Trophies announced for WCU-ETSU game at Bristol Motor Speedway

A week after Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the mostly highly attended game in college football history, Western Carolina and East Tennessee State are set to play their Southern Conference opener at the NASCAR track Saturday.

It was announced Wednesday that the schools will play for a pair of trophies. One is a replica of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Bristol race trophy with a football at the peak. The other is an actual tire used from August's NASCAR race there and will be painted half ETSU blue and half WCU purple.

This is the first SoCon game for ETSU since 2003 after the program came back into existence last season as an independent.

"Saturday will be a historic event for both ETSU, Western Carolina, the Southern Conference and the region," said ETSU coach Carl Torbush. "It's our first SoCon game in 13 years. There's no better way to renew this rivalry than playing at Bristol Motor Speedway."

Tennessee defeated Virginia Tech 45-24 at the track on Saturday in front of 156,990 fans.