Jason Joyce thinks the new Big Ten logo could be sending the implicit message that the conference will eventually be expanded to include 16 teams. I didn't understand until another Facebook commenter pointed out that the I and the G in BIG resemble the number 16.
As long as I've been a college football fan, the Big Ten has always had 11 teams. I appreciated the misnomer; it was a little secret that separated those who followed football from those who didn't. I wonder what percentage of a Camp Randall crowd knows? The addition of Nebraska makes the name even more ironic since the Big 12 now has ten teams and the Big Ten has twelve.
Names aside, I hope the conference restricts any future additions to Midwestern universities. The regional rivalries and the competing geographic identities that define the various conferences is part of what makes college ball so exciting.
Unfortunately, the opinion I express is often at odds with those who are much bigger football fans than me, as well as the commercial interests of the athletic departments.
But for all it's worth, The Sconz welcomes Iowa State and Missouri and..ugh..even Notre Dame, but says we should keep Rutgers, Syracuse and Maryland out of the Heartland tradition.
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