The Governor's Cup is a trophy awarded to the victor of the annual
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
game between the
University of Kentucky and the
University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky; it is also used as a reference to the rivalry itself.
History
Though the teams first played in 1912,
they only played six times until the rivalry was suspended after the 1924 season and wasn’t renewed for another 70 years. The rivalry resumed in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
with a new Governor's Cup trophy which has been awarded every year since.
Kentucky leads the series 19–15.
From 1994 to 2006, the game was played on the opening weekend of the college football season. In 2007, the game was moved to the third game of the season when played in Lexington but remained the first game when played in Louisville. Starting in 2014, which marked Louisville's inaugural season in the
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
, the Governor's Cup became the last game of the regular season for both teams on Thanksgiving weekend, which coincided with several other ACC-SEC same-state rivalries.
Because the
Southeastern Conference, of which Kentucky is a member, decided to play a conference-only schedule for 2020
in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the Governor's Cup game was canceled. The rivalry will continue until at least the 2030 season with Kentucky hosting in even years and Louisville hosting in odd years.
Game results
Howard Schnellenberger Award
The 2010 game was the inaugural year for the award. The award is given to the Most Valuable Player on the winning team by the Louisville Sports Commission. It is named for
Howard Schnellenberger, who played under
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of ...
for Kentucky and was Louisville's head coach when the modern football rivalry began in 1994.
See also
*
List of NCAA college football rivalry games
*
Kentucky–Louisville rivalry
References
{{Southeastern Conference football rivalry navbox
College football rivalries in the United States
College football rivalry trophies in the United States
Kentucky Wildcats football
Louisville Cardinals football
1912 establishments in Kentucky