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Big Ten Sports
Delany Defends New Big Ten Logo, Divisional Names
By Brandon Castel

The Big Ten will hold its very first conference championship game in Indianapolis next December. It will feature the winners of the “Leaders” division against the winners of the “Legends” division for the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy.

Big Ten Commissioner
Jim Delany
Photo by Jim Davidson

That from Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, who announced the conference’s new division names, trophies and logos on Monday to a critical response from fans, media members and even current players.

“When we announced football division alignments in September, other associated decisions had not yet been made. We wanted to take some time to listen, carefully consider, and make choices that would best honor our history and traditions, reflect our core values and characteristics, and tell our story,” Delany said in a statement.

“We involved many thoughtful, dedicated professionals and we listened to many ideas from our member schools, alumni and fans.”

What they came up with after all that careful consideration was a bit shocking. Instead of picking names that were reflective of the Big Ten Conference or even the Midwest region of the country, they went with “Legends” and “Leaders” as a way to divide the conference (and now likely the fan base) following the addition of Nebraska as the 12th team.

“We're proud of our many legends and even prouder of our member institutions that develop future leaders every day,” said Delany, who is in his 21st season as commissioner of the Big Ten.

Ohio State will be a part of the “Leaders” division, along with Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Penn State and Wisconsin. The “Legends” division will feature archrival Michigan, along with Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern.

“'Legends' is a nod to our history and to the people associated with our schools who are widely recognized as legends - student-athletes, coaches, alumni and faculty,” Delany said.

 “'Leaders' looks to the future as we remain committed to fostering leaders, the student-athletes who are encouraged to lead in their own way for the rest of their lives, in their families, in their communities and in their chosen professions.”

In addition to the divisional names, Delany and the Big Ten announced 18 new trophies for the 2011-12 season, including the new Big Ten Conference Championship Trophy, which was named after former University of Chicago coach (1892-1932) Amos Alonzo Stagg and current Penn State coach Joe Paterno (1966-), the winningest major-college coach ever.

“The names on these trophies are fitting tributes to the hundreds of thousands of student-athletes and coaches whose hard work and dedication have contributed to the legacy of the Big Ten Conference over the past 115 years,” Delany said.

“These trophies will honor our legends and leaders for generations to come.”

Rather than honoring two long-time Big Ten legends in the late Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, the conference opted to go with Stagg, who coached for a team that has not been a part of the Big Ten since 1946, and Paterno, whose team did not join the conference until 1990.

They did honor Hayes and Schembechler with a joint “Coach of the Year” trophy named in their honor.

The Buckeyes also had four former players honored by “joint” awards, including two-time Heisman Trophy winning running back Archie Griffin (1972-75). Ohio State’s all-time leading rusher will share honors of the Big Ten Championship Game MVP trophy with legendary Illinois RB Harold "Red" Grange (1923-25).

The regular-season Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year award will be named after former Ohio State running back Eddie George (1992-95), along with former Northwestern quarterback—and Cleveland Browns legend—Otto Graham (1941-43).

Former OSU all-American defensive back Jack Tatum (1968-70) will share the conference’s Defensive Back of the Year award with Purdue’s Rod Woodson (1983-86), while Orlando Pace’s name will now appear on the Offensive Lineman of the Year award along with Nebraska’s Dave Rimington.

New Look Logo

Along with the new division names and 18 new trophies, the Big Ten also revealed a new logo which was designed to represent the conference’s expansion, which for now sits at 12 teams, but could become more in the future.

“The new Big Ten logo provides a contemporary identifying mark unifying 12 outstanding institutions,” the commissioner said. 

“It conveys some elements from the past while simultaneously introducing new features. We think the new logo is fun and has something for everyone.”

It actually doesn’t have a whole lot of anything.

Designed by Michael Bierut and Michael Gericke of Pentegram Design, the new logo is relatively simplistic and very indistinguishable outside of the way the “I” and “G” in “BIG” are made to look like the number 10.

"The new Big Ten logo was developed to symbolize the conference's future, as well as its rich heritage, strong tradition of competition, academic leadership, and passionate alumni,” said Gericke, who studied design at the University of Wisconsin.

“Its contemporary collegiate lettering includes an embedded numeral '10' in the word 'BIG,' which allows fans to see 'BIG' and '10' in a single word.”

Of course, there are now 12 teams in the conference, but the commissioner did not want to embed that number in the white space of the logo the way the old one did with the “number 11.”

“Like anything new, it'll take time to get used to,” Delany said.

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