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

Geaux_Blue

December 13th, 2010 at 3:25 PM ^

to find a common GEOGRAPHIC element

Brian's West becomes "river" - hunting, streams, rivers, etc - feature on all of those school's campuses

Brian's East becomes "valley" - mountains, hills, mining, outdoors

 

SERIOUSLY I JUST CAME UP WITH THAT WHEN I CLICKED INTO THE REPLY BOX. IT'S 40x BETTER THAN LEADERS AND LEGENDS. I GOT PAID NOTHING. I'M SITTING ON A COUCH IN GYM SHORTS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. 

alanmfrench

December 13th, 2010 at 3:31 PM ^

Since I've not read a single positive response to this anywhere, who the hell are they marketing to?! Blind people don't watch football..............they listen.

If Delaney was smart he would have had Kenny Powers unveil this thing and just like he says with those damn "Tube" commercials he could have said, "If you don't like'm.....change your mind!"

Seriously

December 13th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^

Assuming he didn't create the graphic at the top of this article, I'd love to see what he came up with. 

Q. How might you redesign the Big Ten’s logo if you had the chance again?

A. When they went to 11 [members], I actually gave them a 12 and a 13.

Q. How’d they respond?

A. I think they thought that was humorous at that particular time. … But I would be honored to design a new logo for them. It put me on the map.

caup

December 13th, 2010 at 3:38 PM ^

that coming up with a good logo isn't that easy. 

My initial reaction was "Printer cartridge cyan for the color? Really?"  Just use that same gunmetal gray that the PAC-10 is using and the new logo would be 100% better.

The new division names are pretentious and arrogant.  I can only imagine people in the other power conferences, not to mention the Ivy League, rolling their eyes at these contrived names. 

Just go with "East and West" or perhaps something slightly more nebulous like "Lakes and Plains" and be done with it.

smwilliams

December 13th, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^

Conversation from the two guys responsible for designing the new Big 10 logo.

Guy #1: Dude, what day is it?

Guy #2: Uh. It's December 13th. Isn't that date important for some reason.

Guy #1: I feel like we had something to do for that Delany guy.

Guy #2: A logging. A pogo stick.

Guy #1: Oh shit!

Guy #2: What? What?

Guy #1: The new Big Ten logo. We forgot to design the new Big Ten logo. It's due in like 30 minutes.

The doorbell rings. Guy #2 peeks out the peephole.

Guy #2: Shit. It's that Delany guy. He's gonna be pissed.

Guy #1: Quick. Call up that old MS Paint we did for Columbus Feed & Trough and fucking change it to Big Ten.

Guy #2: We'll make the I look like a 1!

Guy #1: Hide the pot too while you're at it.

DELANY enters.

Delany: Is the logo done?

Guy #1: Yes sir.

Delany looks at it.

Delany: It looks like shit.

Guy #2: I think it's got a rustic quality to it.

Delany: Hey, is that pot?

30 minutes later.

Delany: Dudes I fucking got it. Legends for one division and Leaders for another. It's like we're the best conference in the world and like all the other conferences don't have legends and leaders. Or leaders and legends.

Zoltan Mesko: SPACE EMPEROR BLAST!

Mesko incinerates all 3 men and uses 3D space technology to create a logo featuring colors from another planet that are more beautiful than anything we've ever seen. And then announces the divisions are named "Lakes" and "Plains" because his space brain processed the most logical solution.

Hail-Storm

December 13th, 2010 at 4:05 PM ^

Are yet another reason why I felt that a pure geographical split would have been completely fine. We would have kept most of the rivalries, Michigan and OSU would have fought for the division title every year in the last regular season game, and we would of had a simple East Division and West Division.  The only thing they would of had to work on would have been the Logo.

Zone Left

December 13th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^

I'm all for A vs B, East vs West, A vs not A, or just about anything other than the actual choice. I think Woody and Bo are poor names, but would be better than this.

Brian, can a Big 10 blogger roundtable be convened here? I'll bet every school's fanbase would prefer Woody vs Bo to the current choice--even though it marginalizes 10 schools.