Remember the Cy-Hawk Trophy? You know, that beloved much-mocked little piece of bric-a-brac that we play Iowa State for in football? It's had a tumultuous year. First it looked like this. Then new sponsors Iowa Corn unveiled their new masterpiece for the trophy. They reversed course after a... spirited reaction from fans and settled on this as a one-year compromise, which was last seen looking like this. (This is why Iowa State can't have nice things anything.)
After the public relations disaster controversy that ensued last fall, Iowa Corn went back to the drawing board for the new Cy-Hawk Trophy, promising to let the fans have input on the choice of the trophy this time. Which brings us to today, and the grand reveal of the three final choices for the Cy-Hawk Trophy:
(click to embiggen; Dochterman's Twitter also has slightly better views here, here, and here)
The three choices are a design with the mascots (Herky and Cy) holding up a giant football, a design with a football coming out of a cornstalk (which may or may not resemble the xenomorph eggs from the Alien franchise), and a design featuring several cornstalks under a football. On the plus side, none of them look like a used design from the Precious Moments collection. On the minus side, they look a bit generic. But hey, after the Corn Family of Saccharine Sadism, maybe generic isn't so bad.
You can vote here for your preferred option. The mascot design is winning right now; of these options, I'm partial to the one that looks like a stalk of corn giving birth to a football. But why not vote in our poll too? (Remember that you'll have to vote at the Iowa Corn website for your vote to count in the official tally.)