Sports

Colorado Already Celebrating Win In Deion Sanders’ Home Debut: ‘CU Fans Will (Barely) Outnumber Nebraska’

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A view of Folsom Field at the Colorado Buffaloes spring game.

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Colorado football fans are already celebrating a win over rival Nebraska. A ticketing site believes that Buffs supporters will outnumber those of the Cornhuskers in Deion Sanders’ home debut.

The highly anticipated matchup between the former Big XII foes has suddenly become a hot ticket in Boulder.

Colorado became the talk of the college football world this offseason with its hire of Coach Prime. Taking over a 1-11 football team, Sanders completely flipped the roster with his activity in the transfer portal.

The head coach’s presence led to incredible preseason exposure for the program, and the momentum only continued after the squad’s upset win over TCU in the season opener.

In that first contest, the Buffaloes’ offense went off with quarterback Shedeur Sanders leading the way. The passer threw for a school-record 510 yards while having four receivers top 100 yards. That included Travis Hunter, who also had an interception on the defensive side of the ball.

Now, the team returns to Boulder for its 2023 home debut.

After that opening performance, Colorado enters as a slight 3.5-point favorite against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers lost a heartbreaker to Minnesota in their first matchup.

With excitement building around the program, Vivid Seats expects Buffs fans to outnumber Nebraska fans at Folsom Field.

Now, that news might not come as a shock given CU will be the home team. In most cases, visiting fans are outnumbered due to ticket availability, travel, and the expense of staying in a road location.

But the Cornhusker faithful travels, and they often come out in droves for this particular matchup despite the seven-hour journey.

This was the scene the last time the two foes met in Boulder.

You have to take into account that the Colorado program has only had two winning seasons over the last 15 years, with one being a 4-2 output in the 2020 COVID year.

These two fanbases don’t like one another, so when one side gets the chance to troll (or take over the other’s stadium), they take it.

Colorado fans celebrate off field win while Nebraska fans troll.

Things might look a little bit different this time around as a predicted 60% of attendees are expected to be rooting for the Buffaloes.

The Denver Post wrote a story this week referencing that expected turnout, though it might not be as one-sided as administration is hoping for. While Vivid Seats did estimate that 60/40 split, some see it being closer to 50/50.

“I think this year it’s going to be close to 50-50, and I think CU fans will barely outnumber Nebraska (supporters),” one local said. “(It will be) 51-49% gold. I’m optimistic. I really do think there’s huge hype with Coach Prime.”

And while the Colorado community celebrates an off-the-field win over the Huskers, Nebraska fans (and others) are flocking to social media to mock the Buffs.

“Colorado is celebrating a projected 60-40 split in favor of Buffs’ fans lol,” one Nebraska supporter said.

“Congrats to Colorado on having [checks notes] more fans than the visitors in their home stadium,” wrote another.

Regardless of which fanbase will reign supreme, attendees will pay a steep get-in price. That’s not stopping fans from buying those tickets up.

Deion Sanders is looking to turn this program around, and I guess this is step in the right direction.