“America 12″ is bad name

At a time when college football conferences need to find new and creative ways to survive, it’s not encouraging for me to realize they have no creativity whatsoever.

What I’m talking about is names, as in the soon-to-be-named America 12 Conference.  All that tells me is that it failed to be a regional conference, so it’s going to name itself after a country. Great idea. Maybe it should have gone with the Western Hemisphere Conference, just in case.

Traditionally, conferences have been uncreative and dull when they’ve named themselves. Big 12? Big Ten? Big East? Big West? At least Mountain West has a touch of swagger and identity. The Big Sky has some romance, as does Sun Belt. Atlantic Coast Conference? Fine by me.

Why the  Big East would name itself America 12 gives me heartburn for another reason: How does it know it’s going to be 12? Some are saying the end result will be 16-team conferences, then it would need to change  its name again – more confusion. It could also lose teams.

I understand how the Pac-12 and Big Ten might struggle with expansion and naming. They’ve been around awhile. But the America 12 would be practically a new conference. Why start off on the wrong foot? Will it soon be the America 16? America 10?

Hint to any conference of the future: Don’t put a number in your name.

That way you don’t need to keep changing your stationery and logos.

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