League to scrap roman numerals for Super Bowl 50

“Super Bowl 50” just looks better than “Super Bowl L.”

X, V and I are nicely symmetrical, but with the unbalanced L in line for the 2015 season, the NFL decided to scrap the Roman numerals for a year.

The championship game in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 7, 2016, will be known as “Super Bowl 50.”

The league has been contemplating this eventuality for nearly a decade, ever since the 40th edition ended with XL — which is not only visually pleasing but seemed an appropriate description of the extravaganza the Super Bowl has become.

Starting last April, NFL executives viewed more than 70 potential logos for the 2016 game. They found it’s hard to build an attractive image around what league vice president Jaime Weston calls “the lonely L.”

Using the big 5-0 instead had the added benefit of emphasizing the significance of the Super Bowl’s 50th iteration. That allows the NFL to celebrate the milestone all season long.

In 2017 in Houston, though, the game will revert to “Super Bowl LI.” Adding that I to the end squares off the L and makes it more adaptable graphically.

— The Associated Press