The Bellagio of college football trophies has for 18 years symbolized the LSU-Arkansas series. Now that Missouri has supplanted LSU as Arkansas' season finale, though, what will be the central image of this rivalry? We don’t yet know what the “Battle Line” to which the UA has cryptically referred will be, but don’t be surprised to see a trophy emerge here. Will it, like the Golden Boot, be clad in the glory of a thousand suns?
Probably not.
But there are some interesting ideas out there. It's hard not to appreciate the wordplay of the phrase “ARMOgedden,” a message board favorite, but what seems to be the only graphic representation of it wallows in Alumni Association Tailgating Motif Purgatory.
Former Arkansas quarterback Matt Jones would like to see a kid-friendly trophy emphasizing the mascots. It would represent a giant pot, containing a “Tiger Sooey” witches’ brew that would be stirred by some not-yet-defined creature’s hand, he says. Perhaps sticking out from the pot would be a tiger paw, or hog’s leg. Perhaps a witch looking like a hog-tiger hybrid stirs it. Suffice to say, Jones' idea hasn’t exactly congealed.
David Bazzel has also had a crack at it. His idea is one Carmen Sandiego would love. The logo he designed features the line of latitude which serves as much of Arkansas’ northern border. Nationally, the parallel 36°30′ north is best known for marking the Missouri Compromise, which in the early 1800s divided prospective free and slave states west of the Mississippi River:
For a few years controversy extending all the way to Washington D.C. entangled the Missouri-Arkansas area near the Mississippi River. Arkansas’ weird, jagged northeastern corner resulted. “I think anything’s cool if you have a historical context" in a logo or trophy, Bazzel says. If his idea had taken, “people would have asked ‘What is 36°30’?’, and that’s where you would have to explain it to them. So it would have included history.”
Bazzel says he offered his concept to some people at IMG College, a major collegiate sports marketing company, involved in creating the rivalry logo. He isn’t sure to what extent, if any, his idea was assimilated into the final rendition. “I don’t mind the ‘Battle Line'" concept, he says. “It’s similar to what I was doing.”
When it comes to branding the future of Arkansas and Missouri’s rivalry, the past is in.
LSU, including exclusive insight from Bret Bielema and former Hog QB Matt Jones, at Demirel's blog TheSportsSeer.com. He'll be Tweeting his frozen thumbs off at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday night.