Penn State-Michigan State Land Grant Trophy: Terribly Wondrous

Due to federal law that states that all decent Big Ten games must include a rivalry trophy, Michigan State and Penn State continue to play for a random pile of waste called the Land Grant Trophy.

There is no reason for these schools to have a kind of rivalry.

And even:

Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports

If you prefer the vaguely created LASERS image on the Internet, here is the following:

The Land Grant Trophy was established in 1993, when schools started a series of finals of the play season against each other each year until 2010.

Here is Penn State's explanation on the existence of the trophy:

The Land Grant Trophy honors the unique history of Penn State and Michigan State as two pioneering land concession institutions in the United States.

Each school was founded in 1855, the state of Michigan on February 12 and the state of Penn on February 22. The schools were the prototypes from which the land concession system was structured.

Each institution has brought new dimensions of service to American education.

Almost all Big Ten is a land grant. It's not a unique thing.

Most Giant State Schools are land grant schools, and most of them are shortly after the Penn and Michigan states. They were not inspired by the creation of a new type of American college. Congress decided that it would be good to give federal lands to states so that they could create large colleges. Whatever ideas other states have drawn from PSU and MSU, it seems likely that they have understood the situation.

I'm just trying not to imagine a more boring way of qualifying a football trophy than becoming proud of the regulatory status your school received in the mid-19th century.

There is also the question of the trophy that looks stupid.

You can build your own with items that are found at home.

It contains images of schools, other objects that may be less ugly trophies and looks like a shelf.

Look like it's heavy and heavy. None of you need it. It's perfect.

Spartans and Nittany Lions are "rivals" in the most symbolic sense of the word.

In fact, to get from State College to East Lansing, you have to drive a few hours to the west. in Pennsylvania before crossing all of Ohio, then venturing into the north once you're actually in Michigan.

According to the criteria of the conference, they do not end up in many face-to-face recruitment battles. They played only 31 games in their head-to-head, with two-thirds fighting over the years they were in the Big Ten together. The series is 16-15-1 for MSU.

"I like the idea of ​​a trophy game, but I hate the land grant," said Budd Thalman, former Penn State's assistant sports director. "I can not imagine wanting to win that."

"We are very proud to keep the Land Grant Trophy, the most beautiful trophy of all college football matches," said Penn State head coach James Franklin before the 2017 game. makes it so beautiful, it's how unorthodox it is. "

Uh huh