Big Ten Expansion Makeover: Conference Strikes Out with Three Bad Decisions

The progression of the Big Ten toward its 2011 expansion to 12 teams has led to a series of makeovers that were supposed help the teams flow easily into their new respective seasons without a major problem.

Well, everything that Jim Delaney and his boys have done so far has done just that, but the aesthetic makeovers to the conference are just plain ridiculous.

Logo

First there is their new logo, which is just to the right.

Let me say this about the old logo: It was brilliant.

It alluded to the fact that the conference was aware that the Big Ten name made no sense considering its inclusion of 11 teams by incorporating the number 11 into its logo.

The new logo is an abomination, plus it makes no sense.

It is bulky, bland and boring, and the creativity that is in it is confusing.

There is a number "1" in the word Big that doubles as an "I," and the "G" is both the letter "G" and the number "0."

Huh?

I can understand using the number 1 as the eye, but making the "G" somehow look more like a "2" would make much more sense to me, as it would further allude to the 12 teams in the conference.

Strike one.

Trophy Names

First I would like to say that they are finally naming the trophies after Big Ten legends; that's a great idea right there.

However, the way they did it is downright harebrained.

All of the trophies, from the Stagg-Paterno Trophy awarded to the team that wins the Big Ten Championship Game to the Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year award, are named after two people.

Not only is this a lame attempt to make all of the schools happy by naming awards after as many people as possible and sharing the honor of having an award named after them in the process, but it is clunky as well.

It makes me think that Amos Stagg's daughter went and married Joe Paterno's son and hyphenated her name.

Naming trophies after two people mucks up the honor of each award, as just hearing the name of each of them sounds like an award that a law office would give out at its yearly company picnics.

Strike two.

Leaders and Legends?

Finally, there is the naming of the divisions.

The division containing Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern will forever be named the "Legends Division," while Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin will reside in the "Leaders Division."

What?

The Big Ten prides itself in tradition and simplicity, so it seemed like no problem that they would end up becoming the Eastern and Western Big Ten Divisions.

Nope, that's way too easy for Delaney and his crew of rapscallions.

Now we are faced with having divisions of Leaders and Legends, which is just about the lamest thing they could have named the divisions.

Strike three.

Am I just ranting here and looking like an 80-year-old man in a young man's body yelling at kids to get off my lawn, or do you agree? Let me know what you think.