First, I've never heard of "The Street," so that makes be doubtful at the get-go. You'd think the Big 10 conference would be the first to release this, not some journalistic thing out of New York.
Second, agreed, if that's really the new logo, then it sucks.
Third, the way I read the article (which I don't think is legit), it implies that the design firm (Pentagram or whatever) suggested that the Leaders and Legends could be used as names - I don't think the article is implying that those are, in fact, the names of the two divisions.
Fourth, if those are the new names, then I'll consider picking a new favorite team because that would be fucking awful.