Fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones are known for making their voices heard once each fall at either Jack Trice or Kinnick Stadium when the football teams for each school square off.

With 18 days until that game kicks off, however, those fans have already raised their voices and those voices were heard.

At a press conference Tuesday, Craig Floss, CEO for Iowa Corn, the new sponsor of the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry series, announced that they along with both universities will heed the cries from fans across the state who disliked a new Cy-Hawk football trophy and will seek fan input on a new trophy scheduled to debut at the 2012 game.

At the press conference, Floss along with University of Iowa associate athletic director Rick Klatt and Iowa State University senior associate athletic director Steve Malchow voiced their thoughts behind the decision to create the new trophy, which was revealed five days ago at the Iowa State Fair and features a four-member Iowa farming family.

“We aspired to do something above a football trophy, we aspired to celebrate Iowans and the characteristics of Iowans and perhaps we missed the mark,” Klatt said.

“Moving forward we are very eager to work with Iowa Corn and the University of Iowa Athletic Department to create something that is more representative of the state’s marquee sports event, the Iowa State-Iowa football game,” Malchow said. “There is a passion for this game and also the trophy and we recognize that.”

Although the trophy received some positive feedback, Floss admitted that the overwhelming response to the trophy from fans was negative. Numerous media outlets throughout the state polled readers, viewers and listeners on their websites and found that roughly 95 percent of voters disliked the trophy. Our own Iowa State Daily poll rendered 169 of 182 votes (93 percent) for the option “The Worst Trophy I’ve Ever Seen.” Floss said that the feedback was a mix of good-natured comments and things that there was “no way” he’d repeat in front of the cameras.

“If there was ever a doubt that there was passion amongst our fans and amongst Iowans for this event I think we have clearly, clearly put it to bed over the weekend,” Floss said.

To remedy the statewide dislike for the trophy, Floss announced that fans will be given the opportunity to vote for a new trophy that will make its debut at the 2012 Iowa-Iowa State football game. The trophy revealed last Friday will not be on the sidelines for this year’s game on Sept. 10, but there will be an interim trophy given to the winner of the game. Discussions on the interim trophy and the concepts that will be proposed for the new trophy have yet to take place.

“If this is the people’s game, it should also then be the people’s trophy and we’re going to let the public decide that,” Floss said. “Based on what we’ve heard, we’re going to develop several concepts with a lot of the input that we have received from all of the feedback and then we’re going to let the fans choose one of those concepts from which we can then develop the trophy from.”

Floss made note of a pair of ideas that were common amongst the feedback that Iowa Corn had received, a trophy portraying the school mascots Herky and Cy or one commemorating stadium namesakes Nile Kinnick and Jack Trice. To get maximum fan involvement, Floss said that it would be ideal to give fans the ability to vote by the Sept. 10, the date of this year’s Iowa-Iowa State game, which will be held at Jack Trice Stadium.