BG and UT Retire Peace Pipe, Institute Battle of I-75

Today, BG and UT announced they were getting rid of the Peace Pipe trophy and will replace it with a Battle of I-75 trophy as designed by Jeff Artz (He is a designer at BGSU who designed the Biletnikoff Trophy).

They said there were a couple of concerns:  first, that the battle is increasingly known as the Battle of I-75, and second that it seemed to run softly afoul of the NCAA's efforts to cut down on Native American imagery.  The press release has complimentary words from a Native American leader.

Both are good reasons.  The other one is that the trophy was lame---it looked dumb and nobody EVER went around shouting "We won the peace pipe!"

In my opinion, this desire to create "trophy" games has gotten way out of hand.  The Little Brown Jug, for example, arose naturally, so I like it.  But when a committee of people sits around and says "we have to have a trophy to make this look important," then you end up with a Peace Pipe.  Certainly, this isn't the only game where this has happened.

I'm sure the trophy will be nice.  I just don't think it is necessary and I think it amounts to begging for respectability.