For football, lets figure out who are rivals are and will be. And make a trophy game. Paul Bunyon's axe. The keg of nails. The bronze boot. The Stanford Axe. the golden egg. We can do something local, something so silly but its part of our identity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_college_football_rivalry_gamesLets say we have a rivalry with... Rhode Island. make a golden fish... or against Albany, a golden dog collar and chain, for example. Or just do a Governor's Trophy against Albany, or Buffalo.
Or how about this- for the annual SB/UA game, a golden bone:
This is about building an identity- we should start now so that we dont have to ten years from now. These are low cost high reward ideas (at least, i think!).