Today the Big Ten Conference unveiled its new logo for a 12-member league beginning with the 2011-2012 school year when Nebraska joins the conference. As seen above, the new logo replaces the I in ‘BIG’ with the number 1.
The league also announced the names for the two football divisions that will be used starting the same season. The “Leaders” division will feature Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. “The Legends” division will have Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern. Seems likely that the division names were selected because they sound neat.
In addition to playing other division members, each school will play three crossover games against teams from the other division. Guaranteed cross-division matchups are Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana-Michigan State, Ohio State-Michigan, Penn State-Nebraska, Purdue-Iowa and Wisconsin-Minnesota.
Next season the winner of each division will meet in the league’s first championship game Dec. 3 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. That will determine the Big Ten champion and the conference’s participant in the Rose Bowl or Bowl Championship Series national championship game.
