For some reason, and I suppose it's because I was a child of the 80's and early 90's, all my initial metaphors usually involve professional wrestling. More often than not, Mike Rotunda is involved.
So when we learned that it was official, that the Syracuse Orange would be taking on the West Virginia Mountaineers in the 2012 Pinstripe Bowl on December 29th, I immediately started thinking about The Schwartzwalder Trophy, why Syracuse needed to put it on the line and how I could put it into wrestling terms in my head.
With two trophies (Schwartz & Pinstripe), would this be like one of those matches where the Hardcore Title and the Intercontinental Title were both on the line? That seemed to give the Pinstripe Bowl Trophy way too much credit.
I was stuck, and thankfully, Kevin here stepped up and delivered the perfect analogy:
@nunesmagician failing to put The Schwartz on the line would be like a WWE non-title match where the champ is involved and belt can't change
— Kevin B. Graham (@SUOrange1) December 3, 2012
YAIS! So perfect. A Syracuse-West Virginia game where the Schwartzwalder Trophy wasn't on the line would be like a non-title bout involving a champion. You know going in there's going to be shenanigans and you know going in that the end will be frustrating. Had only the title been on the line, we could have gotten closure. But noooooo...
I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised to see so many Syracuse fans say the Schwartzwalder shouldn't be up for grabs. If it comes out that SU decides not to put the trophy on the table, I'd be shocked and disappointed in my school. Not sure why you wouldn't, too.
But We're Already Playing For The Pinstripe Bowl Trophy
Great. That's wonderful. Good for us.
Of course, there's that little part where no one gives a crap about the Pinstripe Bowl Trophy, but, there you go.
Seriously, who cares about that? You win the bowl game and they hand you the trophy, fine. But you win the bowl game and get handed a rivalry trophy? That's badass. That's worth fighting for. That's the kind of trophy you pose with in the weight room. Not the Pinstripe Bowl Trophy.
Save It For Our Regular Season Rivalry Games
What regular season rivalry games? Our rivalry is over and, as far as I can tell, it's not coming back. We have no reason to schedule West Virginia and they have no reason to schedule us.
West Virginia isn't a recruiting hotbed and we're already playing Virginia and Virginia Tech anyway, so we've got that region covered.
If you save the Schwartzwalder Trophy for the next regular-season game between these two schools, you're going to be waiting a very, very long time.
If The Shoe Were On The Other Foot...
Look, you know how I know the Schwartzwalder Trophy should be on the line? Because if the roles were reversed and WVU had ownership of the trophy and then decided not to put the trophy on the line in this game, we'd call them the biggest cowards on the planet and we'd never let them forget about how they p***ied out.
And I'd say the same about us if we do it.