CU fans are giving attention to wrong type of football

Colorado Buffaloes women's soccer is generating significant buzz this season, advancing to the NCAA Tournament's second round after defeating Utah Valley. (Photo by Aspen Doust/Sko Buffs Sports)

The shine of empty metal bleachers under stadium lights has returned to Folsom Field. 

After two seasons of record-breaking attendance under coach Deion Sanders, Colorado’s football team was blown out by Arizona in October in front of its lowest-attended home game of his tenure. Most left at the half. A week later in the Appalachians, the Buffaloes sealed their fate of irrelevancy this season.

Colorado will always be a football school. It shouldn’t be. At least right now. When Sanders’ 3-7 clunkers play Arizona State Saturday, it will be in front of an underserved 45,000 fans. If they want an ounce of sports-fueled school pride before Thanksgiving, those fans should be rooting for a different football team.

Prentup Field’s bleachers tell a different story. It was a struggle to find a seat, or even a place to stand, on Friday while watching a team going on an NCAA Tournament run. The Colorado women's soccer team’s double-overtime win against Utah Valley was electric. SportsCenter took notice, airing the game-winning header by Reagan Kotschau on its Top 10 plays of the night. 

Yet, odds are a significant number of CU students don’t even know the school has a women's soccer team. On the 138,000-follower Buffs Barstool Instagram page that night, crickets. 

The game was filled with bad calls, chief among them a reversed goal where the ball met Hope Leyba’s face, then the back of the net. Leyba and the Buffs deserved the Folsom Field student section that has earned a raucous reputation and $75,000 in fines over the last year, at Prentup that night, taunting refs and storming fields.

While women's sports deserve more attention regardless, this isn’t even about equity. It’s about the quality of the product on the field. After witnessing Deion's duds fumble leads for 13 weeks, Friday night brought back forgotten emotions:

The overtime anxiety of knowing it’s anyone’s game — that a season could be over in a

moment. Followed by the adrenaline rush that sees friends lifting friends into the air in pure unadulterated joy.

Yes, quarterback Julian Lewis burning his redshirt year provides football fans with a light at the end of the tunnel, one that he earned in his starting debut. But his one-man show can only go so far. At this point, success for the team is measured by how close they can keep the score. Who wants to root for that?

Meanwhile, Jordan Nytes, Jace Holley and Leyba have delivered a highlight reel worthy of the soccer team's No.12 ranking. The Buffs boast a record-breaking 16 wins and No. 3 seed in the

tournament. When they play, they work towards a common goal. Whereas Prime’s NIL checks in shoulder pads appear more intent on boosting individual stats and transfer portal odds. 

The contrast is reminiscent of a 2023 assessment by Oregon coach Dan Lanning. One team is

playing for clicks. The other is playing for wins.

At the start of this year, a Black Friday road trip to Manhattan, Kan., for one last football game as a CU student was enticing. The idea faded with a lost season. This week, another trip has been calling: a 17-hour drive to East Lansing, Mich.

Colorado plays No. 6 Xavier in the second round Thursday at Michigan State’s DeMartin Stadium. Fans should take note.