Over the next decade, the water tower and statue of Henry Hardin Cherry remained targets of Murray State students any time the schools met in both football and basketball.

In another incident, the phrase "Murray OVC Champs" was painted on an overpass near the Western Kentucky campus.

After the meeting, Edwards asked for the return of his belt, but Simmons responded that WKU would have to battle Murray State in football to get it back.

The annual meetings between the two teams ended in 2000, but the Battle for the Red Belt is still played on in intermittent basis.

The last game was played in 2008 when a record crowd of 22,297 in Bowling Green watched the Hilltoppers beat the Racers 50–9 and maintain possession of the Red Belt.

WKU was a football-only member of the OVC, and the university was not willing to move its other athletic programs back to the conference.

Following the announcement, the head football coaches from both programs expressed the strong desire to keep the rivalry game on the schedule as an annual non-conference event.