The soap opera between Indiana football and the Big Ten may not be quite over.
IU has removed the Big Ten logos from its jerseys and helmets ahead of Saturday’s Outback Bowl against Ole Miss. That fueled speculation it was in response to IU feeling slighted by the conference in bowl selection.
Indiana coach Tom Allen says that isn’t the case.
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A few hours after a social media post pointed out IU removed the Big Ten logo from its jerseys and helmets, IU coach Tom Allen released a statement.
“To clarify what we are wearing on our uniform and helmet for tomorrow’s Outback Bowl: since I took over as Indiana head coach, this program’s mantra has been LEO, Love Each Other. This season has been the most trying we will ever experience, and we felt it was appropriate to showcase LEO, which has carried us through one of the most historic years in Indiana Football history, We did not intend to show any disrespect to anyone. We are a proud member of the Big Ten and are always representing our conference, LEO is the foundation of our program and we want to bring in 2021 focusing on our team and Love Each Other. LEO!”
The logo switch was pointed out on social media by Ryan Cotter. The bowl logo replaced the Big Ten logo on the player’s right shoulder and the “B1G” on the helmet replaced by the “LEO” mantra. Allen addressed the LEO switch on the helmet in his statement, but nothing about the jersey logo switch.
Comparing new photos from IU bowl prep to ones from earlier in the season, previous bowl games and fellow Big Ten bowl participants, the Big Ten logo absence is noteworthy.
Here is what the Hoosiers’ jerseys looked like during last year’s Gator Bowl:
Ohio State (Sugar), Northwestern (Citrus) and Wisconsin (Duke’s Mayo) all sported Big Ten logos in their respective bowl games this week.
Despite being ranked No. 8 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 11 in the College Football Playoff rankings, Indiana was passed up for a New Year’s Six Bowl, then knocked down the bowl pecking order, as the Big Ten handed lower-ranked Northwestern the Citrus Bowl despite poorer results against like opponents.
More:Reaction to IU football missing a New Year’s Six bowl
This all happened after Big Ten reneged on a previous rule that would have put IU in the Big Ten title game.
Former IU athletic director Fred Glass told IndyStar Insider Zach Osterman Indiana was victimized by an entrenched political power structure unwilling to let IU into the party.
“I’m not AD anymore, nor officially affiliated with IU, so I can tell you what I think, and that is this: Our program, our coach and our kids got done in by the good-old-boy Big Ten football power structure,” Glass told IndyStar. “There are influential people who don’t want Indiana to be good in football. They’re used to coming into our state and poaching our best high school players, and counting us as a W on their schedules. That’s why they don’t advocate for us.”
Osterman wrote this following IU’s exclusion from NY6 and Citrus bowls:
“It’s awfully hard not to feel like IU got screwed, handed a rough introduction to the way things work at the top of the college football pyramid… The Hoosiers swallowed a bitter pill from the Big Ten, then another from the playoff committee, then another from the Big Ten. They deserved better than this, but that didn’t matter.”
