As conference affiliations change, the rivalry between the Cougars and Owls has a special place.
UH won the Bayou Bucket from Rice in 2018. The schools are trying to keep game on calendar beyond 2023.Rice coach Mike BloomgrenAt the front of a dais Wednesday, the Bayou Bucket served as the guest of honor.
A brass bucket mounted on a wooden ornate base and standing about 3 feet tall, the Bayou Bucket goes to the winner of theIt was purchased in the early 1970s for $179.20 and has dents. It's been dropped more times than organizers can count. And it's been called"ugly," even after undergoing a makeover a few years ago. There are other, more unique rivalry trophies in college football: Indiana and Michigan State play for the Old Brass Spittoon. Ole Miss and Mississippi State square off for a golden egg. SMU and TCU have the Iron Skillet. The Minnesota-Wisconsin winner gets Paul Bunyan’s Axe. To the victor of Iowa-Minnesota goes the Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig. But nowhere among the top tier of college football is there a closer rivalry than the one between the Owls and Cougars. “Proximity is what’s so cool about it,” Bloomgren said. “I’ve seen different things. Is it 4.2 or 4.8 miles between the two campuses?”“That makes it really cool,” Bloomgren added. As UH and Rice prepare to make transitions to new conferences next year, the future of the Bayou Bucket remains in doubt. Not to worry, though. Sources on both sides said both schools want to continue the rivalry game beyond 2023, presently the only remaining game left on the current contract. Chris Pezman, UH’s vice president for athletics, told a small gathering for the Bayou Bucket luncheon that “some details need to be worked out” but that the close proximity between the schools “makes too much sense” not to play on an annual basis.As some conferences prepare to expand from coast to coast — the Big Ten will have schools that stretch from Southern California to Piscataway, N.J., and the Big 12 is exploring expansion that would cover all four time zones —UH and Rice officials stressed the importance of a regional-friendly schedule. UH’s move to the Big 12 will replace Tulsa, Tulane and Memphis with Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and, for now, Texas. The revamped AAC will feature Rice, SMU, UTSA and North Texas. “It makes sense to our fan base. We’ve been wanting that for a long time,” UH coach Dana Holgorsen said of in-state matchups that could draw significant interest. “That’s why this game is important: because it makes sense to both fan bases and makes sense to the city of Houston.” Bloomgren has been a part of several big rivalries, most recently Stanford-Cal, and said the Bayou Bucket has grown in importance since he arrived five years ago on South Main. “ was a big deal to alums, and that’s kind of how this one felt when I first got here,” Bloomgren said. “It felt like it was a bigger deal to alums than it was to the team. Now I think we’re in a place that our kids are so anxious for this game, and it always should be that way when you have a close proximity game. So many of these guys played together, played against each other, in high school, and the coaching staffs cross paths just about everywhere.” Holgorsen said a game between UH and Rice would be the ideal candidate for a Week 0 game to kick off the season. “What else is everybody doing in Houston the last weekend of August?” Holgorsen said. “This would be a great game to open the season.” He added: “Hope it’s here for a long, long time. I fully support it. It should happen every year.” Entering Saturday, UH has lost consecutive games to Texas Tech and Kansas. Since a loss to USC in the opener, Rice has beaten McNeese and snapped Louisiana’s nation-best 15-game winning streak.
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