The Big Ten's Answer to the Piston's Turquoise Horse Jersey

The Big Ten finally unveiled the new division names and logo (as well as some new awards).  And what did we get for waiting?  Sad.  Drawing on probably the same inspiration the Pistons' front office did when it gave us the logo pictured here, the Big Ten decided to call the new divisions...Leaders and Legends.  I assume the same logic because I imagine the Pistons thought, "Hey, what's hot right now?  Oh, turquoise is huge and shadowy horses are popping up on t-shirts everywhere."  And that the Big Ten thought, "Hey, what's hot right now?  Oh, words that sound sort of patriotic and that might throw regular people off the scent that college now costs a fortune and doesn't come close to guaranteeing a job.  Oh, and nods to the past.  You know, back when college was expensive but reasonable, and it almost guaranteed a decent living."  And it seems likely that these new names will be the next Jacksonville Jaguars in the hearts of fans.

Here's why it makes me sad.  I don't think the job was easy.  You couldn't use directions like the rest of the split conferences because there was no east-west or north-south line.  And you couldn't do a junior/senior thing, pitting the original 6 old Western Conference teams against the most recent 6, because the divisions, mind-blowingly, weren't set up that way. (PLEASE: Can anyone explain why the divisions weren't split this way?  If the argument was for competitive balance, I think Western Conference original 6--Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Minnesota, and Northwestern-- versus the newer 6--the rest--would've been plenty balanced.)  So, it was going to be a tricky proposition from jump.  But, instead of really digging into the history of the conference, and finding something awesome, they rolled over and said, "Well, we have history, and we're frontrunners on some stuff," and then went like a quarter-step further than calling the divisions History and Frontrunners.

Then they blew it AGAIN on the new logo.  There may never be a logo as clever as the hidden 11 in the old Big Ten logo, so, again they were fighting an uphill battle.  But, please click here to see the new one and come back.  I'll wait.  Did you see it?  The 1G?  According to the Big Ten, the idea behind the B1G TEN logo is that the "1G" resembles a "10," paying homage to the original ten members.  Doesn't the "TEN" do that!  It's like nobody told these guys that the conference wasn't changing its name to the Big Twelve (in which case the hidden "10" could've been brilliant).

Also, how mad is Legend's bar in Champaign right now (Hint: the Illini are in the Leaders division)?  I'm betting quite to very....