As great as the Old Oaken Bucket and the Little Brown Jug are, I've always been disappointed that they are restricted to only two teams each. Therefore, at the same time that I developed the College Football Shame Mask, I thought of a similar trophy for quality football that should be passed around among all teams at the highest level. While I quickly decided where the Shame Mask should start, I did not know exactly what historic event should launch the championship belt should start.
However, Peter Mucha pointed out that it did not matter where it started, but it would eventually end up in the same place. While not exactly historic, I realized he was right, and so at the beginning of the 2007, I decided that I would give every team a trophy that they could keep until they lost a game, at which time they had to give all trophies in their possession to the team that beat them. Eventually, this would lead to just one championship belt holder.
But, it might take a while. I decided to track how these trophies would merge. Given that there are 120 teams in Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA football (This author refuses to acknowledge the NCAA's recent decision to change the official name of this classification to Division I Bowl Subdivision. Also, the 120 includes reclassifying member Western Kentucky.) but each team plays 12 or 13 regular season games, and so it proves difficult for all the trophies to coalesce. This difficulty is further compounded by the fact that most teams play in a conference with between 7 and 12 other teams, and have only 3 or 4 games outside the conference, usually occuring at the beginning of the season. Furthermore, Michigan and Rice lost their initial games to Division I-AA teams, which generally do not play more than one or two Division I-A teams during a season, and so by the end of 2007, Michigan's was still in Division I-A.
However, since winning teams are more likely to have more trophies, the conference championship games and bowl games that winning teams
are likely to play in do provide a way at the end of the season to force some together.
| Original Team | 2007 | ||||||||||||||
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | |
| LSU | LSU | LSU | LSU | Kentucky | Florida | Georgia | Georgia | Georgia (20) | |||||||
| Mississippi State | |||||||||||||||
| Virginia Tech | Virginia Tech | ||||||||||||||
| East Carolina | |||||||||||||||
| South Carolina | South Carolina | South Carolina | |||||||||||||
| Louisiana-Lafayette | |||||||||||||||
| Georgia | Georgia | ||||||||||||||
| Oklahoma State | |||||||||||||||
| Florida Atlantic | Florida Atlantic | Oklahoma State | Troy | ||||||||||||
| MTSU | |||||||||||||||
| UCLA | UCLA | UCLA | Utah | UNLV | Nevada | Fresno State | Boise State | Hawai`i | |||||||
| Standford | |||||||||||||||
| BYU | BYU | ||||||||||||||
| Arizona | |||||||||||||||
| Rice | Nicholls State | Nevada | |||||||||||||
| Wyoming | Wyoming | Boise State | Boise State | ||||||||||||
| Virginia | |||||||||||||||
| North Carolina | North Carolina | East Carolina | Southern Mississippi | ||||||||||||
| Hawai`i | Hawai`i | Hawai`i | |||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech | Louisiana Tech | ||||||||||||||
| Kansas | Kansas | Kansas | Missouri | Oklahoma | West Virginia (12) | ||||||||||
| Central Michigan | |||||||||||||||
| Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Kansas State | |||||||||||
| Akansas State | |||||||||||||||
| TCU | TCU | ||||||||||||||
| Baylor | |||||||||||||||
| Central Florida | Central Florida | ||||||||||||||
| North Carolina State | |||||||||||||||
| Texas Tech | Texas Tech | Texas Tech | Oklahoma State | Texas A&M | Texas Tech | Missouri | |||||||||
| SMU | |||||||||||||||
| UTEP | UTEP | ||||||||||||||
| New Mexico | |||||||||||||||
| The Ohio State | The Ohio State | The Ohio State | The Ohio State | The Ohio State | Illinois | USC (12) | |||||||||
| Akron | Akron | ||||||||||||||
| Army | |||||||||||||||
| Washington | Washington | Washington | |||||||||||||
| Syarcuse | |||||||||||||||
| Boise State | Boise State | ||||||||||||||
| Purdue | Purdue | ||||||||||||||
| Toledo | |||||||||||||||
| California | California | California | Oregon State | USC | |||||||||||
| Tennessee | |||||||||||||||
