CSU’s Ag Day football game same day as Tour de Fat

Fort Collins football fans are going to have to either choose between two iconic local events this fall or scramble to quickly get from one to the other.

There’s the annual Tour de Fat costumed bicycle parade along Mountain Avenue, beginning at 10 a.m. Sept. 5 and ending with a giant party that runs well into the afternoon. And there’s CSU’s annual Ag Day football game at 2 p.m. that same day, preceded by the popular barbecue at Hughes Stadium, expected to begin about 11:30 a.m.

That doesn’t leave much time for Colorado State University students and others participating in the Tour de Fat to get to the stadium for the barbecue and game. School officials are working on arranging for bus service or other “safe transportation” to bring people from the Tour de Fat to the stadium for the game.

Ben Lorenzen, CSU’s senior associate athletic director for sales, marketing and communications, said he and other school officials have been meeting with representatives New Belgium Brewery, the organizer of the Tour de Fat named after its popular Fat Tire beer, “to discuss how we can make both of our events successful. … We’ve had many, many conversations will all parties involved.”

The 2 p.m. start time for the football game, he said, was designed to allow those who wanted to ride in the morning parade to still attend the game. The festival that follows the bicycle parade, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., draws a different crowd, he said, that is less likely to want to attend a college football game. CSU also has a 7 p.m. volleyball game that night at Moby Arena that had to be taken into account, Lorenzen said.

“We have to take all three of those events, keep them in mind and then try to find the best solution for all parties,” Lorenzen said.

An estimated 25,000 people participated in last year’s Tour de Fat, organizers said. The Rams drew an average of 26,575 for their six home football games last season.

Tradition dictates that the Ag Day game be played during the daylight hours, Lorenzen said, and the agricultural schedule dictates it be played in September or early October. The Rams played their Ag Day game last year at 1 p.m. Oct. 4 against Tulsa, and the pregame barbecue held annually since 1981 by the school’s College of Agricultural Sciences, went from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

CSU’s other home games this season are scheduled for Sept. 12 against Minnesota, Oct. 10 vs. Boise State, Oct. 17 against Air Force, Oct. 31 vs. San Diego State and Nov. 14 against UNLV. The Minnesota and Boise State games are both being marketed as “premium games,” with higher ticket prices, making them a poor choice for the Ag Day event, Lorenzen said.

The opening game against Savannah State, a Football Championship Subdivision program in Georgia, will be the first for new CSU coach Mike Bobo, the former quarterback, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Georgia. Bobo is beginning his first season as a head coach after 17 years as an assistant, 16 at Georgia.

CSU has avoided conflicts with the Tour de Fat the past two years by playing its season-opening games on the Friday (2014) or Sunday (2013) of Labor Day Weekend. Although those games were moved primarily to accommodate national television broadcasts, former athletic director Jack Graham said moving them to a different day than the Tour de Fat was a benefit, too.

The Rams generally open the season in Denver against the University of Colorado, but won’t play that game this year until Sept. 19 because of a prior commitment CU had to open the season at Hawaii.

In 2012, the CSU-CU game was played at 2 p.m. in Denver on the same day as the Tour de Fat and the some CSU students and fans said that scheduling conflict kept them from attending the football game, which drew 58,607 fans – about 1,400 more than the previous year’s game and about 1,000 fewer than the following year’s game.

The Rams will wear their throwback orange jerseys and are asking their fans to also wear orange for the Ag Day football game to honor the school’s past. CSU was previously known as Colorado A&M, and it’s teams, called the Aggies, wore uniforms in the school colors of “pumpkin” (orange) and “alfalfa” (green).

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news