Ranking the School Nicknames - Big 12 and Big Ten

A few years ago, I did a list of my choices for the best, worst and weirdest college mascots/nicknames.  Now, I'd like to take it one step further and rank the school nicknames in each conference.  We will start in the middle part of the country with the Big 12 and Big Ten.

Please note that the teams listed for each conference are accurate as of the 2023-24 academic year. So, Texas and Oklahoma are included for the Big 12 (and excluded from a future post about the SEC) as are BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston. Likewise, UCLA and USC are NOT included for the Big Ten but will be included in a future post about the Pac 12. Also, please note that I'm ranking the school nicknames as opposed to the school's actual mascot.

Here we go, beginning with the Big 12 and ranking them from worst to best...

Big 12 School Nickname Rankings

14. Kansas State Wildcats - As I've addressed previously, "wildcats" is about the boring, most generic nickname a school can have.

13. Houston Cougars - Similarly, "cougars" is generic and too common, as illustrated by the fact that there are two schools with cougar nicknames in the conference.

12. BYU Cougars - Ditto, but BYU gets the nod by virtue of it being older and the fact that there are actually cougars in the mountains of Utah, while there certainly aren't any in Houston...at least beyond the saucy middle-aged ladies who may be having a fling with their pool boy.

11. UCF Knights - "Knights" is another fairly ordinary mascot that shows up in quite a few schools.  It's not as generic as "wildcats" and "cougars" but it's not exactly great, either.

10. Oklahoma State Cowboys/Cowgirls - This is another choice that's not particularly distinctive, though I do think their Pistol Pete mascot is pretty cool.  Deductions too for a gender specific name that forces you to call men's and women's teams by different nicknames.

9. Cincinnati Bearcats - No one really knows what the heck a bearcat is.  Is that the binturong (a mammal native to Asia)? Is it a made-up creature?  Who knows.  It's a somewhat common mascot amongst smaller schools, though less common in the major conference.

8. Baylor Bears - It's pretty generic, though there surprisingly are not very many schools in the Power 5/Power 6 conferences that have this nickname. Bonus points for the fact that the live bear mascots actually live on campus. Also, I'm a sucker for alliteration and there really aren't that many alliterative college nicknames.

7. Iowa State Cyclones - Cyclones is a nice choice for a school in the Midwest and it's unique.  The only thing that keeps it from being ranked higher is the fact that they also use an anthropomorphic cardinal as their mascot, which is somewhat confusing. Still, this is a good transition point for the generic/boring nicknames to the more interesting ones.

6. Texas Tech Red Raiders - Whereas Oklahoma State went with a generic "cowboys/cowgirls" moniker, Texas Tech chose to go with a more specific and mysterious nickname and is all the better for it.  While the "red raider" is essentially a masked cowboy on a horse (think the Lone Ranger clad in black and red), the name has a mystique that puts it a notch above the run of the mill cowboy.

5. Kansas Jayhawks - I'm a sucker for nicknames that are attributable to historical or geographic animals/features that are unique to a particular city, state or region. The "jayhawks" moniker harkens back to the Jayhawker militias from the Bleeding Kansas era of the Civil War, so it's unique and has a historical basis.  While I like to refer to their jayhawk mascot/logo as a dime store chicken, I'll also give it some credit for being unique.

4. TCU Horned Frogs - This one made my earlier list of "weirdest" college nicknames.  On the one hand, it is a tribute to the Texas horned lizard, the state reptile of Texas.  On the other hand, this critter is generally docile and typically only 4 to 5 inches long, so it's not exactly a fearsome mascot, despite the reported ability for some species to shoot blood from the corners of their eyes.  All in all, it's certainly a unique nickname and thus it slides in at the top 1/3 of our list.

3. West Virginia Mountaineers - West Virginia is a mountainous, largely rural state in the heart of Appalachia, so using "mountaineers" as their nickname makes perfect sense.  The fact that, each year, a different student is selected to dress up as the coonskin hat-wearing mountaineer mascot is also pretty great.

2. Oklahoma Sooners - Like Kansas, Oklahoma's nickname has a history tied to the history of the area itself that goes back to the 1800s and actually predates statehood.  In this case, it's a reference to the settlers who participated in the Land Rush of 1889.  Back then, the folks who got to the land first - sooner - were able to lay claim to it, though some of those "sooners" may have played fast and loose with the rules and thus had an unfair advantage.  To their credit, OU has made the most of their nickname by using the "Sooner schooner" - a covered wagon similar to what was used during the aforementioned land rush - as a symbol of the school.  A unique, historically relevant nickname?  Well done, Oklahoma, even if your fight song is one of the most annoying, repetitive fight songs on the planet.

1. Texas Longhorns - As I've relayed countless times before, I hate UT. I hate their self-important fans, their hideous colors and their stupid, nigh on offensive alma mater, not to mention their ridiculous Longhorn Network. However, having said that, utilizing "Longhorns" as their team nickname is a perfect choice that makes almost too much sense.  The whole mythology of Texas is cowboys and longhorn cattle and the Wild West and "Longhorns" helps tie that all together very nicely.  Now that I've praised them for their nickname, we can all go back to hoping their teams lose every game they ever play...

