Stupid Trophy Names!
As requested, a separate thread to talk about how stupid the new Big Ten championship related trophies are. The whole thing reeks of political correctness, splitting the difference by double-naming each trophy so no single trophy is tied to a single school. Apart from that, let's consider the names themselves:
The Good
The Hayes-Schembechler Trophy (Coach of the year)
Okay, so you've got two legendary coaches at two legendary big ten schools. I'd tell you more but I don't want to insult your intelligence. This makes sense, even if the name is a mouthful.
The Bad
The Grange-Griffin Trophy (Championship game MVP)
Red Grange, halfback for Illinois in the 1920s. According to wikipedia, named the greatest college football player of all time by ESPN in 2008. So, he's got that going for him, which is nice.
Archie Griffon, running back for Ohio State in the 1970s. Only two-time heisman trophy winner in history thus far.
Okay, so this is actually not all that bad but damn it I'm sticking with the theme. It does lack the nice symmetry of the Hayes-Schembechler Trophy, as rather than featuring the names of rivals it features two players that missed each other by 50 years. Also, they try so hard to come up with fair and balanced trophy names, and then put OSU on two of them. They couldn't come up with a worthy player's name from an unrepresented school?
The Ugly
The Stagg-Paterno Trophy (Championship game winning team)
Amos Alonzo Stagg was "an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily football", says Wikipedia. Played at Yale, coached at the University of Chicago and the University of the Pacific.
Joe Paterno is really damn old and coaches football or something, I don't know.
So here you've got two coaches that can rightfully called "legendary" but whose ties to the big ten are less solid. Stagg was the coach of the University of Chicago for 40 years, which is a very long time. You know what else is a very long time? The 64 years it's been since the University Chicago was actually in the big ten. As for Paterno, he's been Penn State's coach for 44 years, but Penn State's only been in the big ten for 20 of those.
Worst of all, given Joe Paterno's decision to stick it out for at least one more year, he'll get to experience the embarrassment of competing for a trophy named after himself.
December 13th, 2010 at 6:24 PM ^
CoughJimTresselcough
Paterno is a legend, and while he spent most of his career outside of the BIg Ten, he still is synonymous with the conference and deserves to be on one of the trophies.
Not to say Yost doesn't, but Paterno does too.
December 13th, 2010 at 7:10 PM ^
but I don't think that alone should get him on this one... besides I'm not a fan of having anything named after an active coach... like in a few years when the Crimson tide will undoubtedly play their home games at Bryant-Denny-Saban stadium even though Saban will still be their coach.... It's dumb.
December 13th, 2010 at 9:25 PM ^
I have no problem with Paterno's name being on a trophy, it just shouldn't be on the Championship Trophy. Coaching, Sportsmanship, Leadership....or something along those lines would be more appropriate.
December 13th, 2010 at 7:11 PM ^
The guys who won all those Big Ten Championships should have been on the Conference Championship Trophy. The guys who may have meant the most to coaching as a whole should have been on the coaching Trophy.
December 13th, 2010 at 5:17 PM ^
While we are debating all this, the Big Ten front office geniuses will be expanding quickly to get rid of this lousy logo and division names and they figure this is the best way to get all our quick and undying support.
December 13th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^
Everyone shitting on Stagg's name being put on the Championship Trophy is just showing their complete blindness to the conference's history. The man is there with names like Pop Warner and Fielding Yost in establishing the game of football, and the vast majority of his time and success was at a Big Ten school. Yeah, Chicago hasn't played in the conference since the 40s, but we still count their records and claim their highlights (like Jay Berwanger's inaugural Heisman Trophy). To ignore the school, especially since it is still academically affiliated with the Big Ten (which is a boon to every other Big Ten school since UC is easily the best school in the CIC), would be a shame and I think honoring Stagg is the best way to remember the Monsters of the Midway.
/end rant
December 13th, 2010 at 5:56 PM ^
since UC is easily the best school in the CIC)
There is a little school in Ann Arbor that some think is pretty good.
December 14th, 2010 at 1:04 AM ^
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-ran…
And, yeah, the reason I'm a vocal on this is because I'm a Chicago alum. Go Blue though!
December 13th, 2010 at 6:39 PM ^
I'm guessing you're a student at UC, too?
It's quite funny hearing people on campus take jabs at football schools and put Chicago on a pedestal because they decided not to be one anymore.
December 13th, 2010 at 9:47 PM ^
I've attended both schools: anyone who argues that U of C is, all and all, a superior (to ALL the Big Ten schools) institution academically is not wrong - not that quitting Big Ten football made them any better in that regard.
December 14th, 2010 at 11:37 AM ^
Didn't the whole de-emphasis of athletics coincide with UC deciding they wanted to be a great university and focus on research and faculty instead of, well, football? UC wasn't a particularly incredible school in its first couple decades, and then reinvented the whole structure of the place in the wake of tanking their sports, though I think their football program limped along for about a decade before they pulled the plug.
Comparing UC and Michigan is tricky because they're just entirely different schools. Entirely different dynamics, atmospheres, attitudes, etc. Chicago and Michigan are polar opposites in many ways in their respective approaches.
December 13th, 2010 at 5:31 PM ^
I thought the OP was joking until I kept reading response after response. The addition of Nebraska was a good thing; everything else since then is so-so.
December 13th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^
These trophy names look like the class roster of an Ann Arbor townie preschool.
December 13th, 2010 at 6:41 PM ^
yes the trophy names and conference division titles are suprising and sickening at the same time, but what shocks me most is that the coach of the year award isn't named the, "Danny Hope". That's some injustice!
December 13th, 2010 at 7:32 PM ^
The Turner-Boren speed eater of the year award.
Feagin-Koulianos distributor of the year.
Cissoko-Clarette achievement in felonious activity.
Terell-Slocum bomb-ass dick award for the comment of the year.
December 13th, 2010 at 7:33 PM ^
Edit: Double post. Neg me until I poop skittles. Then you are free to have some.
December 13th, 2010 at 11:03 PM ^
December 14th, 2010 at 12:08 AM ^
Deleted
December 14th, 2010 at 12:54 PM ^
Are you kidding me, Stagg built the B10 and was one of the handful of coaches that can be said to have built college football. I would have put another old-tymey god in there instead of paterno (unless he was actually retiring this year) but that trophy makes a lot of sense. Likewise, Red Grange is one of the truly elite players to have played the game and I must (reluctantly) admit Archie Griffon probably shares the same pantheon (although I think Tod Harmon would have been a better fit there).