| Oregon | Oregon | ||||||||||||||
| Houston | |||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Illinois | Iowa | Purdue | Penn State | Michigan State | Boston College (11) | ||||||
| Washington State | |||||||||||||||
| UNLV | UNLV | ||||||||||||||
| Utah State | |||||||||||||||
| Michigan State | Michigan State | Michigan State | Michigan State | ||||||||||||
| UAB | |||||||||||||||
| Bowling Green | Bowling Green | ||||||||||||||
| Minnesota | |||||||||||||||
| Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh | ||||||||||||||
| Eastern Michigan | |||||||||||||||
| Indiana | Indiana | Illinois | |||||||||||||
| Kentucky | Kentucky | Kentucky | Kentucky | Kentucky | South Carolina | South Carolina | Vanderbilt | Florida | Michigan (9) | ||||||
| Kent State | Kent State | ||||||||||||||
| Iowa State | |||||||||||||||
| Louisville | Louisville | ||||||||||||||
| Miami (OH) | Miami (OH) | Minnesota | Florida Atlantic | ||||||||||||
| Ball State | |||||||||||||||
| Tulane | Tulane | Mississippi State | South Carolina | ||||||||||||
| Texas A&M | Texas A&M | Texas A&M | Miami (FL) | North Carolina | |||||||||||
| Fresno State | Fresno State | ||||||||||||||
| South Florida | South Florida | South Florida | South Florida | Rutgers | West Virginia | West Virginia | Pittsburgh (9) | ||||||||
| Auburn | Auburn | ||||||||||||||
| Kansas State | |||||||||||||||
| West Virginia | West Virginia | West Virginia | |||||||||||||
| Western Michigan | |||||||||||||||
| Maryland | Maryland | ||||||||||||||
| Cincinnati | Cincinnati | Cincinnati | Louisville | Connecticut | Cincinnati | ||||||||||
| Oregon State | Oregon State | ||||||||||||||
| Utah | |||||||||||||||
| Rutgers | Rutgers | Rutgers | Maryland | Maryland | Virginia | North Carolina State | Wake Forest (8) | ||||||||
| Buffalo | |||||||||||||||
| Navy | Navy | ||||||||||||||
| Temple | |||||||||||||||
| Clemson | Clemson | Georgia Tech | |||||||||||||
| Florida State | |||||||||||||||
| Connecticut | Connecticut | Virginia | |||||||||||||
| Duke | |||||||||||||||
| Florida | Florida | Florida | Auburn | LSU | LSU | Arkansas | Missouri (7) | ||||||||
| Western Kentucky | |||||||||||||||
| Southern Mississippi | Southern Mississippi | Tennessee | |||||||||||||
| Alabama | Alabama | Alabama | Alabama | Georgia | Tennessee | Alabma | |||||||||
| Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt | ||||||||||||||
| Arkansas | Arkansas | ||||||||||||||
| Troy | |||||||||||||||
| USC | USC | USC | USC | Stanford | TCU | Utah | BYU (7) | ||||||||
| Idaho | |||||||||||||||
| Nebraska | Nebraska | ||||||||||||||
| Nevada | |||||||||||||||
| San Diego State | San Diego State | Washington State | |||||||||||||
| Air Force | Air Force | BYU | BYU | ||||||||||||
| New Mexico State | New Mexico State | New Mexico | |||||||||||||
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Colorado | Kansas State | Oklahoma State | Texas | Texas A&M | Penn State (6) | ||||||
| North Texas | |||||||||||||||
| Miami (FL) | Miami (FL) | ||||||||||||||
| Marshall | |||||||||||||||
| Tulsa | Tulsa | ||||||||||||||
| Louisiana-Monroe | |||||||||||||||
| Boston College | Boston College | Boston College | Florida State | Virginia Tech | Virginia Tech | Kansas (6) | |||||||||
| Wake Forest | |||||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | Georgia Tech | ||||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | |||||||||||||||
| Ohio | Ohio | Virginia Tech | |||||||||||||
| Northwestern | Northwestern | Duke | Navy | Wake Forest | Virginia | ||||||||||
| Arizona State | Arizona State | Arizona State | Oregon | Arizona | Arizona State | Texas (4) | |||||||||
| San Jose State | |||||||||||||||
| Colorado | Colorado | ||||||||||||||
| Colorado State | |||||||||||||||
| Missouri | Missouri | Missouri | Oklahoma | Texas Tech (4) | |||||||||||
| Illinois | |||||||||||||||
| Ole Miss | Ole Miss | ||||||||||||||
| Memphis | |||||||||||||||
| Penn State | Penn State | Michigan | Wisconsin | Tennessee (2) | |||||||||||
| Florida International | |||||||||||||||
| Iowa | Iowa | Iowa State | Toledo | Western Michigan | Akron | Temple | Ohio | Akron | Miami (OH) | Ohio (2) | |||||
| Northern Illinois | |||||||||||||||
| Michigan | Appalachian State | Wofford | Elon | Furman (1) | |||||||||||