Remember the four-day span from August 19 through August 23?

Those four days marked the lifespan of the pewter family Cy-Hawk football trophy that was revealed by the Iowa Corn Growers Association and both the University of Iowa and Iowa State at the Iowa State Fair.

Remember? Okay, erase it from your memory. It’s time to move on.

Iowa Corn CEO Craig Floss said on the 23rd at a press conference announcing the dismissal of the pewter family trophy that they hoped the new trophy could be “the people’s trophy” and would allow fans the opportunity to submit ideas via www.cyhawkseries.com. Fans now have the opportunity to submit ideas for the trophy that will be used in 2012 and (hopefully) beyond.

With ideas surfacing via social media, the sports editorial board has decided to give our own spin on an already mentioned idea that we plan to send to Iowa Corn in hopes that it will be selected as one of the trophy ideas that will be voted on by fans after September 30.

Our idea: The Cy-Hawk Title Belt

You might ask yourself, why a belt? Isn’t it supposed to be a trophy?

You just answered your own question. No other college rivalry plays for a title belt. Purdue and Indiana play for a bucket, Wisconsin and Minnesota battle for an axe and Notre Dame and USC square off for a bedazzled stick known as the jeweled shillelagh. A unique reward for the winning team will help generate not just statewide interest but nationwide buzz for the rivalry.

Also, the geographical region that Iowa is smack dab in the center of is known as none other than the Corn Belt. Clearly from the kneeling father of the pewter family (shoot, erase it from your memory again…) Iowa Corn wants to involve the state’s top crop into the trophy design and seriously, what better way than a play on words?

Although the belt will be awarded to the winner of a football game, it also fits the state’s signature high school and collegiate sport. Wrestling.

With 31 national titles between the two universities and two of the most recognizable figures in the sport in Dan Gable and Cael Sanderson as former grapplers and coaches, the sport of freestyle wrestling has deep roots in the state of Iowa. Of course NCAA wrestling national champions aren’t awarded belts but who doesn’t love the flying off the top rope, steel chair to the face, crashing through a table non-stop action of professional wrestling.

Gimme a hell yeah!

ISU running back Jeff Woody described the rivalry perfectly on Monday.

“You come out of that game sore as all get out, Iowa hits you and we’re going to hit them back,” Woody said. “It’s black and blue, blue collar, it’s a down and dirty game.”

Tell me that doesn’t sound like a WWE wrestler describing an upcoming no-disqualification title match.

We give all the credit to whoever created the original design(s) on the Corn Belt championship Facebook fan page but we have some of our own tweaks that we think would make the belt the best prize for the winner of the annual Cy-Hawk football game.

The middle of the belt will be a gold-plated state of Iowa with the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk series logo in the center; this logo will be able to spin around similar to the car rim known as a spinner. Below the spinning state will be a placard that will be engraved with the name of the team that is the most recent winner of the game. To display the history of the rivalry, both universities will have to bring back their old mascots with the marching Cy and fist-pumping Herky to adorn either side of the center of the belt. On the portion of the belt that wraps around the waist, each school’s logo along with the years that the team has won will wrap around the waist in gold lettering.

One state. One rivalry. One belt.

And that’s the bottom line. Because the sports editorial board said so.