It's getting to be that time of the year. Some of college football's most storied rivals are taking part in one of the sport's grandest traditions -- trophy games. Notre Dame and Southern California play for the Jeweled Shillelagh; Minnesota and Wisconsin play for Paul Bunyan's Axe; Michigan and Minnesota play for the Little Brown Jug; and Purdue and Indiana square off for the Old Oaken Bucket.

Every series has a colorful history and a story behind the trophy.

The Pitt-Cincinnati rivalry has neither, though there is a trophy involved, but this year is different. This year, Saturday's game at Nippert Stadium ostensibly is a Big East championship game. For Cincinnati, at least.

"It's very similar to West Virginia," Pitt senior linebacker Scott McKillop said of the contest, which has given the River City Rivalry trophy to the winner since Cincinnati joined the Big East in 2005. "But the tradition isn't there. [The rivalry is] up there right now, especially with what's going on Saturday."

No. 19 Cincinnati sits atop the Big East standings with a 4-1 record, and No. 20 Pitt is close behind with a 3-1 mark. Both have aspirations of winning the conference championship and the automatic berth into the Bowl Championship Series.

If Cincinnati beats Pitt, all the Bearcats would have to do is beat hapless Syracuse at home the following week to earn their first conference championship. The Panthers control their own destiny as well, although the road is much more difficult. Following Cincinnati, they play West Virginia at home and complete the regular season with a game at Connecticut.

"You dream about this when you're a little kid," Pitt senior safety Eric Thatcher said. "One day you think, 'When I'll go to school, I'll be playing in a big-time game for big-time championship.' And that's what we're doing."

McKillop and Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt admitted that the series between Pitt and Cincinnati needed a game like this one for the seeds of a rivalry to be planted.

"I think that when there's something riding on the line it makes it all the more special," Wannstedt said.

"Anytime you have a rivalry with a team it means a lot," McKillop said. "But going into this game, with it being on ESPN2 and a national television audience, with the BCS and Big East tie-ins, it's a little more special. It's going to be a big night. It's going to be a great atmosphere."

But unlike storied rivalries with storied trophies, this one doesn't fit the bill.

Pitt and Cincinnati, with all of seven games of history between them, play for one of the oddest trophies in college football. It's three feet of glass, metal and wood, and it looks more like a weather instrument than anything resembling a riverboat engine signal.

Three years ago, Pitt and Cincinnati announced that the winner of the annual game between the schools would receive the trophy.

The Big East had just watched Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami bolt to the Atlantic Coast Conference. With Cincinnati coming in as a new member, it was an attempt to manufacture a new "rivalry."

Nevermind that there was almost no history. Before 2005, Pitt had played Cincinnati a total of four times. Entering Saturday's game in Cincinnati, the Bearcats still will be looking for their first victory against the Panthers.

It's next to impossible to create rivalries. Twelve years before Pitt and Cincinnati dreamed up this one, Penn State and Michigan State conjured up one of their own, replete with another clunker of a trophy (the Land Grant Trophy) for the winner to keep.

It was done for the same reason. Penn State had just moved into the Big Ten and was leaving behind its hated rivals, most notably Pitt.

Despite the schools' best efforts to promote a heated competition, fans from Penn State and Michigan State have failed to respond because the games -- until this season -- have meant little.

It has been the same story for Pitt and Cincinnati. Except this year.

The Cincinnati team Pitt will face Saturday is probably the best the Panthers have seen since the Bearcats joined the Big East. They are 8-2 with losses at Oklahoma and Connecticut.

Pitt beat Cincinnati handily in 2005 and '06, but needed a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Bearcats, 24-17, at Heinz Field last year.

"This will be a real challenge, but it will be exciting," Wannstedt said. "Our players will be ready for it. Emotion will not be a problem. The key will be to focus our energy and attention on what will win the game and not on things that will have no bearing on the outcome."