Rivalry or no rivalry, the CU game does highlight vast cultural differences between the residents of Nebraska and Colorado.

Samuel McKewon of NE State Paper touches on them in his pre-game analysis:

Colorado, to many NU fans, represents a style and attitude that’s uniquely anti-Nebraskan. CU is money. Spoiled trust-funders. Ski bums. Fickle bandwagon jumpers. Preeners. Corner cutters. White collar, liberal, loose-living, green-loving, golden pom-pom holding, snowball-and-beer-bottle-throwing louts.

In other words, the Buffaloes, and their fans, are perfect rivals.

From a cultural point of view, I might add.

Picking up on the cultural gulph between these bordering states, CU’s athletic director, Mike Bohn, writing a guest opinion in the Boulder Daily Camera, pleas with Buffs fans to be more like Husker fans.

I urge all Buff fans to play a positive role in providing our guests with a great experience in Boulder, just as I expect our fans to be treated with respect and hospitality when we travel to Lincoln next year.

In other words: “build positive equity in the rivalry.” Be a factor in creating excitement and pageantry into the game on the field by bringing that passion into the stadium not with poor sportsmanship in the stands or outside the stadium. Cheer loudly and collectively for the Buffs. Single out the players and team as they shine and especially when there are miscues or a shift in momentum. Acknowledge the Husker fans’ right to cheer their team on. But leave the unconstructive stuff — profanity, insults, jokes and other provocations — to yourself.

Bohn has the right idea, and it’s good pr for his program, but this stuff can’t be prescribed. It’s cultural. Which is why it’s so important that our team wipe CU off the field—the one place where dominance isn’t discussed, it’s lived.