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Sometimes life imitates art, or art imitates life... or art mocks life? In the case of The University of Illinois' ridiculous facebook contest, open to any student of UIUC, we can definitely say that something is being mocked and we're not sure if it's self-referential or really just this bad. Either way, I don't know for sure what's the proper phrase in this situation, but I do know a few things for sure.
- When deciding on any logo, design, and/or branding ideas, crowdsourcing is both cheap and lazy. If things end poorly, you have no one to blame but yourself. [Says the Nebraskan with the mediocre license plate]
- If you are going to do something like this, go ahead and make your facebook group private or at least limit the opportunity for free and easy mocking. Sure, maybe you don't really want to get rid of Chief Illiniwek, but is putting up a anthropomorphic Illinois State the answer?
- Furthermore, remember the last major conference university to go through this Illinois? That was Ole Miss and it didn't go over well. You should probably have consulted with them. While we're here, are we to assume that this mascot change is arbitrary and that Illinois will still be the Fighting Illini? Because that's stupid
- As always, Illinois can't have nice things... like professional branding and/or mascots that aren't ridiculous.
So, here we are. I intended to have a few of my own entries this morning, but real life makes these links less robust than I would have liked. Instead, here is one from MSULAXER who basically sums it up nicely:
His description is apt for the situation: "A nondescript logo for a nondescript program. Those are waterskis."
Ladies and gentlemen, I open up the comments to do our own set of crowdsourcing with some definite votes coming soon. What would you imagine/create for the Illini Mascot? Would you vote for the Kraken? The Chef? The Werewolves? Is there something better you can think of? We don't often do the whole post PhotoShop/MSPaint thing here, but I think if there is ever a day worth doing that, it's today. I would say there is a prize for the winner, but all I have on my desk to give is like a pen or something. Pens are lame. Just know the deemed winner gets all the recs and the self-satisfaction of open mocking of Illinois. So there's that. On to the links...
B1G Team Links:
- When you have missed 20 3-Point Shots in a row, writers tend to look for some reasons. The Champaign Room suggests Tyler Griffey has the yips.
- That ties in nicely with the idea that Illinois really needs to hit shots to be competitive... which makes sense.
- In case you turned it off because the Americans was on (By the way, that was a great premiere. Loved every part of it. I was totally rooting for the Russians the whole time.), Indiana did not break 100. They did, however, crush Purdue. Inside the Hall has some takeaways.
- Beating Purdue is really fun for the Hoosiers, and here is The Crimson Quarry's take.
- Ross has been doing a great job at BHGP with keeping everyone aware of the Hawkeyes' bubble chances. Of course, right now that's not looking great.
- Gary Barta talks to the University Press Machine: "Our three principles are not going to change as long as I'm here. We need to win, and if we don't win, I won't be here. I understand that, I embrace it, and I spend time focusing on it. We also need to graduate, and I won't back off on that principle, and we need to do those two things and everything else we do with integrity, (we need to) do it the right way." SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN LOOK OVER THERE IOWA FANS 4-8 ISN'T SO BAD SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN
- Michigan Basketball beat Northwestern yesterday, which is maybe the least surprising headline of the day.
- Zach Travis has some thoughts on embracing advanced stats in basketball and how it affects his fandom this year.
- The Spartans are prepping for the Illini matchup and TOC has a preview.
- Keith Appling is getting more comfortable with the leadership role that comes with being captain of the Spartans.
- You know what to do when you're in a losing streak? Play Nebrasketball apparently. Minnesota picked up a win a couple nights ago.
- Strong pickup by the Gophers in WR Drew Wolitarsky.
- Brandon Vogel at Hail Varsity uses some colorful graphs and infographics to talk Big Ten recruiting. As I said on Twitter, I totally can get behind colorful graphs and infographics.
- So guess what? NEBRASKA HAS ANOTHER MARTINEZ!!! Drake gives his verbal to Nebraska.
- Northwestern was talking bubble a week ago. Last night Michigan kindly reminded them of their place in the conference.
- A look at the Northwestern defense going into the next year.
- LGHL has an update on all of the Ohio State recruiting action going on.
- 11W has some thoughts on how Thad Matta has the Buckeyes working hard to play harder.
- Penn State hopes to avoid a winless season in basketball, but it will not be easy at Iowa tonight.
- Not sure if you all caught this, but Congressman Glenn Thompson has sent a letter to Mark Emmert requesting the scholarships be reinstated to Penn State. This assumes that the NCAA office isn't inept.
- This really should have been posted a while ago, but H&R has a heck of a piece on the Indiana-Purdue rivalry.
- And here is the Purdue perspective from the beatdown last night.
- Wisconsin will not be raising ticket prices this season which is really pretty awesome considering they are at a point where they probably could get away with it.
- Also, while a bit late, it's good to read the recap of the Wisconsin-Ohio State tilt from Tuesday night. Wisconsin has now failed to break 50 points for three games in a row.
Remember: Illinois pictures in the comments. All the recs win.