Bring on the Peach Basket
The Border Bash is a stupid name. It sounds like a professional wrestling pay-per-view show or an AAU hoops tournament, not what has been the closest series in the Southeastern Conference during the 21st century.
So it should change. The time has come for the game to be given a more appropriate moniker. Call it the "Peach Battle."
The name is more than fitting. Georgia, as you almost assuredly know, is nicknamed the Peach State. But farms in the state of South Carolina produce more peaches annually than in Georgia. So there's a much better common unifier between the two schools than your run-of-the-mill border. Why not put it to use?
And, if the rivalry is going to get a new name, it also needs a trophy. I have long said the SEC needs to, gulp, take a page out of the Big Ten's playbook and establish traveling trophies for its biggest rivalries. Big Ten rivalries of far less consequence in the grand scheme of things get more national attention because historic trophies like the Little Brown Jug (Michigan-Minnesota), the Old Brass Spittoon (Indiana-Michigan State) and Paul Bunyan's Axe (Wisconsin-Minnesota).
I have several ideas for SEC rivalry trophies which I detailed last fall, but the one I feel absolutely must become reality is the proposal for USC-Georgia I made then and am making again: the Peach Basket.
I think there is some confusion and assumption that there already is a trophy for the USC-Georgia game. I asked one player what he would think about a trophy, and he told me he thought there already was.
There isn't — everyone I checked with said so — but that alone illustrates the need for a trophy in this series. So make the Peach Basket happen. It should be a cast bronze statue of a peach basket, placed upon a wood base. Each fall, that year's winner and score would be engraved into the side.
Getting the trophy is a realistic goal. It took two months for the University of Florida student government to make the concept of the Okefenokee Oar into an actual trophy for the UF-Georgia game. I know, I know, insert your SG joke here. But it can happen if there is enough drive behind the concept.
This rivalry has become one of the best in the region and in the nation. As linebacker DeVonte Holloman said, it is USC's second biggest rivalry next to Clemson. For Georgia, it is probably No. 3 or 4 after Georgia Tech and Florida, depending on where Auburn is in a given season. Both programs are now on almost equal footing, and the division championship race now hinges on the game almost every season. The rivalry deserves greater exposure. These are two ways to accomplish that.