Ranking CUSA Football Nicknames

[jdennis82]

Inspired by Grantland's NBA ranking (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9581428/the-definitive-guide-nba-team-names-part-1), I decided to rank the CUSA football team nicknames.

Admittedly, there was little research done when compiling this list.

Enjoy...

13 (tie): Rice Owls / Florida Atlantic Owls

Just too boring an animal to represent a football team.

12. Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

Ferocious? Yes. Unique? No

11. FIU Panthers

I don't know why they dropped the "Golden" adjective, but with the number of color reference nicknames in CUSA, the simplicity of using a single commonly-used animal name gets lost in the shuffle.

10. Southern Miss Golden Eagles

A step up from FIU, while the "Eagle" nickname is found in every high school football district, adding "Golden" is an improvement.

9. Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Yes, it's intimidating but a landlocked state with the the nickname of "Hurricane"? Apparently, they started with "Golden" due to new jerseys and desired "Golden Tornadoes" but the moniker was already taken thus the move to "Golden Hurricane."

8. East Carolina Pirates

It may be somewhat common and there are certainly more creative ways to reference the same...umm...people group(?), occupation(?), "Pirates" will always be cool and inspires some of the best mascots.

7. UAB Blazers

Less impressive when referenced behind "UAB" but "Birmingham Blazers" has an awesome ring to it.

6. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

"Raiders" shares the mascot potential that "Pirates" enjoys and adding a color reference earns a recognition factor bonus.

5. UTEP Miners

Simple, short, and sweet. Associated with hard, strong work, it's a great match for football.

4. UTSA Roadrunners

A name that brings to mind incredible speed and - thanks to the cartoon - craftiness. It seems very appropriate for the direction college football offenses have gone.

3. North Texas Mean Green

Very unique and recognizable but loses points due to more national association with a singular player rather than the team.

2. Tulane Green Wave

The name is both distinctive and geographically sensical.

1. Marshall Thundering Herd

Hard to find a better representation of what you'd like a football team to look and sound like as they take the field on gameday.

[Hunter Green]

Well done, sir.

GO MEAN GREEN!

[Travis]

That list... but switch Blue Raiders and UAB Blazers. And switch Mean Green and Green Wave.

[mdmeangreen]

Awesome list- for the most part totally agree.

[Grant.UNT]

who doesn't love lists!?

especially when they are 100% opinion driven and ambiguous. I don't love it nor do I hate it. it just... is.

[letsgiveacheer]

C-USA does like its colors!

But here are some of the worse nicknames in the entire country, in my opinion. Tulsa's makes no sense at all. UAB? Who wants to be named after an article of clothing? West Virginia is not exactly known for his vast plains and thundering herds of livestock. Raiders? Raiding what...other colors? Bulldogs, Owls, Panthers, Golden Eagles are boring.

There are some good ones: Green Wave, Pirates (very approipriate for their geographical location), Roadrunners, Miners and of course, our own beloved Mean Green. Thank goodness we switched from Eagles but I liked our original nickname, the "Normal Boys"

[oldguystudent]

Did the Normal Boys offset the Oddfellows?

[KingDL1]

Golden Hurricane has always sounded perverse to me, it may be that my mind is in low places.

[foutsrouts]

C-USA does like its colors!

But here are some of the worse nicknames in the entire country, in my opinion. Tulsa's makes no sense at all. UAB? Who wants to be named after an article of clothing? West Virginia is not exactly known for his vast plains and thundering herds of livestock. Raiders? Raiding what...other colors? Bulldogs, Owls, Panthers, Golden Eagles are boring.

There are some good ones: Green Wave, Pirates (very approipriate for their geographical location), Roadrunners, Miners and of course, our own beloved Mean Green. Thank goodness we switched from Eagles but I liked our original nickname, the "Normal Boys"

Tulsa's is too close to "The Tulsa Golden Showers", and Tulane's sounds like they copied it from Alabama. I rank ours number one for originality.

[foutsrouts]

Golden Hurricane has always sounded perverse to me, it may be that my mind is in low places.

Oops, you beat me to it.

Edited August 29, 2013 by foutsrouts

[NorthTexan95]

Blah. Disagree with many of you choices. You get negative points for thinking Mean Green refers to Joe Greene

[KingDL1]

I would have ranked the MEAN GREEN number 1

[mdmeangreen]

Golden Hurricane has always sounded perverse to me, it may be that my mind is in low places.

LOL!!!!

[forevereagle]

I would have ranked the MEAN GREEN number 1

Are you feeling ok, your post looks a bit plummy today.

[KingDL1]

Are you feeling ok, your post looks a bit plummy today.

Yeah you know opening game a homer at heart, I am likely to see Jim Saturday if he is at the game. He could be rubbing off on me.

[GreenBat]

Golden Hurricane has always sounded perverse to me, it may be that my mind is in low places.

It's gonna be a piss storm when the Golden Hurricane come to Town!

[jdennis82]

Blah. Disagree with many of you choices. You get negative points for thinking Mean Green refers to Joe Greene

3. North Texas Mean Green

Very unique and recognizable but loses points due to more national association with a singular player rather than the team.

Never said I thought it referred to Mean Joe, but ask at least 90% of college football fans across the nation and that's the assumption they'd make.

[FirefightnRick]

Never said I thought it referred to Mean Joe, but ask at least 90% of college football fans across the nation and that's the assumption they'd make.

No one said college football fans were smart. Then you have media like ESPN who are allowed to get it wrong without being corrected by our own officials and you get what you get.

I'll simply take learning the locals as a start and go from there. A string of wins would surely help.

Rick

[Christopher Walker]

Golden Hurricane has always sounded perverse to me, it may be that my mind is in low places.

Whilst your body is flying high.