Will Renewed Beer Sales at Folsom Field Help CU Get Back Onto Playboy's Party List?

It's been a rough September for the University of Colorado. First the Buffs football team lost to their now arch-rivals, the Colorado State University Rams, in the annual early-season battle at Sports Authority Field, and then the entire school fell off Playboy's yearly list of the biggest party schools in the nation.

That disgrace is almost unthinkable for a university that came in first just three years ago and third in 2013. Even worse, those very same arch-rivals up in Fort Collins are now eighth on the list -- making parents proud.

See also: Which Colorado College That's Not CU Boulder Made Playboy's Top Party Schools List?

Then again, Playboy could have been looking at the fact that up until recently, CSU sold beer during football games (during the first half, anyway), while CU has banned booze sales at Folsom Field since 1996, when it joined the Big 12 conference.

But that changed in mid-September -- and surely after Playboy's deadline -- when the school decided to allow beer and wine sales to the general public for the first time since before this year's freshman class was born.

"We are pleased to announce that we will have two beer gardens open inside the footprint of Folsom Field," CU said on its website. "The Buffalo Beer Garden presented by Hazel's will be open near the buffalo statue on the southwest plaza of Folsom Field.

"The Balch Beer Garden will be open inside Balch Fieldhouse. You must be at least 21 years of age with a valid ID to enter these areas, which will be open beginning two hours before kickoff and close at the end of the 3rd quarter. Beer and wine will not be permitted to leave the beer gardens."

Although Buffs fans can't take their beers back to their seats, they were able to watch the game on TVs inside the two fenced-off areas. Then again, fences certainly wouldn't have held back Ralphie, the Buffs' live bison mascot, who broke free while his handlers were running him across the field last weekend before being herded back in the right direction:

No beer for you, Ralphie!

While attendance at football games has declined in recent years, the school told 7News that beer sales weren't necessarily why. No, you'd probably have to look to the performance of the team itself, which has been flatter than a two-day-old Coors. So far this season, the team is 2-2. The next home game is October 4 against Oregon State.

Drink up.