Editing College football (section)

====Mountain West====
[[File:Colorado football team 1890.jpg|thumb|[[Colorado Buffaloes football|Colorado]]'s first football team in 1890]]
[[File:Utah vs. Colorado 1916.jpg|thumb|Kickoff during the 1916 Colorado – [[Utah Utes football|Utah]] game]]
[[File:1905 Utah football team.jpg|thumb|The 1905 Utah football team]]
The [[University of Colorado Boulder|University of Colorado]] began playing American football in 1890. [[Colorado Buffaloes football|Colorado]] found much success in its early years, winning eight Colorado Football Association Championships (1894–97, 1901–08).

The following was taken from the ''Silver & Gold'' newspaper of December 16, 1898. It was a recollection of the birth of Colorado football written by one of CU's original gridders, John C. Nixon, also the school's second captain. It appears here in its original form:

{{blockquote|At the beginning of the first semester in the fall of '90 the boys rooming at the dormitory on the campus of the U. of C. being afflicted with a super-abundance of penned up energy, or perhaps having recently drifted from under the parental wing and delighting in their newly found freedom, decided among other wild schemes, to form an athletic association. Messrs Carney, Whittaker, Layton and others, who at that time constituted a majority of the male population of the University, called a meeting of the campus boys in the old medical building. Nixon was elected president and Holden secretary of the association.

It was voted that the officers constitute a committee to provide uniform suits in which to play what was called "association football". Suits of flannel were ultimately procured and paid for assessments on the members of the association and generous contributions from members of the faculty.&nbsp;...

The Athletic Association should now invigorate its base-ball and place it at par with its football team; and it certainly has the material with which to do it. The U of C should henceforth lead the state and possibly the west in athletic sports.&nbsp;...

The style of football playing has altered considerably; by the old rules, all men in front of the runner with the ball, were offside, consequently we could not send backs through and break the line ahead of the ball as is done at present. The notorious V was then in vogue, which gave a heavy team too much advantage. The mass plays being now barred, skill on the football field is more in demand than mere weight and strength.

|author=John C. Nixon|source=''Silver & Gold'', December 16, 1898<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cubuffs.com/pdf3/6982.pdf | title=Buff Milestones | author=John C. Nixon | publisher=CUBuffs.com reprint of Silver & Gold article | access-date=2007-06-04 | date=1898-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606155231/http://www.cubuffs.com/pdf3/6982.pdf | archive-date=2011-06-06}}</ref>}}

In 1909, the [[Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference]] was founded, featuring four members: Colorado, [[Colorado College]], [[Colorado School of Mines]], and [[Colorado State University|Colorado Agricultural College]]. The [[University of Denver]] and the [[University of Utah]] joined the RMAC in 1910. For its first thirty years, the RMAC was considered a major conference equivalent to today's Division I, before 7 larger members left and formed the [[Mountain States Conference]] (also called the Skyline Conference).