When the Big Ten unveiled its new logo and divisional names (Leaders and Legends) this week, the public reaction was swift, merciless, and mocking. Conference commissioner Jim Delany has certainly gotten an earful and now tells ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg he's willing to reconsider the division names.
Rittenberg reports that Delany told WGN-AM radio in Chicago, "(T)o get a 90 percent non-approval rating was really surprising. It showed that we didn't connect with our fans in a way that we wanted to. It's humbling, to say the least, because we're trying to build fan bases, not push them away."
There won't be an immediate change, Delany said. "Eventually, we're going to have to address the issue of whether or not it's sustainable, but I don't think that's a decision for today. We have to listen and we have to be humble about the reactions we've gotten." About that reaction, Rittenberg writes, "It's important to note that the Big Ten reached out to fans for suggestions, and a lot of folks felt misled when the names came out."
An informal survey of reaction via Twitter and blogs shows that "East" and "West" would suit a lot of folks just fine, with "Plains" and "Lakes" making a strong showing as well. There are potential problems with those names (Wisconsin is west of half the schools in the proposed "West" while Michigan touches four Great Lakes but isn't on the plains) but there may not be a perfect solution to this perfect problem. There has to be a better solution than Leaders and Legends, though. I'm pretty sure Leaders and Legends was the name of my 8th grade history textbook.
December 17 2010 Last updated at 01:21 PM ET
Big Ten May Revisit Division Names
By Mark Hasty
College Football Writer
Read More: Big 10 General CFB Insanity big+ten+division+names, Big+Ten+Divisions, Big+Ten+Divisions+named
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How about Founding Fathers vs. The New Kids on the Block?
How about the Can't Beat The PAC TEN and The Can't Beat The SEC
How about "The Big Ten Has A Winning Percentage All-Time Versus Both Those Conferences, You Idiot" and "Maybe You Should Learn Something About College Football Before You Speak"?
All time ? How about living in this century and let the 1900's go away
You must have missed last years bowl games. I seem to remember that Ohio State beat Oregon and Penn State Beat LSU. MIghty Auburn got past Northwestern when NU went for 2 to win the game instead of a tie. Wisconsin beat Miami. We will see how Auburn fares against basically the same team that the Buckeye beat soundly last year.
Could they revisit that flat and boring logo as well? why not open it up to students in the 12 colleges with the new logo designer and give them scholarship money. At least the last one,Penn State was recognized with the 1 embedded. Maybe they should let the students/fans decide on division names as well. It couldn't have been worse than what was presented initially
How about Lenny & Squiggy for the men's divisions and Laverne & Shirley for the womens?
I just don't understand why they can't divide the conference geographically. In the East would be Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue. In the West it would be Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Have you checked out Nebraska's first year schedule., Wisconsin, Ohio State,Minnesota, Michigan State, Northwestern, Penn State, Michigan and Iowa. I doubt that the still recovering Nebraska program will be a contender very soon. Remember 5 Years of Bill Callahan nearly dismantled the program, he was fired with a losing season, unheard of since before Devaney came to Nebraska in the early 1960s. Discouraged walkon program, good recruiter but not much of a coach. Look at the Jets where he relocated. In the 3 Bo Pelini years, the defense is back in play and this year was the first year with an offense. Still a long way to go. East and West make sense. Big 10 uses some odd rotating schedule, big 12 had two divisions, you played half of the division every other year and the other half the other years. oh well, not the easiest introduction to the Big 10
Amen to the above. Let a student design the logo with a $10,000 scholarship as a prize. (Plus the winner gets a kudo on his/her resume.) The new logo should follow the Olympics by using red, blue, green, black and yellow/gold. One of those colors is representative of every school in the conference.
since there's twelve teams in the conference, how do they decide which two teams aren't big ten? can they change the name of the conference, such as, big ten & two, or big ten (twelve) conference. just something that makes a bit more sense.
A good new conference name-- "The Little Twelve".
How about just calling it the Midwest Conference or the Midwest 12?
Obviously you have no sense of history or you wouldn't even bring that up. The Big Ten will always be, its to big for a change. All other conferences that have changed their names don't even come close to the number of years the Big Ten has been around. So, your thought is a moot one.
Come up with the most stylish "BIG X" font in bold print then frame it with numerals on each side designating the two schools that win their division. Choose a color or symbol for each division & incorporate it somehow into the numeral on each side for distinction & separation...
What about the weak trophy names? Those are pathetic. Dave Remington gets a trophy named after him and he never played a down in the Big Ten? Ted Kwalick gets on as well? The Big Ten has no solid leadership. That is why they are a second rate conference.
?? 3 of the top 10 teams...I guess it's lucky for the other conferences that the Big Ten is second rate.
How about Black and Blue,then we could have the Black and Blue Championship Game. In any case this idea of naming divisions should be an open competition and fans can submit ideas. That would create a lot of interest and just the honor of having your submission selected would be fantastic. Just give the winner a couple of good tickets and be announced at half time of the Championship game.
Both the logo (design and colors) and the division names are unremarkable.
I very much like the idea of having the students come up with names. My own personal leaning is with the most prominent nearby landmarks, the Great Lakes--as in the Great Lakes 12, with, say, the Huron and Erie Divisions. Just a thought--but I still like letting the student body have their say before anything is decided.