The transfer portal and conference realignment have easily been two of the most controversial topics amongst college athletics discourse over the last few years and both have ravaged Wyoming athletics as of late.
Wyoming athletics has had its fair share of trials and tribulations when it comes to utilizing the transfer portal. Whether that’s high profile transfers not meeting expectations–even leaving the team midseason–or success stories from grabbing under recruited players from smaller schools, the transfer portal has produced a mixed bag of success and failure at Wyoming.
Wyoming athletics has even gone through conference realignment in years past, whether that be leaving the Western Athletic Conference for the Mountain West in 1998, or with the several different teams that have come and gone from the Mountain West in recent years.
While opinions vary concerning both of these topics, these two relatively new factors to the college athletics landscape have had one undeniable ripple effect across all of college athletics: and that’s that it is ruining traditions that have stood the test of time within college athletics for over hundreds of years.
For example, Wyoming athletics has already seen one of their rivals–that being BYU–ripped away due to conference realignment back in 2011, when the Cougars left to become independent in football and joined the West Coast Conference in all other sports. The Cougars have even since realigned again after leaving the Mountain West, as they became a full member of the Big 12 conference in 2023.
The Cougars were a massive rival that most Wyoming fans looked forward to competing against year in and year out in every single sport, evident by just how excited a lot of fans were for the Cougars to return to War Memorial Stadium in football this last fall. Still, it’s hard to say that the game played this fall was one that felt like a rivalry anymore, especially as the new generation of Wyoming fans weren’t around during the times those two teams competed at the top of the same conference. In addition, that excitement and revelry surrounding the Cougars rolling into town wanes in comparison to when Colorado State comes to town.
The Border War easily draws the biggest crowds to Laramie in every single sport, evident by the attendance numbers. For instance, the Cowboy basketball team typically draws an average of around 3,800 fans to their games. Just around 5,000 fans traveled through harsh weather to watch the Cowboys take on the Rams this year, proving that the fans still care about the Border War more than any other game on the schedule.
The Border War still means something to Wyoming fans–that much is clear. Internally, however, it has started to lose its luster. The head coach of Cowboy basketball, Sundance Wicks, made note of that after his team dropped their home contest to the Rams by a score of 79-63.
“When Hunter Thompson and Hunter Maldonado were here, we got swept in the COVID year. You could just feel the angst, because it had been passed down to them, and…what it meant. We’re losing the passing of the torch, the feelings that are associated with culture. That’s the state that college basketball and college athletics is in, we’re losing those commitments to culture and those passing downs of traditions,” Wicks had said after the loss.
“You could feel some hurt but it felt like a loss, it didn’t feel like a Border War loss. It felt like a [normal] loss, and that’s something that you can’t teach,” he added.
While Cowboy basketball may be a more extreme example of this, as they’ve experienced a tumultuous amount of turnover in their roster compared to any other sport at Wyoming, the truths behind what Wicks said in his presser still ring true–and these issues aren’t getting any better as the Rams will be leaving for the Pac-12 conference in 2026.
The Cowboys and Cowgirls will still likely schedule the Rams as non-conference opponents on a yearly basis, sure, but the implications of the matchup will mean much less when the two aren’t battling in early November in a consequential Mountain West matchup in football, for example. And even despite different players transferring in and out of Wyoming in all sports, coaches will still likely circle the date of the Border War on their schedules and emphasize the importance of the rivalry to their players, no matter who they are.
Still, before we know it, the Border War itself may no longer even exist and will certainly not hold the same meaning in the very near future, at the least. So for now, we may as well enjoy the last upcoming year of both teams playing in the same conference, as the Border War as we know it will soon be flipped on its head.
