Legends And Leaders: Are You Serious Big 10
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 9:00AM Joe Simmons 
When the Big Ten plays its first conference championship game next season, it'll be the Leaders division against the Legends division. Hold up, did I just say Leaders versus the Legends? Maybe I did… Would someone please wake me up? There is no way I meant what I just said.
The conference, expanding to 12 teams in all sports and adding divisions and a championship game in football starting next season. They also unveiled a new logo and 18 football awards, each named after two standout Big Ten performers.
“The Legends, not too hard in that we have 215 College Football Hall of Fame members, we have 15 Heisman Trophy winners,” Commissioner Jim Delany said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We thought it made perfect sense to recognize the iconic and the legendary through the naming of the division in that regard. ... We've had plenty of leaders in the conference, that's for sure, but the emphasis here is to recognize the mission of using intercollegiate athletics and higher education to build future leaders.”*
With Nebraska becoming the conference's 12th team next year, the conference created new divisions that it introduced in September. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin will be in the Leaders Division, with Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern in the Legends Division.
The notion itself is a little arrogant and somewhat funny in my estimation. To label the members of your conference Leaders and Legends makes little sense, especially since you haven’t been the dominant conference in nearly a decade. Secondly, there is only one team in your conference who has been worthy of any labels in the past two decades. Outside of Ohio State, no one but Penn State has done anything since 1990.
Maybe the Big 10 should have labeled the team Has Been’s and Hopefuls. At least this would be symbolic of what the conference really represents. Adding Nebraska gives you a little credibility but they haven’t done a whole lot either since the early nineties and late eighties. So they would fit the bill of Has Been or Hopeful.
There has been a lot of speculation and hate about dividing divisions. Many people feel like dividing divisions only creates bad atmosphere and ruins rivalries. Honestly I fell like dividing teams like Michigan and Ohio State would have been a really big deal in 1980, but honestly in 2011, is it really a big deal. It may be a big deal to traditionalists, but honestly I can’t that it has been anything that I have wanted to watch in the past 10 years. The game has lost its luster. It’s not the match up it used to be.
If the SEC would have come up with this I might feel a little better about it and maybe I wouldn’t. The reality is that there is noting wrong with naming your conferences, East and West, North and South, Mountain and Coastal, but Leaders and Legends…. GTFOH.
Stay Breezy ~ I’m Out!
*courtesy of Big 10 Network
Reader Comments (8)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The new Big Ten logo looks like it was designed on someone's lunch break using MS Word. Just terrible. Not "Legends" and "Leaders" terrible, but terrible.
I'm a Ducks fan and could generally care less about the Big 10, but I'm tempted to raise hell about the logo myself. It's just hard to look at. And the conference names are laughable.
What's really sad about this is that Jim Delany said they were gonna keep them this year no matter what. College Football is a fan driven business, and I think guys like Delany forget this. If you Big Ten fans hate those names, (I'm not a Big Ten Fan, but the names suck hard!) then you guys should let him know. Using basic colors like red and blue would be better than what they have now. It's obvious that there was absolutely no market reasearch done before choosing the names
That was the best the Big 10 could do for division names? Really? The more I think about it, the more I think it was a poor choice to not go geographic with the divisions. Yeah, the power would be in the Eastern Division, but let's face it, Ohio St. and Michigan have been the cream of the Big 10 for over forty years. The West, with Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa would probably give the east champ a run for its money in the championship game. I look at the SEC and for a time the power was shifted in the East with Florida, Georgia and Tennessee and the West were also rans. Then came a strong LSU squad, followed by Auburn and now a resurgent Alabama. The power has shifted west. I guess what I'm saying is maybe the only way for teams to break Ohio St. and Michigan's hold on the conference (and embarassing Big 10 fans in bowl games, especially the Rose Bowl)is for the Wisconsins and Iowas to beat them in the Big 10 Championship game. At least Michigan and Ohio St. would lose BEFORE a game on the national stage.
you know my mind on this................wouldnt this be better ?.............
BIG 12
east
oklahoma/nebraska/missouri/okla. state/kansas/kan state
west
boise state/byu/utah/colorado/colrado state/utah state
The BIG
great lakes
ohio st/michigan/mich state/minnesota/purdue/northwestern
frozen storms
wisconsin/penn state/iowa/illinois/indiana/iowa state
the (new) SWC
the lone star
texas/texas a&m/baylor/smu/north texas/utep
the frontier
tcu/houston/texas tech/tulsa/rice/arkansas st
BIG EAST
north
notre dame/pittsburgh/syracuse/uconn/cincinnati/rutgers
south
west virginia/louisville/south florida/southern miss/east carolina/marshall
The PAC 12
north
oregon/oregon st/washington/wsu/stanford/cal
south
usc/ucla/arizona/asu/hawaii/fresno st
..........................notice all conferences BCS caliber.............some teams promoted........now promote the division AA teams ( appalac. state....or montana or you know )....to 1A to fill in the WAC and MWC and you know......and those three would have automatic bid to at least the new years day bowls.................also the football and basketball powers would excell......and rivals would be kept.........past and present............................
BCS bowls--------
ROSE
SUGAR
ORANGE
FIESTA
2nd pick in the shuffle ( wac, mwc, etc.. ) automatic bids
COTTON
GATOR
old CITRUS
HOLLIDAY
rest of bowls and teams are selected at random.... ( like to out bid the other bowls )....like they did back in the day....tell em joe....
also on the BCS formula.........take away the coaches poll forever................
...compute the AP poll to one third (if they would come back)
...compute the strength of schedule to one third
...compute the overall record (wins and losses) to one third
.......................after the regular season ends it would all add up..(better than now anyway)
...................................but what the f&^% do we fans know anyway...........if it iz all and only money, look at the conference allignment anyway....that would generate huge wealth and many teams would get their network coverage anyway...........
I don't get that they have Leaders and Legends divisions when the last title they had was almost a decade ago. Plus going 0-5 on New Years doesn't make you a leader and makes you a legend being a non-competitor against SEC schools. When the Big Ten plus 2 get 5 crowns (3 minimum) , then they can talk to the SEC.
Michigan had national championship in 97' and football team had just went into futility but will be back... i still dont agree with the names though...