B10 to reconsider division names?
"We've had enough experience with names and expansion and development of divisions that we know that you rarely get a 90 percent approval rating," Delany told WGN AM-720. "But to 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." - Delaney
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/21173/big-ten-to-reconsider-division-names
Now, about that logo...
December 17th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^
delaney can be a leader and a legend by ditching both.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^
It takes a real man to admit when he stepped in it. Here is some advice:
A. Either choose divisions names from a pretentious-sounding foreign language.
or
B. Get together a counsil of Native American representatives from the area, and have them agree with two names that would honor each group of regions the best.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:31 AM ^
The logo must be changed - as a "national brand" this new logo has to be ranked up there with prior failures: new coke, new pepsi bottle, new NBC logo (remember the big red and blue N), new Tropicana juice carton look.
The name of the division while lame is something that can be ignored. Does anyone except those who live in this area remember the old Norris division of the NHL or that naming structure? Thanks to Chris Berman of ESPN, more people probably identified the Norris division with Lions-Packers-Bears NFL football than hockey. If we all ignore the division names and refuse to use them they too will go away.
The logo has to change - a contest among the various design/art/communication departments of the member schools would have produced a better look; it would have been good publicity AND it would have been a lot cheaper!
December 17th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^
Or stunk if they are gone. What's wrong with east and west?
December 17th, 2010 at 10:39 AM ^
Coastal (Great lakes coasts, that is) and Plains (corn fields that is) or
Ying and Yang or
Mid and West or
Left and Right or
Bo and Woody or
Big Two and Little 8 or
The possibilities and fun are endless!!!!
December 17th, 2010 at 11:04 AM ^
Haha, I like Left and Right.
Though I think my favorite suggested division names were the Where's Wisconsin and Why's Wisconsin Here divisions.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
laughed at that one. Nice work.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^
Up and Down
Charm and Strange
Top and Bottom
December 17th, 2010 at 12:50 PM ^
Day and Night
Hot and Cold
Good and Plenty
December 17th, 2010 at 9:49 PM ^
Death and Taxes
B and T
I still think EAST and WEST is the best
December 17th, 2010 at 10:35 AM ^
Unfortunately, the division naming is the least offensive part of this whole fiasco.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:54 AM ^
the name of the Stagg-Paterno trophy. Paterno? Come on. Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1990. BFD!
December 17th, 2010 at 4:10 PM ^
Swap the names of the championship trophy and the coach of the year award. Stagg and Paterno are legends who deserve to be honored, but they didn't win that many conference titles. Bo and Woody did. So, make the championship trophy the Hayes-Schembechler and give Stagg-Paterno the COY award.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:55 AM ^
Still holding out for the Rotel and Velveeta divisions. Hope we are placed in the Rotel. Spicy.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
as Wiscy is in the opposite division and would most likely be in the Velveeta (cheese) division. Although, with Michigan being placed in the Legends division rather than Leaders, you never know.
December 17th, 2010 at 3:49 PM ^
As long as Barbasol is the title sponsor.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:02 AM ^
What I want to know is who were the 10% who weren't disapproving of the names?
December 17th, 2010 at 11:42 AM ^
That 10% were probably too drunk to know the difference.....Which should make a ton of sense to someone with Charlie Sheen on their avatar!
December 17th, 2010 at 11:02 AM ^
I'm sure it's been suggested along the way, but why not just name the divisions, "Big" and "Ten". The "Big" champ plays the "Ten" champ for the Big Ten title. It's not very exciting, but if geography doesn't work and we're instead making up kiddie names, why not?
December 17th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^
If you look at Ojibwe(Native American language common in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) here(some in context from Longfellow) you get some interesting choices.
http://www.native-languages.org/hiawatha.htm
The Mishi-makwa (The Great Bear) division
and
The Mishi-name(The Great Sturgeon) division
or
The Miskwaadesi (turtle) division
and
The Waabooz ( rabbit) division
or
The Giniw (war eagle) division
and (my personal favorite)
The Pau'guk(Flying-skeleton Death Spirit) division
December 17th, 2010 at 3:37 PM ^
1.Gus Johnson saying "Waabooz" in his outstandingly overexcited voice
2.The possibility of Chris Martin being removed from the BTN for his inability to pronounce any of them
3. Anything that translates as "flying-skeleton death spirit" is cool with me
and most importantly:
4. They are infinitely better than Leaders and Legends.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^
We should go old school NHL style with the division names like the Norris and Adams divisions.
How about using old Big Ten commissioner names: Duke and Wilson divisions.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^
I really don't see the problem with East and West. The Cowboys play in the NFC East, the Colts play in the AFC South and its not weird. The only off teams would be Wisconsin in the East and Mich/Michigan State in the West.
The Leaders Legends thing is stupid and pretentious. We knew the Big Ten conference has as many leaders and legends in sports as anybody. There's no need to flaunt it.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:38 AM ^
A & B
BLACK & BLUE
NORTH & SOUTH
EAST & WEST
ROCK & DISCO
PEANUT & BUTTER
BULK & SPEED
TUB & LARD
DC & MARVEL
MS & APPLE
JOHN & PAUL
NORRIS & ADAMS
REN & STIMPY
PATRICK & BOB
December 17th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^
It is a good thing and far better than having arguments over where we need to send the Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork company's merchandise.....
