I am nearly certain the Governor's Victory Bell's creation was instigated by U of M grad and then Governor Arne Carlson with his counterpart in Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, sort of going along for the ride. If you think it means little now, in the build up to the first game of the series on 9/4/93, there was very little discussion about the Victory Bell on both the Minnesota and Pennsylvania sides of the coin. You could have completely missed that the Bell was even on the line going into that game, something that is never the case for Floyd, the Axe, and the Jug and somewhat for the $5 Chair for the first couple of years before the original trophy was dumped by the Huskers.
It was a nice gesture and it made sense to commemorate Penn State's entry to the conference after being a national powerhouse as an independent for so long. The execution of the gesture was undermined then and now by geographical separation, the lack of any history between the two teams prior to that first meeting, the irregularity of the teams playing, and the perception that Penn State owns this rivalry and we're the afterthought (they only lead 9-5, but all our wins came consecutively under Mason except the 2013 win). There is no need to retire the trophy, but few would miss it if it was quietly put to rest.