We Are Just One Week Away From the Return of College Football’s Hottest Rivalry, the Civil Conflict

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Ohhhhhhhh, man…..can you feel it, folks? We’re now just a week away from the big season-opening Thursday night slate of college football games. And, what a doozy it is. At 6PM CST, on ESPN U, we get #21 UCF visiting UConn. Yes, indeed – the Civil Conflict is renewed. And, this year, it’s practically a fake National Championship game.

People talk about Alabama-Auburn, Ohio State-Michigan, and UCLA-USC as some of the most heated, personal, and intense rivalries in all of sports. But, don’t overlook the hatefest that is UCF-UConn.

Maybe we should revisit how this whole thing got started. According to me, two years ago:

With such tight quarters in the American Conference, it was only a matter of time before the pot boiled over between natural geographic rivals, UConn and UCF. Like many of college football’s storied rivalries, the duels between the Knights of the University of Central Florida and the storied Huskies of the University of Connecticut date all the way back to long, long ago. 2013 to be exact. In the grand lore of college football, there’s the Golden Boot, Paul Bunyan’s Axe, the Old Brass Spittoon, the Jeweled Shillelagh, and of course, the ConFLiCT Trophy.

Yeah, all of that – or, UConn is simply desperate to create some sort of buzz around the football program, and hey – they beat UCF during its 0-12 season, so maybe this was one they could win pretty regularly?

Sherman writes, “some history here: Back in 2014, UConn beat UCF in a shocker — it was UConn’s only win against an FBS team, and UCF’s only loss to a conference opponent — and UConn coach Bob Diaco used the postgame press conference to recommend a rivalry trophy:

“We’re excited about this North/South battle. You want to call it the Civil Conflict? Maybe I’ll win my money and make a trophy. I’ll buy it myself. Put a big giant Husky and a big giant Knight on it. Make a stand. Put it in our hallway. The Civil Conflict. The loser, maybe they’ve got to put nutmeg on the stand when it’s not there and we’ll put a sack of oranges.”

Diaco pointed out that he had played or coached in several beloved trophy games, like the Floyd of Rosedale between Minnesota and Iowa and the Keg of Nails between Cincinnati and Louisville.

Boom, and just like that, a rivalry was born. A rivalry that transcends all of college football. This is North vs. South. This is Yankees vs. Rebs. It’s fucking Orlando, FL vs. Storrs, CT. Two cities that obviously go way back. The rivalry is so personal and intense that UCF didn’t even bring the Civil ConFLiCT Trophy back with them after the 2016 game. The disrespect!

I can’t wait to see the latest installment of this brutal rivalry next week. What’s next? This is like Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano – how can they possibly ramp up the drama and violence?

But, hey – I’ll tell you what, in all seriousness, it’s pretty hypocritical of UCF to talk shit to UConn for making stuff up when they ran around proclaiming themselves National Champions a season ago. Maybe think about that before you shun the Huskies and their BEAUTIFUL Civil ConFLiCT Trophy this year, Golden Knights. That’s what I’m really here to point out – eeeeeeeeveryone, including UCF, jumped on UConn’s ass for this mess, and look what happened. A couple of years later, and now UCF is making shit up.

This really is like a fake National Championship between two primo fakers. To quote Bart Scott….”CAN’T. WAIT.”

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley

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