Troy, South Alabama to announce rivalry

The Student Government Associations from both Troy University and the University of South Alabama are accepting names and trophy ideas for the decades-old rivalry between the two schools.

The title and trophy are expected to be unveiled at a Troy-South Alabama basketball game this upcoming season.

The official decision between the Sun Belt rivals was announced through a tweet from South Alabama’s SGA on Tuesday, June 23.

Maxwell Herman, a junior hospitality management major from Panama City, Florida, and SGA senator at Troy, came up with the idea during the fall 2014 semester.

Herman, who attended Troy’s football game at Georgia, said he was impressed by the presence and involvement of all the clubs and activities that went into the gameday experience on campus. Herman’s idea was to bring that gameday experience back to Troy.

“The SGA resolution that came about was created with the goal of improving our game day experience in mind,” Herman said. “We want something that the students can get behind.”

Herman said the idea was “put on the back burner” for the spring. At the beginning of the summer, he contacted the SGA at South Alabama to help bring the concept to fruition.

“Ravi (Rajendra), South Alabama’s SGA president, has been a tremendous help throughout this process,” Herman said.

South Alabama’s SGA called for suggestions via Twitter as announced in a July article published by The Vanguard, South Alabama’s student newspaper. Suggestions can be submitted directly to the SGA, or via either Troy or USA’s SGA Twitter pages.

Further development will continue when both associations return to session at the start of the fall 2015 semester. Troy’s SGA will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18.