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

Little Brown J…

December 13th, 2010 at 2:55 PM ^

I think the best logo would have been using the current Big Ten logo (with the 11 between the T) but instead of "11" make the roman numerals "II" between the T.  Therefore, you have the big TEN included, plus the II for the 2 additional teams, in which you get 12. 

Yostal

December 13th, 2010 at 2:59 PM ^

You all do realize that Delany is going to make all 12 teams paint that logo on their football field next season.  Ohio State and Michigan had managed to hold fast against that tide, but you know it's coming.

badjuju81

December 13th, 2010 at 3:05 PM ^

Logo sucks; CCHA logo is way better.  Choosing colors that are NOT used by any of the schools is a must, so that doesn't leave much to choose from.  However, they could have used two distinct colors and named each division after one of them.  Not that this is the greatest idea, but off the top of my head they could have used teal and wheat, which can represent the water of the great lakes and midwestern agriculture.  That's kind of what the PAC 10 did with the stylized wave/mountain motif...it speaks to the geographic region.

However, the award names are actually criminal.  There are NO trophies named after the winningest and most innovative coach of all time, Yost.  Championship trophy should be Yost-Stagg, as that was the big rivalry back at the beginning of the conference.  Paterno's name should be nowhere...how many BIG 10 championships did he win compared to so many others?  A travesty, I tell you.

 

jmblue

December 13th, 2010 at 3:05 PM ^

I don't really care about the logo (who buys conference-logo merchandise?), but "Leaders" and "Legends"?  Ugh.  Those names will be mocked forever, and rightly so.  They won't last. 

Seth

December 13th, 2010 at 3:07 PM ^

Kind of a play off of the "black and blue" division title the region gets for the NFL. It's film noir styling - black and blue for the shades and blue lenses they use, and striped like the "through the blinds" lighting effects of the genre.

The Dakotas leave room for a championship logo or a year or whatever you want to add to the logo.

Click for larger size.

Michigasling

December 13th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^

My computer doesn't show the image, just a blank square with one of those pesky red x's in a box in the top lefthand corner.  When I click it, I get "URL not found."

EDIT:  Whoever negged me must have fixed the problem.  When I came back Misopogon's design was there in all its beauty.  Excellent.

UMich Fish

December 13th, 2010 at 3:10 PM ^

...that one of the most entertaining threads i have read on this great blog had to be about this horrific new logo and divisions setup (i always enjoy reading the blog, but this one is above and beyond in terms of entertainment value in the face of B1G FAIL).  hilarious responses though, keep them coming, i have work to avoid and haven't laughed this much at a thread in ages!

Clarence Beeks

December 13th, 2010 at 3:11 PM ^

My conspiracy theory side is now working at full speed.  Considering that they added the "1", but not the "2", and given the odd shape of the "G", is it possible that they just punted on this logo based upon a (to them) foregone conclusion that we're going to 16 teams in the very near future?  If so, that would make much more sense considering the use of the "1" without the "2" and the fact that the "G" isn't real far off from a "6".

mjw

December 13th, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^

Said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, "We think the new logo is fun and has something for everyone."

http://www.nesn.com/2010/12/new-big-ten-logo-looks-like-it-took-25-seco… (with some comments from the "designers")

"something for everyone" is the death knell for any venture, as it results in "nothing for no one." 

This mentality does help to explain why the division names sound like the group names used at camps I went to as a pre-teen.