Big East championship ring shines

One saying that has flashed across the video board here at the University of Cincinnati in the past is, “It’s all about rings and rivalries.” Today, it’s all about the rings, one ring in particular.

In case you’ve been hibernating or just plain not paying attention to me, you would know that as a member of the student video staff at UC, I traveled to each and every game in the past two seasons, including this season’s historic run at the school’s first ever Big East title. So, naturally, I get to share in all the excitement, and I get all the perks.

Perks like a big shiny ring.

Before I go on posting photo after photo of this thing, I’ll give you some statistics. My ring is only size 9, but it looks “ginormous”—to steal a made up word—on my skinny fingers. On the top, the diamonds (not exactly sure whether they’re real or not, but if it makes you feel better, we’ll say they are) form the shape of the Big East championship trophy, with the “C paw” logo in the middle.

The ring on my skinny fingers looks even bigger

On the top of the ring there are nearly 60 “rocks.” Quite the display of “bling,” would you agree? Also, you can read down the left the words, “Big East,” separated by a lone stone and the right the word, “Champions.”

The face of the Big East Championship ring features almost 60 shiny diamonds

If you roll the ring over, each side is emblazoned with all kinds of information. As my uncle Rick told me last week, “You need a book to explain all the stuff on that thing.” His nephew plays for North Carolina State, who has yet to garner any jewelry (to my knowledge). But, I am rooting for them.

On the “left” side of the ring (under the words Big East as viewed from the top) the catchphrase “Next Man In” is shown. “Next Man In” is the theory that our head coach Brian Kelly uses. This past season we used four different quarterbacks (technically five, Demetrius Jones played for one snap at Louisville) to win 11 games, and his theory is that the “Next Man In” must be ready to compete if the player in front of him goes down. Under the phrase is the year 2008, which is separated in the middle by a row of six small stones.

“Why,” might you ask? I have no idea. Also, below the year and the saying up top, are the three rivalry trophies. We won all three rivalry trophies for the first time ever. From left to right they are the “Keg of Nails” for defeating Louisville, the “Victory Bell” for defeating Miami of Ohio, and the “River City Rivalry” trophy for beating ‘rival’ Pittsburgh.

The first time I heard the phrase "Next Man In" was when I was the proverbial next man in two seasons ago

Flip the ring over to the other side (so we under the word “Champions” as viewed from the top) and you get another small glimpse into the season that was. On top is my name, which is underscored by yet another row of small diamonds—for what reasons, I’m still not sure, but someone thought it looked cool I guess—and my position, shortened to VID. Players had their number and position put in this spot.

Contrary to the photo, the ring is still silver in color

Under all that is the Orange Bowl logo. We went to the 75^th Anniversary of the Orange Bowl this season, and we celebrate that—even in defeat—with the logo on the side of the ring. The Orange Bowl logo is flanked by the information that we finished 17^th in the final Associated Press poll (on the left) and our record on the right, 11-3.

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Well, that’s all for today. Tomorrow I’ll pop back in before the media conference for the truck race at Kentucky in a few weeks for the first installment of the Brickyard 400 countdown on the first day of July. It’s about that time for us to fire up the Kenny Chesney hit, “Summertime,” and all that means is it’s about time to start the countdown.

*My apologies for the unclear photos. It took me fifteen minutes to get the ones you see above. Something with these rings makes it tough to take photos of them--with and without the flash.