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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2019 6:16:04 GMT -6
Was perusing College message boards and web sites and came across The Summit League's page. Their conference motto is: "Reach The Summit". Where have I heard that before...or at least something similar? Well lo and behold, it's our very own conference, The Horizon League. The HL's Basketball Tournament theme is "Reach The Horizon". Wow, how original or even worse, how inescapable. Inescapable because the Horizon and Summit have been linked together for what seems like eons. 8 of our current 10 and soon to be 9 of our future 11 teams have come from the Summit. Before our respective league's name changes, they had similar sounding monikers: the MCC for our previously named iteration, The Midwestern Collegiate Conference and the Mid-Con for the Summit's previously named Mid-Continent Conference or Association of Mid-Continent Universities. The reason Commissioner Jon LeCrone gave at the time for hiring a firm to look into a name change was that the MCC wanted to differentiate itself from the other Midwestern leagues including the Mid-American Conference which sometimes would be called The MAC. But shortly after the MCC changed its name, the Mid-Con followed suit with their new name, The Summit. In my opinion, this was an effort to continue to align itself with the HL/MCC. Nevertheless, from a marketing and aesthetic standpoint, the name Horizon League was and still is a gross failure not to mention that outside of Butler's two-time NCAA title game appearances, the HL has done very little to distinguish itself from either the Summit or the MAC for that matter. I think it's time for the Horizon to scrap the current name and go back to The Midwestern Collegiate Conference. In this Millenial day and age of "coolness", vanity, shallowness and perception, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference or MCC for short is just what this League needs to help itself recruit some nice talent. The word "League" in college sports sounds boring and too much like a staid gathering of nerds. I'm quite aware that academics should be the main reason for going to college, but let's face it, a great majority go to play sports and to be seen on tv.
The Ivy League sounds boring and uninteresting and sounds like a consortium of bookworms. College sports leagues should have cool names and monikers like The Big Ten, The Big East, The Big South, the SEC, The Big West, The ACC, The MCC. Even the ASun sounds cooler than the Horizon League. It's time for Jon LeCrone and the Cabal to acknowledge their failed attempt at rebranding this conference and go back to the name which sounds like a place where student/athletes can go and experience the total college experience: great academics, the meeting of new and different people, winning athletics and a cool conference name!
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Post by ougrizz05 on Sept 22, 2019 7:03:49 GMT -6
Was perusing College message boards and web sites and came across The Summit League's page. Their conference motto is: "Reach The Summit". Where have I heard that before...or at least something similar? Well lo and behold, it's our very own conference, The Horizon League. The HL's Basketball Tournament theme is "Reach The Horizon". Wow, how original or even worse, how inescapable. Inescapable because the Horizon and Summit have been linked together for what seems like eons. 8 of our current 10 and soon to be 9 of our future 11 teams have come from the Summit. Before our respective league's name changes, they had similar sounding monikers: the MCC for our previously named iteration, The Midwestern Collegiate Conference and the Mid-Con for the Summit's previously named Mid-Continent Conference or Association of Mid-Continent Universities. The reason Commissioner Jon LeCrone gave at the time for hiring a firm to look into a name change was that the MCC wanted to differentiate itself from the other Midwestern leagues including the Mid-American Conference which sometimes would be called The MAC. But shortly after the MCC changed its name, the Mid-Con followed suit with their new name, The Summit. In my opinion, this was an effort to continue to align itself with the HL/MCC. Nevertheless, from a marketing and aesthetic standpoint, the name Horizon League was and still is a gross failure not to mention that outside of Butler's two-time NCAA title game appearances, the HL has done very little to distinguish itself from either the Summit or the MAC for that matter. I think it's time for the Horizon to scrap the current name and go back to The Midwestern Collegiate Conference. In this Millenial day and age of "coolness", vanity, shallowness and perception, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference or MCC for short is just what this League needs to help itself recruit some nice talent. The word "League" in college sports sounds boring and too much like a staid gathering of nerds. I'm quite aware that academics should be the main reason for going to college, but let's face it, a great majority go to play sports and to be seen on tv. The Ivy League sounds boring and uninteresting and sounds like a consortium of bookworms. College sports leagues should have cool names and monikers like The Big Ten, The Big East, The Big South, the SEC, The Big West, The ACC, The MCC. Even the ASun sounds cooler than the Horizon League. It's time for Jon LeCrone and the Cabal to acknowledge their failed attempt at rebranding this conference and go back to the name which sounds like a place where student/athletes can go and experience the total college experience: great academics, the meeting of new and different people, winning athletics and a cool conference name! I couldn't disagree more. The name is unique. Although Summit and Horizon are similar in definition, they are still distinguishable. A name change after all these years is a waste of time, $, and already established brand recognition. The on court product level of competition is on each school. Its up to each member institution to improve at this point. I would also say that Butler's run to the National championship game is another example of the league's success not failure. Of course it is extremely difficult to duplicate that success with another program. |
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Post by gbphoenix1 on Sept 23, 2019 14:29:44 GMT -6
Technically speaking the state of Kentucky is part of the south geographic region so MCC probably couldn't be used. It wouldn't fit for Robert Morris either which is located in the Northeast geographic region.
