The life of a college football rivalry trophy is usually a simple, uncomplicated thing; sit around in a case 360 days a year or so, occasionally show up at university-sponsored social gatherings or photo ops, and spend one Saturday a year on the sidelines and/or held aloft in celebration. It's good work if you can get it.

But for the poor Iowa-Iowa State "Cy-Hawk" Trophy, things have gotten much, much more complicated of late. First its old version was scrapped when the series got a new corporate sponsor, leaving it to take on a new version for which the term "abomination" seems somehow inadequate. That version was sent to the dustbin as well, leaving the trophy in an "interim" version which ... well, look closely, and you can see what befell that version here:



Thankfully for the Cy-Hawk Trophy, things are finally looking up, as its Iowa Corn sponsor has released the designs and opened the voting for fans of the Cyclones and Hawkeyes to choose its newest edition. The three options are as follows:







We like the first one, since the third seems on the bland side and the second -- though on the right, Potato Bowl logo-esque track with the corn-football marriage -- makes the football appear to be some kind of alien tentacle-beast. The only issue with the first is that it would require both Iowa and Iowa State to refrain from redesigning their mascots anytime soon.

But as the adventures of the Cy-Hawk Trophy over the past year have illustrated, surely Cy and Herky won't be getting any botched, neverending makeovers anytime soon, right? Right?

HT: Kegs n' Eggs.