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UCF Knights Defensive Back Brandon Alexander (37) tries to strip the ball from UConn Huskies Quarterback Chandler Whitmer (10) during an American Athletic Conference football game
College football has spawned a number of storied rivalries between teams that truly despise each other, and that does not include one involving UCF and UConn. That didn’t stop the latter from trying to create one along with a trophy to match, which has seemingly ended up in the possession of a retired NFL QB years after it mysteriously disappeared.
Sports rivalries are usually the result of geographic proximity, but they can also form after you develop a history with another team that has a tendency to get your blood boiling whenever you face off.
You can’t just snap your fingers and instantly create one, but that’s essentially what UConn football coach Bob Diaco tried to do while positioning UCF as a fierce adversary after beating them in 2014. George O’Leary, the skipper for the Knights at the time, quickly shut down the notion of a rivalry existing between two teams that were separated by more than 1,200 miles and had played two games against each other at that point.
That didn’t stop Diaco from fully committing to the bit to the point where he commissioned a rivalry trophy celebrating the “Civil ConFLiCT,” which is the name he gave to the one-sided feud (stylized in that manner in honor of the postal abbreviations for Florida and Connecticut).
First day back on campus for #UConnFootball! And just 130 days until the next Civil Conflict with @UCF_Football ! pic.twitter.com/RgOkXiob0T
— UConn Football (@UConnFootball) June 1, 2015
The Huskies retained possession when they got a win in 2015, and while UCF earned the right to take it home after a victory on the road in 2016, Scott Frost (as well as every other person on his team) declined to bring it back to Orlando.
That marked the last time the Civil ConFLiCT trophy was spotted in public, and its whereabouts have been a regular topic of conversation among college football fans in the know as well as multiple outlets that have attempted to track it down while managing to raise more questions than they answer.
However, the mystery may finally be solved.
UCF alum Daunte Culpupper claims he has the Civil ConFLiCT trophy
In 2024, The Athletic conducted an investigation that determined UCF is in possession of a Civil ConFLiCT trophy, which may or may not be a replica of the original (which was reportedly damaged by rain after it went unclaimed by UCF in 2016).
It sits in the office of Eric DeSalvo, who oversees digital marketing for the school’s athletic department, and it was scanned so it could be featured in College Football 27.
However, there is some new evidence that suggests it is not the original one, which may have ended up in the possession of Daunte Culpepper, the former UCF quarterback who spent 11 seasons in the NFL.
Lucy Rohden recently unpacked the Civil ConFLiCT “rivalry” in a video that attracted the attention of Culpepper, who hopped into the comments with a bombshell.
Based on what the retired QB had to say, he’s been in possession of the trophy for an unknown amount of time, as he claimed he acquired it from an unnamed staffer who snagged it and swore him to secrecy after agreeing to hand it over.
Culpepper has not posted any proof to back up that claim, but I will absolutely be updating this article if that ends up being the case.