Students, staff prepare for first Rocky Mountain Showdown at CSU since 1996

FORT COLLINS, Colo. The CU Buffs and CSU Rams are set to take each other on Saturday in Fort Collins for the Final Rocky Mountain Showdown until 2029.

School mascots Cam and Rocky will face off, with a shiny trophy and bragging rights up for grabs.

It is the first time the Rams will have home field advantage in nearly 30 years.

For hours, students and staff at CSU prepped tailgate parties and their campus for the big game Saturday.

"Oh yeah, the two biggest rivals. It's gonna be so big crowd. Yeah, I'm excited," said Diana Goloshubina, a freshman at CSU.

Goloshubina told Denver7 she and her friends didn't have class Friday and were anxiously awaiting the start of tailgate parties.

Levent Jove, another freshman at CSU, said he'd begun preparing for the Rocky Mountain Showdown weeks ago.

"I started making plans, like two weeks ago," he said. "My friend is coming up all the way from like Las Cruces, New Mexico, to see the game. I pulled him out. We're all gonna go to the snow writers tailgate. We're just gonna have a lot of fun."

Because the next Rocky Mountain Showdown won't be until 2029, both Goloshubina and Jove told Denver7 they were thrilled they had been able to get their hands on tickets to this year's game.

"I had no idea until around 10 minutes ago, but I'm very happy we're here for the game freshman year, super excited for that," she said.

Kickoff for the game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, September 14.