There is a particular kind of college basketball program that never gets the benefit of the doubt, and Colorado State has spent decades thriving in exactly that spot. Tucked into Fort Collins at the foot of the Rockies, the Rams play in one of the most intimidating mid-major buildings in America, recruit players the blue bloods overlooked, and every few years they remind the sport what altitude, toughness and togetherness can do in March. Now the program is on the verge of its biggest chapter yet: after two decades as a Mountain West cornerstone, Colorado State takes the floor in 2026–27 as a member of the rebuilt Pac-12, with a first-time head coach, a retained core, and a fanbase that has never wanted more.
To understand where the Rams are going, start with how the last two springs rewrote everything. In 2024–25, Niko Medved’s team went 26–10, ripped through the Mountain West tournament, and then delivered one of the most heartbreaking two-game runs of the 2025 NCAA Tournament: a first-round win over Memphis, followed by a 72–71 second-round loss to Maryland that ended on a buzzer-beating fadeaway by Derik Queen. Sixteen days after that loss, Medved left for the Minnesota job, closing a seven-year era in which the Rams went 143–85 with three NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT Final Four berth. His star, Nique Clifford, left as a first-round NBA Draft pick. The program’s modern peak walked out the door all at once.
What Colorado State did next said everything about how the school views the program: it didn’t hire a savior from outside. It promoted Ali Farokhmanesh, the lead assistant for all seven Medved seasons, the man whose own name is etched into March Madness lore. In 2010, playing for Northern Iowa, Farokhmanesh buried a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left to stun UNLV, then drilled the dagger three with 34 seconds remaining to knock off top-seeded Kansas and send the Panthers to the program’s first Sweet 16. Sixteen years later, the guy famous for hitting the biggest shots in program history got his shot to run one. He became the 21st head coach in school history at 36 years old.
Year one of the Farokhmanesh era was an up-and-down ride that ended in respect. Eight new players, a new voice, a brutal nonconference slate — the Rams knocked off rival Colorado and NCAA Tournament team South Florida early, then hit a wall through late December and January and sat at a middling 12–10. Then they caught fire: eight straight wins through February and early March, a run that carried them into the NIT and finished 21–13, the third-most wins for a first-year coach in program history. Guard Brandon Rechsteiner, a Virginia Tech transfer, led the way at 12 points per game, hit 40 percent from deep, and sank 86 threes — the fourth-most in a single season in school history. The offense hummed, the defense grew teeth, and the continuity story began to write itself.
Because the real story of the 2026 offseason was retention. Where the year before had been all roster churn, this summer was about keeping the core together as the program stepped up a weight class. Rashaan Mbemba, a three-year Ram with 37 starts and 87 games played, stayed. So did veteran Kyle Jorgensen. Point guard Jojo McIver, who grew into the backup role as a freshman, returns with the starting job at his fingertips after Brandon Rechsteiner transferred to Kansas State. Redshirt freshman Docker Tedeschi — a 6-foot-9 sharpshooter who averaged 24.7 points per game as an Illinois high school senior — comes off his redshirt year ready to fight for a rotation spot. In the portal era, that kind of continuity is currency.
The additions fit the program’s identity like a glove. Amondo Miller Jr. arrives as a 6-foot-7 wing from Division II Lubbock Christian, where he was a Division II All-American in 2025–26 after averaging 21 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists — a fifth-year player with stops at Fort Lewis and Colorado (where he played alongside Nique Clifford) who rebounds like his scholarship depends on it. Guard Justin Menard comes from Marist, where he was third-team All-MAAC at 12.9 points and 3.8 assists per game, a 6-foot-3 playmaker with a 6-foot-7 wingspan who can run the point or slide off the ball. Then there’s the freshman class — five strong, one of the best-ranked recruiting classes in program history, headlined by Georgia point guard Pops Dunson, the No. 5-rated recruit in school history per 247Sports, a two-time state champion who dropped 25 in a title game, alongside center Jaden Ghoreishi and forward Eric Fiedler. The last five-man class the Rams signed? Isaiah Stevens, David Roddy, John Tonje, Dischon Thomas and James Moors — a group that produced multiple NBA players. Nobody in Fort Collins is saying the same thing out loud. Everybody is thinking it.
All of it lands in the new Pac-12, and that context matters. The rebuilt league — Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, San Diego State, Utah State, Fresno State and basketball power Gonzaga — gives Colorado State exactly what the program has always craved: a bigger stage, better television, and rivalries that feel ancient even when they’re new. The Rams have spent years proving they could hang with anyone in the Mountain West’s gauntlet; now the measuring stick is Gonzaga’s machine and a conference where every road trip is a test. The move is a bet that Fort Collins belongs in that room. The early returns say it does.
The history supports the ambition. The program’s deepest March run remains the 1969 Elite Eight. The Tim Miles era brought the 2012 breakthrough, Larry Eustachy’s 2013 team danced, and Medved turned the Rams into a perennial contender. Moby Arena, the beloved 8,083-seat building, remains the great equalizer — the ‘Moby Madness’ student section, the thin mountain air, the noise bouncing off a low ceiling. It is one of the hardest road trips in the sport, and it will be again this winter.
The Border War with Wyoming still defines the calendar emotionally, and the Colorado rivalry still defines it geographically. But the mission has expanded. Colorado State is no longer the plucky Mountain West overachiever hoping for a bid — it’s a program with first-round NBA draft picks on the wall, a March Madness legend on the bench, a fortress at altitude, and a new league to conquer. The 2025 loss to Maryland is the wound. The 2026–27 season is the answer.