OK, so there you have my rankings of the school nicknames of the Big 12.  Whereas the Big 12 has  several meh nicknames, we're now transitioning to the Big Ten, a conference that, in my opinion, has far and away the best collection of nicknames of any major conference in the country.  As a result, this ranking was one of the more difficult I've done.  One interesting thing of note with this conference is how many of the school nicknames reflect or are based on the nicknames of the states in which they are based. 

Big Ten School Nickname Rankings

14. Northwestern Wildcats - Unfortunately, even in a conference that has a lot of great nicknames, you still have a few duds, none more obvious than this one.  The most academically selective and challenging school in the conference unfortunately has the blandest, most generic mascot imaginable.

13. Rutgers Scarlet Knights - Another conference, another "knights" mascot.  Yawn. They tried to spice it up by throwing the "scarlet" in there but it's still a knight.

12. Illinois Fighting Illini - Unique? Yes. Historically relevant? Also yes. Offensive? Yes, though perhaps not as much as it used to be with the whole Chief Illiniwek dancing thing.

11. Michigan State Spartans - Another generic nickname that, like "Knights" and "Trojans", is used by countless colleges and high schools throughout the country.

10. Penn State Nittany Lions - This is an example of how adding a little local flair can make a big difference.  Instead of going with the generic "cougars" or "lions," they add a nod to the local Mount Nittany, the foot of which is where Penn State's campus is located.

9. Iowa Hawkeyes - This is another mascot that has Native American beginnings (attributable to the nickname of a character from The Last of the Mohicans).  Over the years, however, that context has faded and been replaced by more of hawk/bird connotation. Like many of the nicknames to follow, this one is also based in part on the entire state's nickname.

8. Michigan Wolverines - Michigan is known as "The Wolverine State," though there's no universally accepted reason why.  Regardless, it makes perfect sense for the nickname of the state's flagship research university.

7. Wisconsin Badgers - Similar to Michigan, Wisconsin is known as "The Badger State" on account of some of the original miner settlers in the 1820s and 1830s living in tunnels and abandoned mine shafts like badgers.  As such, it's only natural for "badgers" to be the nickname of the state's flagship university. Wisconsin gets the nod over Michigan in this ranking due to the historical nature of the moniker and the fact that badgers can actually be found in Wisconsin, while wolverines cannot be found in Michigan.

6. Minnesota Golden Gophers - Like our last two entries, this nickname comes largely as a result of the state's nickname itself.  Minnesota is known as "The Gopher State," originally from a political cartoon in the 1850s.  Minnesota gets the slight nod over Wisconsin by spicing it up by adding a color and because I think their anthropomorphic mascot Goldy is just slightly cooler than Wisconsin's anthropomorphic mascot Bucky.

5. Ohio State Buckeyes - Another school, another nickname based on the state's nickname.  Ohio is "The Buckeye State" as nod to Ohio buckeye tree found all over the state.  Choosing a tree as a nickname as opposed to the more obvious and common choice of an animal gives Ohio State a spot in the top 5.

4. Indiana Hoosiers - In my previous blog post, this one made the list of "weirdest mascots." Like most of these, it's tied in to the state nickname.  Indiana is "The Hoosier State", so using "Hoosiers" as the school's nickname makes perfect sense.  What gets a little weird is that no one knows exactly what the heck a Hoosier is and there's no commonly accepted explanation for how that nickname came about. Regardless, it's the historical nickname applied to folks from Indiana, so it has a combination of both historical significance as well as a weird/mysterious origin that gives it a bit of added mystique.

3. Maryland Terrapins - Maryland selected "terrapins" as their nickname after the diamondback terrapin, which is a species of turtle that is native to the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland. It's a unique mascot that is a nod to the geography of the state, which makes it hard to beat.  In most conferences, it might be the top pick.  But in the rugged nickname landscape of the Big Ten, it's only good for 3rd place.

2. Purdue Boilermakers - Purdue is renowned for its engineering program and, in the early days of the university, its students actually maintained a fully operational steam locomotive.  A 1891 news story following a win by the Purdue football team referred to them as "the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue" and the Boilermakers moniker became the official school nickname the following year.  The fact that the official mascot is a locomotive called the "Boilermaker Special" just ties it all together beautifully.

1. Nebraska Cornhuskers - Not only is this one the best mascot in the Big Ten, it is probably the best mascot in the country among all major conferences.  Midwestern plains states like Nebraska are often associated with fields of corn and wheat.  As such, the picture of a person husking corn is a fitting image and thus a perfect nickname for a college in Nebraska.  It's topical, appropriate and unique, so it tops the list of nicknames in a conference that has a lot of unique choices.

There you have it: my rankings of the school nicknames in the Big 12 and the Big Ten.  We will continue this theme in an upcoming blog post in which we will rank nicknames for two more conferences.

Thanks for reading!