A college football conference is not a democracy, which was more apparent than ever this week when the Big Ten unveiled its plan to name its two new divisions the "Legends" and "Leaders" when the league expands to 12 teams next year. If it had put it to a vote, it would have found out pretty quickly: Everyone thinks these names are really, really stupid.
At the very least, commissioner Jim Delany would have been somewhat aware of the minefield of public opinion he was wandering into as the face of the conference. And he certainly wouldn't have had to go on WGN radio in Chicago Friday morning – four days after he asked fans to give the new branding effort "24 to 36 hours" to sink in – to commence the backtracking:
"[We were] not very well prepared [for the backlash], I can tell you that," Delany said. "We've had enough experience with names and expansion and development of divisions that we know that you never – rarely – get a 90 percent approval rating. But to get a 90 percent non-approval rating was really surprising.
"It showed that we didn't connect with our fans in a way that we wanted to. It's humbling, to say the least, because we're trying to build fan bases, not push them away. So I was surprised. I've been around this business a long time, and I would say it’s one of the more surprising things. There's a sensibility there that we did not connect with, did not read well.
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"Obviously there's a lot of push-back," he said. "We're still listening and trying to figure it out. And I think we'll probably make an assessment about whether or not it's sustainable, we'll try to do a little education, let it breathe a bit, and then probably revisit it after the first of the year."
For his own sake, I hope Delany is prepared to follow through on that promise, because there's no turning back now: The world knows that he knows that the names are stupid. Holding on to "Legends" and "Leaders" now would be like a middle finger to the entire fan base.
Here's an idea: Just go ahead and call them "East" and "West." No, it's not original or "evocative" of any schmaltzy ideals. And OK, technically, they're not aligned that way. It's close enough. The two Eastern-most schools (Ohio State and Penn State) are already in the same division; call it the "East." And the three Western-most schools (Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska) are already in the same division, along with Michigan, which has always fashioned its teams as the "champions of the West." The remaining six have been traveling back and forth between their respective campuses for 100 years; they're practically within shouting distance. They can deal with some slightly fudged geography.
After all, we are talking about a conference with 12 members that still calls itself the "Big Ten." There's no need to split hairs here. TCU, located in Forth Worth, Texas, is about to join the Big East. San Diego State plays in a conference named for the Rocky Mountains. The Indianapolis Colts play in the AFC South. The NFC was aligned for decades with the Atlanta Falcons in the West Division, the Dallas Cowboys and Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals in the East, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Central, alongside teams from Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay and Minneapolis. No one cares. No one is going to be tested on this.
So I say now, Mr. Delany: Tear down these cheesy titles! Toss them into the dustbin of history, and embrace the anachronism. I mean, the other anachronism.
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Hat tip: Adam Rittenberg. Yes, the t-shirt is for sale.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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