 2008 and that’s important as the program climbs back to national prominence.”

This is the latest CU has altered a football schedule by rearranging or switching opponents in modern times, less than six months out from the start of the season. In the fall of 1990, Texas Tech opted out of a home-and-home series with the Buffaloes in 1991-92, with CU replacing those games with Wyoming in Boulder and adding a home-and-home with Baylor in ’92-93. North Texas informed CU that it wanted to delay a 1996 game in the fall of ?95, a game the Buffaloes replaced with Washington State. And last year, North Carolina opted out of a home-and-home series and ESPN helped arrange a new series with West Virginia.

Toledo’s role in this might have been the simplest, delaying a home-and-home series with Boise State for a year; the two will now play in 2010 and 2011. In addition to BSU, CU, Miami and UT, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Northwestern, Bowling Green, Florida Atlantic and Wyoming, or 10 schools in all, reworked their schedules in the past few weeks.

The contract with Miami had called for a $750,000 payment if either school cancelled out of the game, but that was negated when a suitable replacement was found. Miami has also agreed to play a men’s basketball game in Boulder next season as part of the agreement.

CU will now have at least four games nationally televised this fall. ESPN previously announced that the Buffaloes will play two national Thursday night games, at West Virginia on Oct. 1 and at Oklahoma State on Nov. 19, along with the Friday after Thanksgiving rivalry game with Nebraska in Boulder to be telecast by ABC.

Times and television arrangements for CU’s two other September games, Colorado State (Sept. 5) and Wyoming (Sept. 19) will be known no later than June 15 per contractual agreement with the Big 12 Conference’s television partners. The remaining six will be determined either 12 or six days in advance of the designated date per the same agreement.

2009 COLORADO FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Date Opponent TV Time

S 5 COLORADO STATE TBA TBA

S 11 at Toledo ESPN 7:00 p.m.

S 19 WYOMING TBA TBA

O 1 at West Virginia ESPN 5:30 p.m.

O 10 *at Texas TBA TBA

O 17 *KANSAS TBA TBA

O 24 *at Kansas State TBA TBA

O 31 *MISSOURI TBA TBA

N 7 *TEXAS A & M TBA TBA

N 14 *at Iowa State TBA TBA