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Pinstripe Bowl: Yep, There's A Petition To Put The Schwartzwalder Trophy On The Line

The WVU faithful aren't pleased that the Schwartzwalder Trophy is off the table. And they are taking action.

By Sean Keeley
Chris McGrath

Somehow we ended up writing a lot about the Schwartzwalder Trophy today. I suppose it makes sense considering the Syracuse Orange are about to play the West Virginia Mountaineers. The trophy is automatically on the line when these two play...or so we thought.

To no one's surprise, a lot of WVU fans are pissed about the fact that Syracuse has seemingly-decided not to put the trophy on the line during the Pinstripe Bowl. And they've formed a petition asking everyone from Nancy Cantor to Doug Marrone to Pinstripe Bowl Executive Director Mark Holtzman and even NCAA President Mark Emmert to reconsider and put the trophy back on the table.

Here's the form letter that people are signing:

Please reconsider you position to withhold the Ben Schwartzwalder Trophy from the winner of 2012 New Era Pinstripe Bowl.

By failing to honor the tradition of the Schwartzwalder Trophy, Syracuse University is impairing the significance of the 2012 Pinstripe Bowl match-up between two longtime rivals. Due to this decision, some Syracuse and West Virginia fans have decided to forgo buying tickets to the bowl game in protest. Fans are upset because this is a tradition that should not be changed. The winner of every football game between Syracuse University and West Virginia University, regardless of whether that game occurs in the regular season or postseason, should be awarded the Ben Schwartzwalder Trophy. If this decision was made to avoid conflicting with the Pinstripe Bowl, then the trophy could easily be transferred separately.

Not honoring this tradition would be a great disservice to the late Mr. Schwartzwalder, who loved and provided so much for Syracuse and West Virginia. Please do the right thing and honor this storied tradition.

Anyone can sign the petition here. Obviously, it's not going to change anything, but I suppose if the amount of signatures got large enough, it would be the kind of message that the powers-that-be would have to recognize.

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