Big Ten cheeseballs

Scattered thoughts on a Tuesday morning...

A lot of folks down here in the South have taken delight in watching Big Ten teams get squashed in big games over the years.

It's kind of unfair, because overall the conference acquits itself quite well. But the epic beatdowns suffered by Ohio State at the hands of Florida and LSU went a long way toward shaping perceptions that teams from "up thar" can't hang.

Certain to invite more ridicule is the news that the Big Ten actually paid real money to someone to come up with this logo...



and this idea for division names:

"Legends" and "Leaders."

Is this some sort of "Saturday Night Live" joke?

The new Big Ten logo was developed by Michael Bierut and Michael Gericke of the international design firm Pentagram.

Biggest racket since athletics directors started paying consulting firms lots of money to do their jobs for them and find coaches.

Can I apply for a job at Pentagram?

Here's a suggestion for the divisions: "Cheese" and "Ball."

Even the people in Big Ten country, including this columnist from Columbus, are ridiculing this revelation.

The Big Ten hit a home run when it invited Nebraska to join the conference. Yesterday, it hit a foul pop to the catcher when it announced the names of its two new football divisions.

When the names were revealed in a special program on the Big Ten Network, I kept waiting for conference commissioner Jim Delany to slap his knee and tell us he was joking, and then offer real names that have some substance.

It didn't happen. The division names are "Legends" and "Leaders." Seriously. It sounds as though conference officials have spent weeks going through an unabridged dictionary entry by entry looking for two words they could slap on their new divisions that wouldn't offend anybody.

There are hundreds of words they could have chosen that would have been just as positive and every bit as irrelevant, so this must have been an awfully difficult choice. What about hero or patriot? How about champion or guardian? Loyalty, strength, honesty, valor wait a minute, how about mother and father or even grandma and grandpa? Is there anybody who doesn't like their grandparents?

And I love this quote from Big Ten commish Jim Delany:

"If people don't embrace it in the first hour, then maybe after 24-36 hours … or in a couple of years," Delany said. "Any time you have something new, it takes some getting used to."

So it's kind of like the leg lamp in "A Christmas Story."

Legends and Leaders. Must be Italian...

So the NCAA is cracking down on coaches who brazenly commit secondary violations. Just call it The Kiffin Rule ... or the Chizik Rule.

Grant Teaff, executive director of the AFCA, said his group is making an effort to police its own when it comes to recruitingannually one of the most competitive and contentious periods among schools and fans.

"This is our request: Anything that has to do with recruiting, if there's a proven violation, we want the ability for the NCAA to say this will cost you a week or a maximum of two weeks," Teaff said."We as an association asked for that, and they granted that.

"We think that's a major step forward."

Stay tuned for the NCAA's stronger stance on fathers who are shopping their sons for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On that topic, Dan Wetzel opines on the Cam Newton situation. Love Wetzel's stuff, but this take is, uh, out there:

Would he have been a better father if he just let coaches, athletic directors, universities, commissioners, television networks, bowl directors and so on and so on profit off his son in exchange for a deal that was well below his value?

Was he wrong to demand more from the establishment that had plenty to give? Was he misguided to look at the charade and say not this time, not with my son?

Is letting Cam play for “free” in the face of rampant profiteering really better than asking for some of the action?

It would’ve been easier, sure. Would’ve it been right? If your son was an actor, would you let him star in a Disney movie for free because Disney said so?

This Alabama columnist says it was another genius move by Gus Malzahn to turn down all those millions from Vanderbilt and remain at Auburn.

The real genius came from Malzahn's agent, Jimmy Sexton. Well played, sir.

Maybe Malzahn can give Sexton a raise ... or a major award.



LW