Colorado University Athletics
CU, Pac-12 Release 2012 Football Schedules
BOULDER GÇö The Pac-12 Conference released its 2012 conference
game schedule Wednesday, thus allowing member schools to formally
make public their full season schedules.
For the University of Colorado, five Pac-12 schools will visit
Boulder, with one game set to be nationally televised on Thursday,
Oct. 11, when Arizona State makes its first appearance at Folsom
Field since 2006.
The season opens Sept. 1 in Denver with the annual Cinch Jeans
Rocky Mountain Showdown against Colorado State at Sports Authority
Field at Mile High. The home opener in Boulder follows a week
later (Sept. 8) versus Sacramento State; the FCS Hornets were 4-7
this past year, but opened the season with a 29-28 win at Oregon
State.
CU completes non-league play on Sept. 15 with a game at Fresno
State, a series which the Buffs lead by a 4-1 count but will mark
the first game between the two in Fresno. The last meeting
was the 2001 season opener in Boulder that was also the Jim Thorpe
Classic, with Fresno State winning 24-22. Colorado rebounded
to win 10 of its next 11 games, including the Big 12 Championship
game over Texas.
Colorado opens Pac-12 league play on the road at Washington
State on Sept. 22, and then returns home to face UCLA on Sept. 29,
the centerpiece of CUGÇÖs annual ParentGÇÖs Weekend. After a bye
the next Saturday, ASU comes to town for an ESPN Thursday night
affair. That is the BuffsGÇÖ only October home game, as they
finish off the month with road games at Southern California (Oct.
20) and Oregon (Oct. 27).
The Buffs close the final third of the season with three of
the last four games at home. Stanford will travel to Boulder
for the first time since 1990 on Nov. 3, which will also serve as
Homecoming. On Nov. 10, Colorado will visit Tucson for the
first time since the 1999 Insight.com Bowl to square off against
Arizona (the two last played each other there in 1985). And
on Nov. 17, Washington returns to Folsom, as the Huskies last
visited here in 2000.
The regular season concludes on the Friday after Thanksgiving
(Nov. 23), as Utah will make its first appearance in Boulder since
1961. ColoradoGÇÖs original out-of-state rival the first six
decades of the last century, the Utes derailed the Buffs undefeated
season and national championship hopes with a 21-12 win in that GÇÖ61
game. It took 50 years, but the Buffs finally gained a
measure of revenge for that loss by closing the 2011 season with a
17-14 win over the Utes in Salt Lake City, a victory which
prevented Utah from winning the Pac-12GÇÖs South Division.
The second annual Pac-12 Championship Game is set for Friday
night, Nov. 30, at the campus site of the division winner with the
best record or highest ranking in the BCS Standings. The
conference did not release anything past the 2012 season at this
time.