Welcome To The Successories Conference Comment Count

Brian

leadership

aaargh unnecessary comma

When Twitter blew up at noon I figured something inane involving Jim Delany had just happened—this is my default assumption whenever Twitter blows up and has always been right, even when Michael Jackson died—and good lord, inane doesn't even begin to cover it. You know this by now but to remind you that the people in charge of marketing the Big Ten are either very stupid or think you are very stupid, the Big Ten Divisions are called "Legends" and "Leaders."

So. A group of people responsible for turning the Big Ten Network into a spigot of filthy lucre so gushing it can afford to employ Chris Martin is also responsible for making the Big Ten the Successories Conference. They've created division names that signify nothing about the teams inside of them—the only way I can remember that Michigan is in the "Legends" division is that "Leaders" is part of the friggin' fight song and we're not in that division. Their inane names don't just start with the same letter, they start with the same two letters. They are unusable.

And they've done this with 15 minutes in photoshop:

big-ten-logo

Note the use of negative space. Also note how stupid it looks.

By comparison, the new Pac-10 logo would look badass on any soccer shirt in the world:

pac-10

How can the same group of people responsible for creating the BTN be responsible for this? Obviously the visionary bits of the BTN arrangement come from Fox, with Delany and company the lucky nomads who parked their camels in the right bit of desert and now get to call themselves an emirate.

Policy

These division names do not exist. I'm not using them. Michigan is in the West. Ohio State is in the East. Wisconsin has to deal. It is immediately obvious which teams are in the West—the ones mostly in the west. Michigan can be Champions of the West, and no one has to think about how leadership is more about character than authority.

Can we make this a blogosphere-wide insurrection? Please? Everyone just use "East" and "West."

Remember when you'd go in your room and imagine that instead of a broken down tricycle you had a flying unicorn that could take you away from mommy and daddy's screaming? Yeah, this will be like that.

BONUS: someone on the twitters said "I'm pretty sure an ordinary @MGoBlog thread could have produced better logo options," which is true. So do it either in the comments or by email and I'll pull up the best five and we can vote on the Unofficial Big Ten Logo; I hope I can work out a deal with the winner so we can offer it to the conference for free, if only to shame them.

Comments

mmc22

December 13th, 2010 at 7:43 PM ^

God man, I could not stop laughing when I first read your response. I actually thought you call him Merlin as in Merlin the Wizard but then I saw his path and his name is in fact Merlin and he call his Big Ten logo "america4", plus his username is blue dragon.

Thank you both, for making my day.

Mgobowl

December 13th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^

We have 11, soon to be 12 of the best big universities in the country and that's the best they could come up with? What the hell was wrong with the original logo (aside from the hidden 11)?

GreyJello

December 13th, 2010 at 6:16 PM ^

Just remove the negative space 11 (very easy to do) and keep the old one, especially if this is the best they can come up with.

I don't see why they feel compelled to keep negative space in the new logo anyway.  If they aren't going to have a 12 somewhere in the logo, there is absolutely no need for negative space.  The fact that they have it and that it redundantly represents another "ten" is just ridiculous.

Epic logo fail.

Voltron Blue

December 13th, 2010 at 2:44 PM ^

Surprised nobody has mentioned this, but the logo was designed by the firm Pentagram, comprised of one Wisconsin grad and one husband of 30 years of an Ohio State grad.  

Here is an excerpt from their website, linked below:

<blockquote>Founded in 1896, the conference is comprised of schools located mainly in the Midwest and includes world-class academic institutions such as Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Northwestern, and University of Wisconsin–Madison.</blockquote>

http://pentagram.com/en/new/2010/12/new-work-big-ten-conference-1.php

I won't even point out the fail in that statement because I'm sure it is glaringly obvious to all of us here.  So.........a logo spawned from this garbage had no chance to not be garbage.

zlionsfan

December 13th, 2010 at 2:40 PM ^

given that I still call the split in DI football I-A and I-AA, I've no problem with East and West either.

Hell, Atlanta and New Orleans were in the NFC West forever, Dallas is still in the NFC East, and somehow the NFL has survived. I'm sure the Big Ten East and Big Ten West will be just fine.

Supposedly that G is hiding a zero. whatever. It should be hiding an S that stands for Stole, as in "Pentagram stole your money."

Asked if Leaders and Legends was too bland, or not unique to the Big Ten, Delany responded, "All of these things will engender discussion. We want to engage our fans. All I can tell you is that we thought long and hard about what not to do. We thought harder about what to do."

Translation: "uh, what? Bland? Uh, not unique? Oh. Well, uh, we, uh, believe in, uh, the, uh, unique message that the, uh, Big Twelven, uh, messages."

TG7782

December 13th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^

LOL @ Delaney, talk about a man with his finger on the pulse of the average fan.  Yes, we will all discuss the new logo and division names but not constructively, plus as fans of a sporting conference we would much rather spend time discussing this inanity as opposed to say football games and other sport related subjects.

 

He really has us pegged, well done idiot.

RoxyMtnHiM

December 13th, 2010 at 2:45 PM ^

Shitty graphic design and vapid naming, just about exactly what I expected. The BTN is brilliiant (even if production values have a long way to go), nabbing Nebraska was solid, this is a total fucking whiff.

And if Delaney's focus group wants to toss a bone to every program with all the trophy naming, there's just no way the championship trophy can't be the Schembechler-Hayes. How many championships has Paterno won? I don't even know if the ball was pointy when Stagg coached. Bo and Woody defined the de facto Big Ten championship game as far as anybody under about the age of 81 is concerned.

East and West.

jrsemsum

December 13th, 2010 at 2:46 PM ^

What is with this infatuation with light blue/teal?  Yes, we know it is not any color of any Big Ten school, therefore not to offend or play favorites, but c'mon man!  I like the idea of the BT Tournament pinwheel, but I guess that would cost too much to make the t-shirts, etc.

They should have thrown out a feeler or used focus groups... We are research institutions, right?

bryemye

December 13th, 2010 at 2:52 PM ^

1222222  1111111  1222222
1     2     2     1
1     2     2     1
122222      2     1   122
1     2     2     1     2
1     2     2     1     2
1222222  1111111  1222222

1111111  1222222  1     1
   2     1        12    1
   2     1        1 2   1
   2     12222    1  2  1
   2     1        1   2 1
   2     1        1    21
   2     1222222  1     1


I think it's about even in terms of aesthetics and better in terms of symbolism myself.