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| Photo Credit: Hartford Courant |
As most of you that read here know that I absolutely love silly stuff like the Civil Conflict Trophy, which was created by now-former Connecticut coach Bob Diaco in an interesting, but unsuccessful attempt to make someone care about two conference teams that are over a thousand miles apart that are forced to play each other every year (for now anyway) as part of the shifting tectonic plates are known as conference alliances in college football.
Central Florida had no interest in Diaco's idea and after they defeated the Huskies last year, left the trophy on the sideline (in the picture, it is the small object around the 40-yard line) and abandoned it.
Now the question is- where is the trophy?
UCF left it, UConn claims to have searched all over and can't find it, Diaco was fired and when contacted, acted like he was recalling kidney stones and no one has stepped forward with ideas on its current location.
ESPN writes about the situation here and the Hartford Courant has a version here.
Diaco did have a point in trying to create something with the American conference being so spread out and needing some ideas to help fan interest, but this was doomed from day one all things considered.
Here's the classic explanation at the press conference following the UCF win by Diaco on the "rivalry"
Eleven Warriors is my go-to site for Ohio State news and while they didn't break any news this cleaning, they did write this piece on the former home of Buckeye basketball - St.John Arena.
The now-61-year-old arena still hosts the Buckeye volleyball teams, gymnastics teams, and the wrestling team, but hasn't hosted the team since the Schottenstein Center opened in 1998.
Arena's like St.John are so much more "home court friendly" than the latest wave of new arena's and Ohio State (much like Maryland) may have gained in dollars and facilities with the move up, but lost so much in competitive advantage.
This is a few weeks old, but the Milwaukee Bucks used a replica of their 1970's court at the Mecca for a game vs Boston.
I wish more teams would do things like this, but two notes on this- first off, every time I read an article on the Mecca and it mentions the designer Robert Indiana, I cannot help but think of the horrible "The Office" character "Robert California", who almost singlehandedly ruined the show's eighth season.
The other?
The noted expert on everything Kyrie Irving, who insisted that the Bucks were using the original court because "in three steps I could tell the difference in my knees".
I would expect nothing less from a person that believes that the Earth is flat and that men have never walked on the moon.
Most of you know my love for Group of Five (football)/Mid-Major (basketball) sports and you are currently seeing with Houston (AAC) and Boise State (Mountain West) and before joining the Big East Xavier in hoops, but I didn't if I've mentioned being a fan of Wichita State Basketball before I wrote earlier this year about Wichita joining the AAC.
I was asked recently while talking about this with someone (I cannot remember online or in-person) that asked about choosing between Wichita State and Houston.
My answer was easy, Wichita State doesn't play football and I really dislike Houston's scandal-plagued coach (at multiple schools) Kelvin Sampson, so problem solved!
ESPN writes about the Shockers starting the season ranked in the top ten and their move to the AAC from the Missouri Valley.
ESPN finishes this inbox with what I thought was a really interesting article on how college teams take care of their live mascots.
The article covers six different schools, how they take care of the mascot and routines that are dealt with on gameday appearances.
I thought it was interesting and answered some questions that I've had through the years on just this topic.
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