Why Your Mascot Sucks: BYE

As we approach the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tourament, we at B5Q thought it was time to brush off the cobwebs of the Why Your Mascot Sucks series for the run of the tournament.

As you may know, unless you have been living under a rock, the Big Ten Champions and No. 1 ranked Wisconsin Badgers had a fairly decent season, finishing the season without a blemish on their record at 13-0.

Finishing the season undefeated has aided Wisconsin in the tournament, giving them the overall No. 1 seed, setting them up on a collision course with the Byes of Bye in the opening round.

Origins

The Byes have a rich history in collegiate sports. Playing top-seeded teams in conferences each season, with this being their first foray into the Women’s NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

Like most programs, Bye took up the school color as its mascot when it first started competing in athletics. That color? Clear. Some would even say translucent, or non-existent. Which in my opinion is way better than a Gopher, or something as ridiculous as a Buckeye, which is literally a tree nut.

However, the program grew tired of being unseen, which led to much debate and eventually a formal vote was put into place. However, none of the students showed up and no votes were cast, leading the school mascot to be nothing, which remains the case until today.

While years of inactivity have plagued the program, it did get a bit of a bump in popularity in 2000, when N’SYNC released their chart-topping smash hit, Bye Bye Bye.

Appearance

Where to begin? Their mascot is not much to look at. It’s also less than memorable...I doubt you could even pick it out of a crowd.

I do have to admit, I do admire the simplicity of it. They really leaned into the use of blank space when designing it. A lot of programs have a hard time honing in their design ideas when creating their mascots and tend to overlook things, but not the Bye.

However, there is hot debate that the Bye mascot, is just the word ‘Bye,’ but I do not buy into that theory. The program’s name cannot also be its mascot. That is just lazy. Overall, it’s respectable that they have never strayed from the design, and while some may find it appealing, I just don’t see it.