Viper

That way, of course, they can still call themselves the Big 10 - as in, 16 in hexadecimal format.

And in related news, the umpires did not allow Nissan 16 to take the field for its major-league debut; something about corporate names not being allowed on uniforms.

My own two cents: Count me as another fan of the Seahawks' current look. In fact the Toronto Vipers' two shades of green (see my avatar, and sig below) are based on the Seahawks' two shades of blue (reverse the blue and green components in their respective RGB codes). I'd like to see the Packers switch from yellow-gold to metallic-gold as their secondary color (keeping all other elements of their uniforms the same). Yellow-gold as anything more than trim just looks garish to me on a football uniform; see also the old Rams duds (and I do mean "duds"). The Bucs' "creamsicles" aren't my favorites, but I do give them credit for being a unique and instantly recognizable look. (I like their current look a lot better, but that has a lot to do with it being unique in its own right, particularly with pewter in the color scheme which, AFAIK, no other major pro or college team still has. If the Bucs had replaced the "creamsicles" with a more conventional color scheme I probably would have hated it.) The Dallas Stars' color scheme is all right, but the way the colors are used on their primary logo (gold text/green star) strikes me as @$$-backwards. It should be the other way around. I don't mind the Mooterus either. I prefer the Penguins' mid-'90s logo above all their other ones (the skating penguin strikes me as too cartoonish for a major-league team). Last but not least, in the NLL the Minnesota Swarm have taken a lot of heat for their current jersey design, but I like it, or at least I like their blue home jerseys. The away whites, not so much, though they have grown on me a bit too.

Just imagine... Boise State (assuming they get left out of the breakaway mega-conferences) winning the NCAA football national championship... in a playoff! In the meantime, others here have argued that the rise of mega-conferences would mean fewer non-conference games vs. mid-majors. I think it will go a step further: fewer non-conference games, period. Remember there are only 11-12 games per team per season, and bigger conferences make it that much harder to have every team play each of its conference rivals at least once per season. Furthermore, games within a mega-conference will be more attractive to TV networks than non-conference games vs. teams from less competitive conferences, or even from other mega-conferences. (As it is now, inter-BCS-conference games are compelling mainly because of their BCS implications, but with mega-conferences the same thing can be had without scheduling outside the conference, so intersectional regular-season games just become redundant.) You're kidding right? Unless Boise State ends up in one of the mega-conferences they may as well drop down to the FCS level and be done with it. How you guys can realize that this conference jumping is all about money yet still believe that the "outsider" conference schools are going to get a shot at anything is amusing to me. Boise State does everything well except make huge amounts of money and get great TV ratings. Why on Earth would these new mega-conferences, which we all admit are nothing more than a cash grab, have any interest in having a playoff that involves teams that aren't part of the new cash flow. Can someone explain to me how schools like Boise State and Utah will benefit in any way from these mega-conferences if they aren't a member of those conferences? If there is a playoff it is simply not going to include "mid-majors." I've said it more times than I can remember at this point but I'll say it again... There is simply no way that any playoff that's part of this new mega-conference system, which again we all admit is about money, is going to include a Boise State at the expense of one of their own. That's more true now than it was before all this started. You guys think all this stuff is a good thing for the "BCS busters." The truth is it's the kiss of death for them. It may take a few years but you can count on it. Just look at the second sentence in bold to see why. In a climate that's all about money how are schools that aren't making any money going to survive? You're overlooking what illwauk mentioned in the post I was responding to: Forming mega-conferences is in all likelihood just a step toward leaving the NCAA altogether and forming a separate governing body of their own. The "mid-majors" would, presumably, remain in the NCAA - and suddenly find themselves to be its new powerhouses in football (and probably other sports too). And of course, once the (ex-)BCS schools bolt from the NCAA there is no reason for the NCAA to even keep the FBS/FCS distinction anymore; since the bowls would presumably throw in with the new league for mega-conferences, the NCAA could just put everyone remaining under the playoff system. So, my previous point stands: If/when the great mega-conference schism occurs, we could easily see the likes of Boise State winning a unified NCAA Division I football championship in a playoff. That playoff just won't involve any of the (ex-)BCS schools, because they'll be in a whole other universe.

Just imagine... Boise State (assuming they get left out of the breakaway mega-conferences) winning the NCAA football national championship... in a playoff! In the meantime, others here have argued that the rise of mega-conferences would mean fewer non-conference games vs. mid-majors. I think it will go a step further: fewer non-conference games, period. Remember there are only 11-12 games per team per season, and bigger conferences make it that much harder to have every team play each of its conference rivals at least once per season. Furthermore, games within a mega-conference will be more attractive to TV networks than non-conference games vs. teams from less competitive conferences, or even from other mega-conferences. (As it is now, inter-BCS-conference games are compelling mainly because of their BCS implications, but with mega-conferences the same thing can be had without scheduling outside the conference, so intersectional regular-season games just become redundant.)

Now, let me get this straight: The Big Ten, which actually has 11 teams, is about to go to 12 teams; while the Big XII is apparently about to go down to 11, and possibly all the way down to five... go figure. I wonder if there's any chance of the Big XII (or Twelve, or 12) name being transferred to the Big Ten once this all goes down. After all, keeping the "Big Ten" name just for tradition's sake makes no sense anymore now that the entire college football landscape is being blown up and rearranged. Besides, it's a lot harder to make a "2" out of the spaces between letters in the Big Ten logo than a "1".

Obligatory elephant-in-the-room question: If all these Big XII schools bolt for the Big Ten and Pac-10, what becomes of the schools that are left behind (Iowa State, Kansas, K-State etc.)? There's not enough of them to form a conference of their own, even if Notre Dame were to join them. Are they just SOL?

Giving this thread a bump, as ESPN Page 2 recently solicited nominees for, and pictures of, the worst arena banners in sports. (Gallery of fan-submitted nominees here.) "Attendance Champions"? "100 Consecutive Sellouts"? Even a retired number on an NBA D-League team? Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot? Update: It turns out some blog beat ESPN to the punch by about two years.

And don't forget Ryan's finest moment of all, which also came in a Rangers uniform.

Xcel Energy Center just has these two banners so far, both at the east end of the building. AFAIK the Wild have not said when/if they will put up a banner for their Northwest Division title in 2007-08. Considering how far that got them in the playoffs, I wouldn't be surprised, or terribly disappointed, if they decided to pass on it.

I thought I had already posted these here a few months ago, but I can't find them in any of the recent pages. These are links to arena templates I've made for NHL hockey and NLL lacrosse. The panels are for you to add (very small) ads or other art along the boards.