Friday, December 17, 2010

Big Ten reconsidering "Legends" and "Leaders"

Unlike the US Congress, perhaps the Big Ten really does get their feelings hurt when a majority of people think their idea is terrible.  And especially unlike congress, maybe they reconsider their decisions.

On Thursday, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney, in an interview with WGN-AM in Chicago, commented that the names may be changed, due in no small part to the extreme dislike the Big Ten fans seem to have for the division names.  (Of course, maybe it was the t-shirt designs the names might inspire.) 

"We've had enough experience with names and expansion and development of divisions that we know that you rarely get a 90% approval rating,  But to get a 90% 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, becausewe're trying to build fan bases, not push them away. 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."
 Indeed, as of this writing, this Cleveland.com poll is showing greater than 90% of voters want the names changed.  Quite impressive that he didn't come across defensive at all.  

Link to radio interview here.