I have never really liked the Horizon League name but I am not sure it is a big part of the problem. Once everyone in the league gets their stuff together and is performing at a high level then feel free to change the name.
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Post by kevinudm on Sept 24, 2019 10:15:08 GMT -6
Conference names come in two varieties. Some names describe the conference members, either geographically (Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference) or by number (Big 10, Big 12). Other names are bland and generic (Horizon, Summit, AAC, CUSA) and could describe any group of institutions.
Conference membership has become so transitory that most of the descriptive names end up sounding silly. Louisville and Notre Dame are nowhere near the Atlantic coast; Utah, Colorado and Arizona are far removed from the Pacific. Neither the Big 10 nor the Big 12 have the right number of members. Dayton and Saint Louis are among the 14 members of the Atlantic 10. Inconsistencies abound.
The MCC name (originally Midwestern Cities Conference, later Midwestern Collegiate) was never a perfect fit for its members. Founding schools Oral Roberts and Oklahoma City are not particularly midwestern, and Evansville is less than a major metropolis. Subsequent members have not all been midwestern (La Salle, NKU) nor have the targeted universities (Belmont, Robert Morris and others). Worse yet, the MCC acronym was shared with the Mid Continent Conference.
It made sense for the HL to adopt a new name and "Horizon League" was as good as any. I prefer it to "Summit League" which is oddly evocative of mountains, when most of its membership is in the great plains region.
Rebranding is a slow and arduous process, a fact that Detroit Mercy alumni know all too well. There's little benefit to changing the HL name back to MCC or to anything else. The best way build the brand name would be for league members to score some non conference basketball upsets in November and December and to make some noise during March Madness.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 27, 2019 18:07:07 GMT -6
Was perusing College message boards and web sites and came across The Summit League's page. Their conference motto is: "Reach The Summit". Where have I heard that before...or at least something similar? Well lo and behold, it's our very own conference, The Horizon League. The HL's Basketball Tournament theme is "Reach The Horizon". Wow, how original or even worse, how inescapable. Inescapable because the Horizon and Summit have been linked together for what seems like eons. 8 of our current 10 and soon to be 9 of our future 11 teams have come from the Summit. Before our respective league's name changes, they had similar sounding monikers: the MCC for our previously named iteration, The Midwestern Collegiate Conference and the Mid-Con for the Summit's previously named Mid-Continent Conference or Association of Mid-Continent Universities. The reason Commissioner Jon LeCrone gave at the time for hiring a firm to look into a name change was that the MCC wanted to differentiate itself from the other Midwestern leagues including the Mid-American Conference which sometimes would be called The MAC. But shortly after the MCC changed its name, the Mid-Con followed suit with their new name, The Summit. In my opinion, this was an effort to continue to align itself with the HL/MCC. Nevertheless, from a marketing and aesthetic standpoint, the name Horizon League was and still is a gross failure not to mention that outside of Butler's two-time NCAA title game appearances, the HL has done very little to distinguish itself from either the Summit or the MAC for that matter. I think it's time for the Horizon to scrap the current name and go back to The Midwestern Collegiate Conference. In this Millenial day and age of "coolness", vanity, shallowness and perception, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference or MCC for short is just what this League needs to help itself recruit some nice talent. The word "League" in college sports sounds boring and too much like a staid gathering of nerds. I'm quite aware that academics should be the main reason for going to college, but let's face it, a great majority go to play sports and to be seen on tv. The Ivy League sounds boring and uninteresting and sounds like a consortium of bookworms. College sports leagues should have cool names and monikers like The Big Ten, The Big East, The Big South, the SEC, The Big West, The ACC, The MCC. Even the ASun sounds cooler than the Horizon League. It's time for Jon LeCrone and the Cabal to acknowledge their failed attempt at rebranding this conference and go back to the name which sounds like a place where student/athletes can go and experience the total college experience: great academics, the meeting of new and different people, winning athletics and a cool conference name! I always thought it was a mistake to give up the Midwestern Collegiate Conference name. Horizon League is a generic, bland name, that actually makes one think of the coastal areas instead of the interior part of the country. Perhaps there was some concern about confusion with the MAC and MCC, but at least there was a sense of identity with the old name. Unfortunately, I think we are stuck with the HL name for the foreseeable future. |
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Post by iwokeuplikethis on Dec 22, 2019 3:00:27 GMT -6
Casual CBB fan:
“Oh, the MCC? That must be a good mid-major league from the midwest like the MVC or MAC.”
“Oh, the Horizon League? Where even is that? Must be a low-major like the Summit”
One name sounds midwestern and historic. The other has no geographic connotation and sounds cartoonish.
It’s all about perception. The MCC is significantly better branding than the Horizon. IMO, the league should change its name back ASAP.
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