Isn’t that to differentiate from the Wolverines? (not snark)
Since none of us do, please enlighten us.
And come to think of it, the old New England Patriots and original/current New York Jets logos include pictures of footballs.
The “new” Jet is the old one. (same with Giants)
That’s what I meant.
And we could get into the multiple hockey teams with pictures of sticks or pucks on their logos, or the St. Louis Cardinals with a bat in theirs.
Elvis-Just now noticed “original/current” in your post. :o
Because “M” is the University of Michigan.
Indeed, the Vancouver Canucks’ alternate logo is nothing but a hockey stick. It’s the most baffling logo in sports. It literally says nothing except “we are a hockey team,” as if the fact that the men bearing the logo are already wearing hockey equipment and skates and carrying hockey sticks wasn’t enough to tell you they’re a hockey team. The logo says nothing else; there’s no indication of what hockey team it is. It just says “these hockey players are hockey players.”
It’s like an airline choosing to adorn its airplanes with pictures of another airplane.
The flip side is that the logo is brilliant in its simplicity. It’s a stick on a rink, with the stick poking out to form the outline of a “C.”
But still, at least the Canucks eventually learned to start waking up 5 minutes early so as not to be rushed into playing in their pajamas.
http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/tiger.jpg
Yeah, like zbuzz said, you’ve apparently been whooshed by that logo. The “positive space” is a V-shaped hockey stick for “Vancouver”, and the "negative space is a big letter “C”, for (of course) “Canucks”.
This is from the Canucks wiki…
Still not as bad as the Philidelphia Flyer Cooperalls.
How about the University of Miami just using a “U”? Or does that stand for 'Urricanes? Or is there an ‘M’ buried in there somewhere that I’m just not seeing?
Mostly, yes. Within the state of Michigan if you say “Michigan” in regard to universities or college athletics, everyone knows you are referring to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. If you say “State” it is assumed you are talking about Michigan State University in East Lansing. “State” is never used to refer to Wayne State University, Grand Valley State University, Ferris State University or any other University that has “State” in its name.
UofM and MSU are so prominent that saying “Michigan” or “State” is like saying “Elvis”, “Cher” or “Liberace”.
What are the common terms for the “compass schools” - EMU or Eastern etc.?
The sleeve patch logo is even better - the “M” and “St. P” twin brothers shaking hands across the river. Fantastic.
Eastern, Western, Central, or Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Central Michigan.
Wayne State University, Grand Valley State University, Ferris State University would be Wayne State, Grand Valley, and Ferris State.
The block S stands for State. My wife and I both went to MSU. I asked her, with no backstory, what the S in the MSU block S logo stood for. She looked at me like I was nuts and said “What do you mean?” I had to repeat the question to get her to answer “State”.
It is specifically just the U for University. I don’t remember the details, but it was picked ages ago to differentiate itself from Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and any other M schools that might be out there. Considering it’s the primary logo and the school uses the phrase “It’s all about the U,” semi-interestingly the baseball team still uses an Old English M on the baseball caps.
It stands for Uniform. It’s so they don’t show up at games in their street clothes.
I thought it stood for “unconvicted”. 
Not worthy of it’s own thread, but: It occurred to me last night that the Brooklyn Nets are the only professional US sports team I can think of that took the name of only part of the city in which it’s located. The only other example I can think of is Chelsea FC.