One of Best Rewards Reserved For Winner of Pittsburgh-Navy Military Bowl

When Pittsburgh visits Navy on Monday in the Military Bowl, it could be the only time the winner gets two trophies, and one them will be celebrating the way college football should be and not how it currently is constituted.

One trophy, of course, will be the Military Bowl Trophy (Monday, 2:30, ESPN), but the more important one is the Lambert Trophy that has gone to the best team in the traditional East since 1936. Since Navy was No. 1 and Pitt was No. 2 in the last poll released in mid-November, the winner will get this trophy. The leader in the September and October polls, Temple, was ranked No. 3 in the November poll and lost its bowl game.

The Lambert Trophy comes from a different time when there were no conferences, but football was played at a high level in the East. Joe Paterno of Penn State was the coach with the most trophies (28). The Nittany Lions added another trophy with Bill O’Brien in 2013. Pitt has won it six times and Navy four. Had Temple not lost three of its last four games, it would have surely won its first Lambert Trophy ever this year.

The Lambert Trophy is a reminder of how a regional conference of the large, mostly public, institutions makes a lot more sense than having Eastern teams like West Virginia (Big 12), Syracuse,  Pitt and Boston College (ACC), Navy and Temple (AAC) scattered all over the map.

How great would it be for a conference of the top-seven teams in the latest poll? Those were, in order, Navy, Pitt, Temple, West Virginia, Penn State, Connecticut and Virginia Tech. Throw in Boston College, Maryland, Syracuse and Rutgers, and that conference just makes too much sense. Those schools would save millions on travel and add millions of visiting fans in ticket revenue due to short driving distances.

That’s why it will never happen, but the Lambert Trophy people should be applauded for keeping a neat tradition alive.

Mike Gibson is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.