December 17th, 2010 at 12:00 PM ^
or East/West are just the easiest way to settle the names. Pick one or the other and role with it. It's not perfect, but who cares? I bet if Delaney had said initially that the divisions will be East/West, there would have been some slight grumbling, but then Wiscy would learn to deal with it. Sweep it under the rug and move on.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:18 PM ^
Division 1 and Division 2 work just fine in my fantasy league...hmmm.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:56 AM ^
reeks of a crappy compromise, the worst off for everyone. Hyphenated trophies to sooth egos. Bland bullshit division names. a non offensive logo that ends up offending everyone. bah.
December 17th, 2010 at 8:20 PM ^
Everyone is so concerned that someone may be offended that nothing ever can get done. All the pictures on the Euro's aren't even real places, less someone get upset that some other country got some love.
So the Big 10 channels the EU by making the logo a powder blue cyan since that color does not belong to any specific Big 10 school (gee, I wonder why), and double-naming the trophies, and refusing to name the divisions after anything/anyone actually realated to the Big 10.
Man-up and make some choices. If Michigan winds up playing in the Red Grange Division, then so be it.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:57 AM ^
insist on some pre-release market research, analysis and testing before they driving the conference brand off a cliff?
This is a pathetic excuse. Way to go nitwit.
Seriously, how much is Delany paid anyway?
Big Ten Brand? It's dead, Jim.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:08 PM ^
The truth of the matter is that you either have to bring in historical names from the past to truly enhance the Big Ten brand, i.e. Bo/Woody, because that's what the Big Ten is all about. That's where the history is. UM and OSU are the schools that made the Big Ten (WRT football.) You either acknowledge that or you wuss out and pretend that all of the universities are equal, when everyone knows that's not the case. Since two divisons are being created and UM/OSU were split for the very reasons I just mentioned, then you've made the decision to go generic with all of the names and logos. And then they put effing Paterno's name on the trophy? I mean WTF?! Penn State's been in the Big Ten 20 years. Wow, he's one the Big Ten title 3 times!!! Put his name on the trophy. What a joke. What a big effing joke.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:23 PM ^
Blake Countess chooses UM AND Mr Delany is reconsidering the division names all in the same day? This has to be one of the best days to be on MGoBlog in a while in terms of good news. I know its kind of early yet, but this is a great start.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:40 PM ^
The Division names have to be changed. To me, that's the worst part of the "Axis of Awful" (credit to bwgrudt1484 for that one). It's hard to put into words how much I loathe it.
The logo is bad, but easily fixed. When using the form "B1G TEN" Simply leave the "1" and "I" so as to not be redundant, and go with "B1G" for variety, or something. Not sure how to put that one into words atm. I don't necessarily think they need to incorporate a "12" into the logo, but if they can find a way to do so (and make it work), then have at it.
The trophy names are the least bad part of all this. Yeah, double-naming them is a bit awkward. However, I think it'll be the easiest part of all this to get used to over time. I am still surprised they named the Conference Championship after somebody other than Bo and Woody, cosidering the number of championships won between those two. But I can understand why they'd put their two names on a CotY award.
December 17th, 2010 at 4:00 PM ^
How about the Sherman and Grant divisions...these are just as pompous and regrettable as Leader/Legend, but does the double duty of reminding the south what we did to them in the past and would gladly do again if necessary. They may win football games, but we burned Georgia to a cinder.
December 17th, 2010 at 4:06 PM ^
OK, two-step process for fixing this mess:
1. Rename the divisions East and West, right now.
2. In 2013, when the promised revision will occur, go to straight geography. It couldn't be simpler. U-M, MSU, OSU, PSU, PU and IU are in the Eastern time zone. The other six are in the Central time zone. And going straight geography means no need for protected cross-division games. It's so obvious, even Delany should be able to figure it out . . . eventually.
December 17th, 2010 at 8:06 PM ^
For where we are now, an East - West split makes perfect sense and has very good competitive balance:
East: UM, OSU, PSU, MSU, PUR, IU
West: NEB, WIS, IA, IL, NW, MN
I suspect that the reluctance against geography by the B10 office is based on further expansion. If (*cough* when ) they expand further, they are most likely to look east: Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, Maryland, etc.
The East - West split does not work as well then as it does now in terms of competitive balance.
I say screw it, and keep the East and West Divisions in place anyhow. If Syracuse winds up in the "West" to keep competitive balance, so be it.
December 17th, 2010 at 4:25 PM ^
The sooner the better.
December 17th, 2010 at 7:56 PM ^
Michigan - Ohio State as the season ending game, and now this.
Maybe we can work on that BCS thing next.
December 17th, 2010 at 8:02 PM ^
is who are the 10% who thought this was a good idea? I haven't found one person who didn't find them laughable.
December 17th, 2010 at 8:02 PM ^
Double post. Sorry.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
I don't know about you, but when Delaney changes the names of the divisions, we're going to have on our hands a really great Trivial Pursuit question about "Leaders and Legends"