OT: Uniforms and Big Ten Expansion, part 2

After reading Vasav's interesting and unique post yesterday on Big Ten expansion with regards to uniforms, I was inspired to respond. The results grew so large I thought I'd dump it into its own topic. After reading Vasav's initial post, the inevital question that begged to be asked, at least for me, then, is:

If the Big Ten WAS selecting teams solely on uniform individuality, who would be the prime contenders?

Might I suggest: 1. Oregon State or Oklahoma State. It's very hard to believe there are so many 'Tiger' teams in NCAA, yet save Princeton the only black and orange go to "Beavers" or "Cowboys." 2. Wyoming. Love 'em or hate 'em, there's very few teams with the audacity to go brown and yellow. Reminds me of 80's era Padres. Actually, before their Nike rebirth last year, I kinda liked the Cowboys' look. 3. Clemson. Again, audacity. Purple and Orange don't exactly roll off the aesthetic senses, do they? I say if you're going to go for it, embrace it-- wear the purple alts with the orange helmet and pants. 4. North Carolina. This stuff sells just because of the color. Enough said. I also like how they've added the dark blue, but don't ever go blue pants and jersey. Don't do me like that. 5. UCLA. When playing at home, they are their own brand. Nobody else comes close to looking like them. Hard to believe we can't find a way to bring more of the sky blue into the away uni's though. Adidas tried by losing the Old West numerals and going three-color block (complete with sky blue trim), but I still think they can do better. 6. Tulane. Forest Green. Sky blue. What's not to love?? Besides the team itself, of course... 7. Actually, Air Force. The royal blue and silver seems like it'd be everywhere, but there's very few who actually do it. Memphis is the only other I can think of... anyone I'm missing off the top of my head? I guess Nevada or Rice, but their blue is more navy and has a totally different feel. 8. Miami. Love 'em or hate 'em, it's one of the single most iconic color palettes not only in college football, but in the sports world at large. 9. UAB, USF or Colorado State. Sure we have Sparty wearing green, but throw in the gold and this is a totally different feel. I guess the Irish get lumped into this group when wearing their alts as well. 10. Virginia Tech. A turkey with a thing for maroon and orange. This should fail on so many levels, and yet it does not. Well played, Hokies. So that's close enough... and some reasons behind some other omissions: a. No to TULSA. Just because your uniforms are different don't make them any less hideous. Go Shavodrick your Beaver. b. No to TCU. Actually too close to Northwestern. Maybe if they went with their new Nike alts from last year, but I don't know if the Big Ten is ready for patterned helmets with stripes that replicate a frog's tendency to shoot blood from its eyes. Even I couldn't make this up, people. c. No to BOWLING GREEN. See item "a" above. d. Finally, no to OREGON. Why? Overkill. If conferences were formed on uniforms alone, they'd have formed the Eugene Ten years ago. Enough is enough. Obviously this is all one big worthless mess, and I'm sure in truth we're going to get at least one more RED team and probably another close-to-purdue/iowa team when all is said and done. I'm beginning to actually worry a bit that all this talk of 'swallowing' large portions of the Big East might mean a potential addition of West Virginia, which means they'd have the nerve to wear MAIZE and BLUE in our own conference. Unacceptable. Either way, Big Ten football will surely look a little different when the smoke has cleared. Maybe Penn State will have to go back to its original pink and black color scheme??