Cal AD Sandy Barbour on Thursday announced the '14 matchup against Stanford "will remain at Memorial Stadium and not be moved to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara," according to Jeff Faraudo of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. A proposal to have the '14 game moved on a one-year basis to Santa Clara "surfaced publicly late last week, and was met with angry response from fans from both schools." Barbour announced the decision "in a letter to fans and supporters." She said that "all aspects of the proposal were considered, but that the athletic department reached out to alumni, students, donors and ticket holders to solicit feedback." The 49ers and the Santa Clara Stadium Authority "initiated the proposal." The move was "expected to earn both schools additional revenue beyond what the Big Game normally generates." For many fans, "selling cherished traditions to help pay down athletic department debts was not a satisfactory trade-off." Still, Barbour said that the athletic department "will continue to try to find creative ways to help pay down" the $474M debt incurred by the renovation of Memorial Stadium and construction of a student-athlete high-performance training center (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 8/30).
STAYING OR LEAVING? In Denver, Christopher Dempsey writes the groundswell from those who want the Rocky Mountain Showdown between Colorado and Colorado State to "return to the campus sites simply needs to be patient." The contract for the game in Denver "runs through 2019, but there's not much of a decision there." It is "going back to campus -- at latest -- when Colorado State's new football stadium opens for business." Even if the school would "decline restructuring the deal to move back to campus in the short term," the CSU will "most certainly want their home game there in the new digs." CU has "pretty much always wanted its home games at Folsom Field" (DENVER POST, 8/30).
