Colorado State could have opened 2026 at Indiana. Instead, it replaced that trip with a home Border War, a deliberate scheduling choice that kept the rivalry intact during CSUâs conference transition. The series will pause in 2027, then return annually from 2028 through 2036.
That makes Saturday more than Jim Moraâs first game or a pleasant piece of realignment nostalgia. It is the chance to carry something unmistakably familiar into a season in which almost everything else has changed.
Wyoming at Colorado State
Saturday, Sept. 5 ¡ 3 p.m. Pacific ¡ USA Network
Rooting interest is Colorado State, with real but measured confidence
The Fan Watch model gives the Rams a 55% chance to win. That is enough to expect a competitive home game and lean toward optimism, but not enough to treat reclaiming the Boot as routine. This is closer to a coin flip than a comfortable favorite.
The emotional investment should still be high. This is the 118th Border War, a series that began in 1899 and has been played every season since 1946. It is also the rivalsâ first meeting on opposite sides of the realignment divide, with CSU now in the Pac-12 and Wyoming remaining in the Mountain West.
Because this is a nonconference game, the result will not directly move Colorado State up or down the Pac-12 standings. Its value is more immediate and more personal. It means possession of the Bronze Boot, a clean beginning for Mora and some evidence that the reconstructed Rams can handle a game carrying actual emotional weight.
Last year supplies the proper caution. Wyoming won 28-0, rushed for 212 yards and intercepted three passes while holding CSU to 94 rushing yards. That was the Cowboysâ first shutout in the series since 2010, so merely looking more organized would be too forgiving a standard. The Rams do not have to dominate, but they should be able to withstand Wyoming physically and avoid letting mistakes turn the rivalry lopsided again.
Mora offers legitimate grounds for hope. He took UConn to bowl eligibility in three of four seasons and finished with consecutive nine-win campaigns in 2024 and 2025. But this opener is not a demand that he reproduce an entire turnaround in one afternoon. His initial CSU build added 26 high-school signees and 38 transfers, including 18 former UConn players. A roster assembled that quickly can possess useful familiarity and still require time to become a team.
So watch for the simplest signs of credibility. Can CSUâs front avoid a repeat of the ground-game mismatch? Can the Rams play from ahead, or at least stay out of the desperate situations that invite turnovers? Can a heavily changed roster remain composed when the rivalry gets tight?
A win would not prove Colorado State is ready to contend in its new conference; the preseason model gives the Rams only a 1.3% chance to reach the Pac-12 championship game. A loss would not erase Moraâs rebuilding credentials either. But the outcomes are not emotionally equal. Winning would put the Boot in Fort Collins and give the new era a piece of continuity worth believing in. Losing would mean the rebuild begins by absorbing another rivalry wound.
The schools protected this game from realignment because the Border War carries meaning that conference standings cannot replace. Now the reconstructed Rams have to justify that choice on the field. They must answer last yearâs shutout, bring the Boot back to Fort Collins and give their Pac-12 beginning a connection to the program that came before it.
Explore every modeled result in the interactive Colorado State guide, or read how the probabilities are produced in the Fan Watch methodology.