Off Tackle Empire, for Big Ten coverage

You can see more shots here. The trophy is nice. Unlike the Cy-Hawk debacle earlier this year, it's obviously a football trophy. It's obvious the two teams involved. And, importantly, the game sponsor, (local grocery chain Hy-Vee) is not mentioned on the actual trophy. That's good for continuity. It's not Floyd of Rosedale, but it's not the Land-Grant Trophy either. It'll work.

This morning, Iowa and Nebraska announced that their annual game will be a trophy game, and will heretofore be known as "The Heroes Game." OK, the name initially struck me as dumb. However, what they're doing with it is pretty cool. The institutions plan to honor one citizen of Iowa and one citizen of Nebraska prior to each Heroes Game for their extraordinary act. These heroes will be nominated by friends, neighbors or co-workers and will be guests of the two teams at the game where they will be honored on-field during game day. Each will also have their name and hometown etched on the to-be-created Heroes Game trophy. "We believe that the people of Iowa and the people of Nebraska are very much alike in many ways. Both believe in an honest day's work, the importance of community and family, and both love college football and their football heroes. We also know there are citizens of our states doing exceptional things every day and we think they are deserving of some recognition and we look forward to using this game to do that," said Tom Osborne, director of athletics at the University of Nebraska.