Photo: Stew Milne/ AP

Central Florida defeated UConn, 24-16, Saturday in the fourth installment of the greatest artificial college football rivalry ever: The Civil Conflict. My mistake—it’s actually the Civil ConFLiCT.


UConn head coach Bob Diaco, possibly looking to motivate his program, manufactured the importance behind the game before the Huskies’ 2015 season. Diaco even had a trophy made, with the first nameplate dedicated to UConn’s 37-29 victory over UCF in the 2014 season. (UCF had won the first conference game in 2013 by a score of 62-17.) That game was one of the Huskies’ two wins that year.


UConn won 2015's Civil Conflict, 40-13, but yesterday, the Knights snapped their vaunted two-win streak. UCF was clearly not as enthusiastic about the rivalry, because no one even picked up the trophy:


Maybe the Knights’ lack of respect towards the trophy can be turned into a crucial chapter in the history of the Civil Conflict. Probably not, though.