Zak Wood / Colorado Daily

Shannon Umetani donates blood at the Bonfils Blood Center in Boulder on Wednesday afternoon. The 2008 Blood Bowl Championship begins Monday at the UMC.

Zak Wood / Colorado Daily

Shannon Umetani donates blood at the Bonfils Blood Center in Boulder on Wednesday afternoon. The 2008 Blood Bowl Championship begins Monday at the UMC.

After watching the Buffs trample Colorado State on the football field last weekend, how about beating the Rams again?

Next week sound good?

The 2008 Blood Bowl Championship, a blood drive that pits the University of Colorado's student body against their CSU counterparts, begins Monday and runs through Sept. 12.

For the competition -- sponsored by the Boulder Campus Staff Council and the University of Colorado Student Union -- Bonfils Blood Center will be stationed at the University Memorial Center to draw Boulder students' blood.

Lori Jackson, administrator of the Boulder Campus Staff Council, said she "would like to encourage people to come out and give blood."

As the defending 2006 champs, CU students lost the competition last year. CSU students filled a greater majority of appointments, according to Tiffany Burnett, director of business development for Bonfils.

CSU's students already gave blood last week, and, Burnett, said, "The drive did extremely well."

Bonfils representatives even had about 50 people they couldn't accommodate in Fort Collins.

There will be eight beds available on the first day of the CU drive, Burnett said, which can accommodate 121 donors per day. During the subsequent four days, there will be 10 beds, accommodating about 152 donors per day.

"We take one unit of blood," Burnett said. "And that one unit can save up to three lives."

Last year, CU filled 603 units of blood. That roughly translates to saving 1,809 lives.

Burnett said Bonfils needs to collect 4,000 units of blood every single week in order to meet the needs of the community.

"Every two seconds someone in the United States needs a transfusion of donated blood," Burnett said.

If next week doesn't work, Burnett said Bonfils usually is on campus once a month -- every second Tuesday at the CU Engineering Center. There also are dorm drives, and the next one is at Williams Village from 1 to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30.

Jackson and Burnett both agreed on how to make the blood-donation process go smoothly:

"Eat a good meal, and the most important thing is to is drink plenty of fluids before and afterwards," Jackson said.