[StanFanFam13]

Colorado averages 17 personal fouls per game (down from the 20+ in Payne's early years); Stanford 14.

Side note - posters on the OSU board were complaining how physical the refs allowed us to be.

True, but the averages don't necessarily tell the whole story. In the last two seasons, Colorado has had some of their highest-foul games against Stanford. And in both cases, the delta between the two teams' fouls was significant—so it wasn't just a rough game all around.

Last year, while their fouls per game may have averaged in the teens, Colorado had 21 fouls in their game against Stanford (we had 10). The only higher-fouling games were a matchup against UCLA where they picked up 22 fouls and 25 in a game against USC.

The season before (2017-2018), the senior night slugfest was by far their highest-fouling game at 28 (to our 18 fouls).

The data gets muddier the farther back you go, and I was honestly hard pressed to identify too many larger patterns (but I imagine someone better versed in stats could do better). Wins, losses, blowouts, nail biters, rivalries... all have instances of both high and low numbers of fouls across all types of games, logically leading to a more reasonable average. I suppose two data points against Stanford are insufficient to truly establish any kind of pattern, but I still think it's worth noting that their gameplay against us has fallen on one end of the spectrum. While it seems that Colorado knows how to play nice, it rankles that they have chosen not to do so against us in recent years.

[StanFanFam13]

Colorado averages 17 personal fouls per game (down from the 20+ in Payne's early years); Stanford 14.

Side note - posters on the OSU board were complaining how physical the refs allowed us to be.

True, but the averages don't necessarily tell the whole story. In the last two seasons, Colorado has had some of their highest-foul games against Stanford. And in both cases, the delta between the two teams' fouls was significant—so it wasn't just a rough game all around.

Last year, while their fouls per game may have averaged in the teens, Colorado had 21 fouls in their game against Stanford (we had 10). The only higher-fouling games were a matchup against UCLA where they picked up 22 fouls and 25 in a game against USC.

The season before (2017-2018), the senior night slugfest was by far their highest-fouling game at 28 (to our 18 fouls).

The data gets muddier the farther back you go, and I was honestly hard pressed to identify too many larger patterns (but I imagine someone better versed in stats could do better). Wins, losses, blowouts, nail biters, rivalries... all have instances of both high and low numbers of fouls across all types of games, logically leading to a more reasonable average. I suppose two data points against Stanford are insufficient to truly establish any kind of pattern, but I still think it's worth noting that their gameplay against us has fallen on one end of the spectrum. While it seems that Colorado knows how to play nice, it rankles that they have chosen not to do so against us in recent years.