11/05/24
December 13, 2010
Big Ten Conference Reveals New Logo and Honors Football History with Division Names and Trophies: The Big Ten Conference today made several announcements that complete a series of decisions prompted by the upcoming addition of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln as the conference's 12th member school. The conference revealed a new logo to be used for all sports beginning with the 2011-12 academic year and also unveiled names for its two football divisions and a list of names for 18 trophies to honor coaches, teams and student-athletes starting with the 2011 football season. The LEGENDS Division will include Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Northwestern, and the LEADERS Division will include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
Those names are terrible. Half your teams are Legends and the other half are Leaders?
posted by rcade at 02:28 PM on December 13, 2010
Leaders? Purdue is one of the Leaders of the Big 10, and Michigan is not? That name don't make no good sense.
posted by Aardhart at 02:31 PM on December 13, 2010
You guys are just jealous.
posted by NoMich at 02:31 PM on December 13, 2010
I guess it makes more sense for the Gophers to be last in the Legends than it does to have them last in the Leaders.
How does Nebraska get to be in the Legends of the Big Ten in their first year?
East/West was just too complicated?
Could have switched Wisconsin and Iowa...then you'd have the "M&N's" (a W is an upside down M) division and the "P&I's with an O" division. Silly, but it would make more sense.
posted by dviking at 03:08 PM on December 13, 2010
East/West was just too complicated?
I actually watched the presentation, lacking anything better to do. (Big 10 Commissioner) Jim Delany said that they couldn't do directional divisions because they weren't aligned by geography. That much made sense to me. But they also didn't want to name them after people, apparently because that might have bothered the other schools.
As a Minnesota alumnus, I would have had no problem with the Schembechler and Hayes divisions. But these division names are just so...precious.
The only thing more painful than listening to the explanation of the new division names was the explanation of the significance of the new logo. But then, I'm an engineer, so such graphical subtleties are rather lost on me.
posted by TheQatarian at 03:20 PM on December 13, 2010
Big Ten ?
They realize there are 12 schools in the conference now, right ?
posted by tommybiden at 03:35 PM on December 13, 2010
Griese-Brees Quarterback of the Year
That is not easy to say out loud. I do like a nice greasy breeze on a hot summers day, though.
posted by Rock Steady at 03:44 PM on December 13, 2010
Wasn't Vinny Testaverde affectionately known as "the Greasy Breeze" when he was slingin' pigskins at the U?
posted by tahoemoj at 03:45 PM on December 13, 2010
Big Ten ?
They realize there are 12 schools in the conference now, right ?
It's a brand as well as a conference.
posted by NoMich at 03:54 PM on December 13, 2010
The championship game will match the division leaders, not the Leaders Division.
I really hope these names don't make it til August.
In the explanation of the logo, BIG is supposed to look like B 10 (big 10). Yeah, the G is supposed to look like an 0, even though it is no different than any other G.
posted by Aardhart at 04:07 PM on December 13, 2010
I can live with the logo. The division names are horrible. As are the hyphenated names of the trophies. I bet Delany was pulling an all nighter trying to scrape everything together.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:41 PM on December 13, 2010
They realize there are 12 schools in the conference now, right ?
The Big Ten has had 11 teams since 1989.
There's a hilarious bit in that link: "There is considerable doubt, however, about whether Paterno will ever coach a full Big Ten schedule. He has said that he plans to retire when he turns 65, after the 1991 season, and Penn State's integration into the conference is expected to take much longer."
posted by rcade at 05:57 PM on December 13, 2010
Jim Delany said that they couldn't do directional divisions because they weren't aligned by geography
Why does a Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern for the West, and an East comprised of Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State and Penn State not work on a very easy East/West breakdown? Might be slightly heavy on the East given historical football programs, however, including Nebraska it would have been pretty even this year.
posted by dviking at 05:59 PM on December 13, 2010
I was hoping they would find a way to fit a '12' into the negative space like they used to do with the '11'.
posted by bender at 06:02 PM on December 13, 2010
I would guess the product of some PR firm - a very, very bad and undoubtedly overpaid PR firm.
posted by graymatters at 06:18 PM on December 13, 2010
I would guess the product of some PR firm - a very, very bad and undoubtedly overpaid PR firm.
"Pentagram is a distinguished international design consultancy with offices in New York, London, Austin and Berlin."
I think the first clue that the PR firm was going to suck would be that it named itself after a symbol for Satan. Nothing says public relations like associating yourself with devil worship.
posted by Aardhart at 06:26 PM on December 13, 2010
I'm just annoyed have having alliteration in your division names. For same people *raises hand* that makes a clear distinction rather hard to remember.
I mean, hell, upon skimming the notes, the divisions even look close enough with the repeating LE and S. There was a study a little while back about this exact issue, where people's brains tend to just read the beginning and end of a word while filling in the middle subconsciously. I tend to skim/speed read and definitely do this.
posted by jmd82 at 07:33 PM on December 13, 2010
What hit me at once is that Ohio State and Michigan are in different divisions. I would think that means they will not meet in conference play every year, though they could meet in the title game. We all know they're going to play every year. How is this going to work?
When the ACC split like this they made damn sure their money-maker rivalry (UNC-Duke basketball) would get a home-and-home every year. Of course, a Big 10 title game rematch of OSU and UM would be huge, but how do they work the regular season meeting without skewing the rest of the conference?
But, of course, little else matters when millions of TV money are at stake.
posted by gradioc at 07:56 PM on December 13, 2010
What hit me at once is that Ohio State and Michigan are in different divisions. I would think that means they will not meet in conference play every year, though they could meet in the title game. We all know they're going to play every year. How is this going to work?
They will continue to play each other every year as their last game of the season. So there will be the possibility that the championship game could feature a rematch of their game. Granted, Michigan would have to find some semblance of a football coach/defense for this to happen.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 08:43 PM on December 13, 2010
Anything would be better than the divisional names they chose.
Hell, I would have been happy with Church and State.
posted by beaverboard at 09:01 PM on December 13, 2010
Why does a Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern for the West, and an East comprised of Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State and Penn State not work on a very easy East/West breakdown?
Because the division alignments had already been announced some time ago. They just hadn't given names to the divisions yet.
posted by TheQatarian at 09:05 PM on December 13, 2010
They will continue to play each other every year as their last game of the season.
Yea, it'll be like the UGA-Auburn game: Difference divisions in the SEC, but still play yearly.
posted by jmd82 at 10:48 PM on December 13, 2010
Because the division alignments had already been announced some time ago
I realize that, however, Delany said that there was no good directional split...I beg to differ.
posted by dviking at 11:10 PM on December 13, 2010
I realize that, however, Delany said that there was no good directional split...I beg to differ.
I agree. The fact that the divisions chosen don't exactly line up on an East-West bias shouldn't necessarily stand in the way of naming them as such. Hell, the fact that the conference previously had eleven teams and now will have twelve hasn't prevented them from clinging to the name 'Big Ten'.
posted by bender at 09:24 AM on December 14, 2010
Big Ten Could Revisit Division Names.
I've been seeing "Great Lakes" and "Great Plains" floated a lot in random internet discussion, which I kind of like. Geographically, it doesn't fit the divisionsperhaps even less well than "North" and "South" wouldbut it's more descriptive of the area covered by the conference overall.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 01:46 PM on December 17, 2010
May I be the first one to yawn at the new division names? Yes? Thank you.
*yawn*