Indiana University Brings Back the Bison

The time has come.

On the one hand, I never thought I’d be writing this blog. Indiana’s mascots have been a hot topic for Crimson Quarry basically since the Blog’s inception, with Auston Matricardi making the case to bring back the Bison as early as 2018.

Recently though, there’s been smoke. It wasn’t a massive secret, but the athletic department had been hinting at this move for a while now, starting with football releasing graphics with Bison horns, all the way up to a video last week showing a glimpse of horns.

Now, it’s official:

While it’s not clear that the original incarnation had a name, the new/old mascot is named Hoosier the Bison, honoring both Indiana University’s past mascots and Indiana’s historic connection to the animal, which appeals on the state seal.

The internet will, of course, feature people who disagree with this move for some reason – but there’s really no way to justify being mad about this.

First and foremost, adding a mascot gives the school and athletic department marketing and branding opportunities that simply didn’t exist before.

The Good Brand, Homefield Apparel, has featured the bison for some time now, but suddenly it’s not a callback to times past. It’s a real-life revenue stream that the school can use to put cash in athletes’ pockets.

Which brings me to the second point: Indiana’s only Rose Bowl appearance came when it had a mascot.

Now, this isn’t necessarily a prediction that Indiana will make the Rose Bowl this season, but Curt Cignetti has made it clear that he plans on making Indiana nationally relevant for the longhaul.

Teri Moren already has a powerhouse program, and Darian DeVries has shown promise in his first months of bringing Indiana back to the highest tier of men’s basketball.

The point is – Indiana athletics could be set to enter its golden age. This means more media exposure, both in nationally televised games and the ads that networks use to promote those marquee events, like March Madness and the College Football Playoff.

In the absence of an official mascot, networks have had to get creative in their representations of IU.

The safe approach is to show some B-Roll or Indiana’s fanbase or campus landmarks like the Sample Gates, but there have been some strange ones too. I can’t find the full image online, but one Big Ten promo featured a cartoon Tom Crean in candy Stripes attempting to dance?

Hoosier the Bison fills that void. No longer will TV producers with little to no knowledge of Indiana and its history have to reach to figure out how to feature us in the run up to the 2025 College Football Playoff.

The Bison is Back, and hopefully here for good this time.