Madonna, Prince, Sting, Bono. Bozo. Only the most notorious are known by a single name. The elite of the elite, though, are known by the most extreme of abbreviations: a single letter.
Quick, name these schools:
Yeah, Rutgers is sort of crashing the party. Fortunately for them, though, Rhode Island is the only state that begins with the letter "R," and it's common knowledge that it lacks the acreage for a standard football field, so while the red block "R" may induce blank stares in college football fans, at least they won’t confuse it with another team.
The most arrogant of college football logos, though, has to be Miami’s, which uses as its single identifying character not the "M" for "Miami," but the "U" for "University," as if it’s the only one:
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Some schools have a bit more competition for their letters, and must therefore add some unique flourish to distinguish themselves from the rabble. Georgia opted for The Squish, Wisconsin went with The Arc and Drop Shadow, Minnesota designed something best described as Crouching Spider, and poor Arizona couldn’t make up its mind and tried three times before giving up.
The most insecure of programs find the graphical flourish insufficient and cave to their compulsion to actually spell out their name to avoid any confusion.
What does one do when the fickle muse abandons you and leaves you to your own devices? Why, scooch your two letters together, of course, so that they touch! It’s the height of artistic inspiration!
Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Houston will see you your touch and raise you an overlap, sir, and yes, Kentucky’s cease and desist to Houston for trademark infringement is in the mail, thank you.
But what do you do if you want to emphasize that you are, in fact, a university, if your school name consists of two or more words, or your state of origin is so big that it requires subdivision into sectors? In other words, what if you have too many letters and too little room? You take a page from the Japanese and the people who brought you Pringles: you stack ‘em.
So there they are. The Boring 29.
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