leopard88

That reads a bit like a G to me. I think it may be because there is a straight line on the interior right side on the lower half.

That is probably a good description of the conference. Upon further thought, the other reason that RMU seems like less of a fit to me is that it will be the only small private college in the conference other than Detroit Mercy. Every other school is public and only Detroit Mercy and UWGB have fewer than 15,000 students.

NJIT fits well in the America East. On the other hand, RMU feels like an outlier in the Horizon League to me even though it shouldn't. It isn't far at all from Cleveland State and Youngstown State, but the conference just seems more Midwestern to me. I guess it's sort of like when Penn State joined the B1G.

In case this was directed to me, I wasn't suggesting that the number placement changed. I was just saying that in my mind's eye I picture the placement being different.

I can't recall a conference move that became effective 19 days after the vote and announcement (or even within a few months, for that matter). Feel free to correct me if my memory is failing me.

My memory has apparently been playing tricks on me through the years. If asked, I would have sworn that the numbers were aligned so that the horizontal center was lined up with the horizontal center of the P. Instead, it looks like the bottoms of the numbers were always aligned with the bottom of the P.

I'll second this. NJIT in the A-Sun makes almost no sense. They'd be fairly centrally located in the America East (or at least UMBC will make them centrally located). At a minimum, they would be much closer to the other members. And in the "You Learn Something New Every Day" category, I just learned that Stanford is an associate member of the America East in field hockey. Who knew?

The actual version is sooooo much better than this. The number placement makes this version look completely unbalanced.

That's even worse than Manhattan College being in the Bronx or Boston College being in Chestnut Hill.

Separate from the beveling (which is its own issue), the change in the shape of the letter is so minimal as to be almost unnoticeable . . . and the old one was more distinctive. The biggest problem with this one (and there are a number of problems) is that there is no logical reason for the underside of the hat brim to be blue on one side and white on the other (or at least I have always assumed there was a hat brim next to the plume, otherwise he is wearing half a hat). That always drove me crazy. Presumably, it wound up that way to distinguish the hat from the blue hair on the plume side of the logo. If so, that just means the hair/hat issue needed to be handled differently.

Why is the first hockey-stick-tailed buffalo running on top of an old turntable? And how is the other one snorting if it has been killed and mounted over someone's fireplace?

They are essential elements to the Roughnecks logo, but they overlay the entirety of the Oilers logo. One way to think about it is that, realistically, the Roughnecks logo would not be what it is if the Oilers logo didn't already exist (i.e., they almost certainly would have gone in another direction). Instead, they chose the logo they did because there is inherent value and goodwill associated with the Oilers logo. At a minimum, you would have a hard time convincing me otherwise.

I agree with this. The XFL would have little to no hope of succeeding in claiming the Oilers mark has been abandoned. They would probably sound foolish even raising the argument.

It's an interesting questions. Consumer surveys are a big part of trademark cases. In this case, I'd be curious to know how it would play out. I'm 52 years old, so I have very vivid memories of the Oilers. On the other hand, I know my sports (and my logos) well enough to know the difference between the Oilers and the Roughnecks. The hypothetical 20 year old would make for an intriguing test case.

The issue is likelihood of confusion as to the source/ownership of the product. The NFL and/or the Titans don't own the image of an oil derrick, per se, any more than the league or teams own the image of a star or a horseshoe or the profile of a bird's head. However, there are pretty striking similarities in the underlying designs, offset only by the star and the H overlaying the bottom of the derrick. Take those away and the remainder of the design is essentially identical to the Oilers logo.

I actually am a lawyer and I'm surprised the NFL hasn't raised the issue . . . particularly because the Oilers used to wear this helmet. My guess is that the NFL doesn't want to dignify and/or call more attention to the XFL by pressing the issue. That said, any concerns to that effect didn't stop the NFL from taking action against the Baltimore CFL Colts.* * -- The "CFL" was part of the name in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to provide a defense against likelihood of confusion claims.

How else would you know they're from Texas?

It looks the blue is a little darker too. A cleanup of the old one might have worked. However, tradition is almost the only thing it has going for it. The arched Brush Script lettering is terrible. Overall, I like the new logo and word mark. I only have two criticisms/comments: 1. I'm surprised there is no tertiary mark that just includes the I and the state outline. 2. I think this might have worked even better if the I matched the rest of the wordmark. This is particularly noticeable with the secondary mark. The style of the I doesn't seem to lend itself easily to a full alphabet, so the best option would probably be to match the I to the new wordmark.

The Patriot League tournament works the same way. The entire tournament is played on the home courts of the higher seeds. It works more like a single elimination playoff system like the NFL than a traditional "tournament". What you get out of it is: 1. A reward beyond just seeding for your regular season finish. 2. A guaranteed enthusiastic crowd for the games . . . particularly as the tournament progresses. No student is going to miss out on a conference final played five minutes from their dorm.

I'm really going to date myself, but if they're only going to be called Team 9, the look should be modeled after this guy.* * -- Racer X for you young'uns.

My head hurts.

I saw one on TV earlier this week. If might have been sitting on the desk on Scott Van Pelt's show, but my memory is failing me.

This is great. It reminds me (at least a little bit) of the Hershey Bears ... who started their history as the Hershey B'ars in a direct commercial tie-in.

Middle row left reminds me a lot of this:

If so, the logo is terrible. It reads as C-SUN*, not CSUN. * -- Sort of like A-Sun for the Atlantic Sun Conference.