Floyd of Rosedale, the Jeweled Shillelagh, the Iron Skillet, and the Golden Hat are not just assorted pieces of hardware distributed after a hard fought college football game. In fact, they are a part of tradition. Ranging from a bet offering a live animal between the governors of two neighboring states to an exchange between two student body presidents, rivalry trophies and their stories make college football special in its own right. Rivalry trophies draw in fan interest, entice recruits to come to a respective institution and escalate the quality of play between the two football squads playing for that piece of hardware.

The Wagon Wheel, played for by the football teams of West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico, is a great series. Even though the Buffaloes have dominated the series since 2004, the Greyhounds put up a fight and obtained the trophy in Sat. night’s battle in Canyon. Basically, ENMU will put up a fight whether the two squads battle at Kimbrough or at Blackwater Draw.

With the absence of Abilene Christian, Midwestern State has stepped up in terms of becoming WT’s chief rival as of late. It is to the point where the two institutions have installed the Highway 287 Challenge Cup that can easily appease a sports fan’s appetite of more rivalries and more trophies to hand out.

But let’s expand on that concept for a moment, shall we? Besides Eastern New Mexico and Midwestern State, who could the Buffaloes regard as a rival to share another traveling trophy with? There are a few options to choose from.

First, there’s Angelo State. A nice yet uneventful four-hour drive leads one to the likes of San Angelo, home of the Angelo State Rams and Rambelles. While WT is part of the Texas A&M University System, Angelo State is part of the Texas Tech University System. Other than facing off with their stellar volleyball and baseball programs, animosity between A&M and Tech in general screams rivalry. There is only one problem with the case for an Angelo State-WT traveling trophy. The trophy would most likely be a trophy that would apply for a football game. Even though the Rams are competitive with the Buffs, with a fine example being the last contest played in Kimbrough, Buffs fans don’t regard the Rams as a consistent threat for an Lone Star Conference title.

Another suggestion would be a trophy with the Warhawks of McMurry University. A newcomer to Division II and the newest addition to the football lineup of the LSC, McMurry has a winning history and has a close proximity (a short, four-hour road trip) to Canyon. They also have a lot of similarities to former rival Abilene Christian, in terms of being a small, private school with a religious background. Credible evidence for a potential rivalry is the 147 points tallied between the two teams in Abilene a few weeks ago. An idea for a trophy could possibly be taking an old PlayStation or Xbox, spray-painting it gold, and slapping it on a pedestal. We’re pretty sure there is someone who has a spare video game console to donate to such expenditure.

Then, there’s Colorado State University-Pueblo. While the ThunderWolves are not a Lone Star Conference opponent, WT has played them in competitive football games for the past few years (losing two regular season games while defeating CSU-Pueblo at the ThunderBowl in the playoffs last season) with a potential showdown looming between these two national powers in the playoffs. Along with football, CSU-Pueblo and WT squared off in just about every sport during the early part of each sports program’s respective campaign. This is an ideal rivalry, but there lies one problem: the ThunderWolves do not regard WT as a true rival. According to our contacts at CSU-Pueblo’s student newspaper, the Pueblo PULP, the ThunderWolves regard Chadron State, Western State, and Colorado Mesa as their main rivals. Simply put, the athletics departments of both institutions would have to make overtures to schedule each other more often to make a potential rivalry work.

Of course, there are other possibilities. There’s other LSC opponents in Texas A&M-Commerce, Texas A&M-Kingsville, and Tarleton State. Also on the docket could be Oklahoma Panhandle State, which is an independent Division II football program, located two hours northward.