OT: Uniforms and Big Ten Expansion
If you're like me, you've grown tired of the same rehashed expansion opinions over the last four months. Here's a fresh, and admittedly ridiculous look at expansion.
Within the Big Ten, every team has a unique look on the football field - you'll never confuse one team for another within the conference as long as you aren't color blind. Unlike the Big XII and ACC, this has stayed true even after expansion (MSU and PSU). While Wisconsin and Penn State both have white helmets, Wisconsin's is dominated by their large, red "W" which distinguishes the two schools even before Wisconsin's red jerseys/numbers against Penn State's blue jerseys/numbers. While Indiana is also red and white, their red helmets give them a unique look. Minnesota's burgundy is significantly darker than Wisconsin's and Indiana's red. Iowa and Purdue share the black and gold - but nobody can confuse Iowa's black helmets for Purdue's gold helmets, and Iowa's gold pants have more in common with Michigan's maize than Purdue's gold. And before you dare say that Iowa's uniform colors could resemble Michigan's, with the confusion of the dark blue and the black - SACRILEGE! - the most iconic, and unique, helmets in DI-A football take care of those problems.
While the Pac-10 and Big East do a fine job of keeping a unique look for each school, the ACC has always had Maryland and NC State looking like each other, and expansion has brought the similarly dressed FSU and BC into the conference. The Big XII's formation saw Oklahoma State and Texas A&M in the same division as UT and OU. The sport's strongest conference on the field (at the moment), which can't even get unique nicknames for its schools, is woeful when it comes to unique uniforms. Georgia and Mississippi State not only share one of the most overdone nicknames in American sports, but they also share their colors and uniforms with iconic Alabama. The situation only worsened with the addition of Arkansas.
http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/index.htm
The last round of expansion saw the addition of Penn State, and their iconic look and unique nickname. This round of expansion, a number of schools are being evaluated for their media markets, their revenue potential, their academic prominence, and their athletic department. Now, the usual suspects will be evaluated on how their football team's visual identity clashes with/expands the look of the conference.
Notre Dame: the Big Ten's great white whale looks dangerously close to Purdue. Maybe will be more attractive if they don their green jerseys for league games
Pitt: Again, dangerously close to Purdue, but could fix it by returning to the look they won the 1976 national title with, and sported for 23 years.
Syracuse: Way too close to Illinois. Maybe if they switched their traditional orange lids to a blue ones.
Rutgers: Nearly identical to IU. Sorry, Scarlet Knights.
UConn: DING DING DING! The blue helmet would never be confused with Michigan's, or anyone else in the Big Ten.
Mizzou: Way too similar to Iowa, and that block M clearly resembles the logo of a better school. Change your helmets to a yellow, and maybe your jersey's too, and embrace the tiger head logo as opposed to the block M. Then we'll talk.
Nebraska: A big red "N" on a white helmet does not significantly distinguish them from Wisconsin's big red "W" on a white helmet
Iowa State: While the yellow pants would distinguish them from IU, they're still very close, I think. Again, maybe a yellow helmet?
Texas: Another winner, with the white helmet being significantly different from Penn State's and Wisconsin because of their unique "burnt" orange.
So, in conclusion:
Definitely: Texas, UConn
Maybe: Notre Dame, Pitt, Iowa State
With alterations: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Mizzou, Iowa State, Pitt
Never: Rutgers, Nebraska
Anybody I'm missing? Am I way off on some? Was this a really stupid topic?
I guess this eliminates Delaware from consideration.
Those helmet stealing bastards
I like the OP but it has me re-thinking my outfit today... hammer pants and an argyle sweater
irony.
all of those years. It all makes so much more sense now.
unless your TV is HD. Those flames are tiny.
Wisconsin and Indiana are pretty close. I don't see how a helmet change is enough of a difference to make this an issue.
"The Big Red" because Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio State all wear basically the same colors. Same thing goes for Arkansas, Utah and Stanford. Penn State and Michigan have the most traditional uniforms in college football.
Never really looked at the uniforms as a conference before. Pretty much every team in our conference keeps up with the traditional jerseys, besides most recently Minnesota. Every other conference has teams switching to alternate Black Jerseys and so forth.
Wisconsin - Traditional
MSU - Pretty traditional with minor changes
PSU - Very traditional
Mich - you know
Iowa - Traditional
Illini - Kinda
Northwestern - Traditional
Indiana - Traditional besides the year they changed up the jerseys
Purdue - Traditional
Minnesota - No
run out of meaningful things to discuss? Uniform color conflicts as it relates to Big 10 expansion? Really? The football season can not come soon enough.
Maryland wears way too much black to be confused with NC State. And their fans are easily identified by their wife-beaters.
And if Minnesota's colors are different than IU's, then Mississippi State's are different than Alabama's. IU and Alabama have just about identical colors (to be expected since they both call it crimson) while Mississippi State wears a very obvious maroon very similar to Minnesota's. Meanwhile Georgia's red is the same as Wisconsin's, and they have distinctive gray pants.
Also, if M doesn't look like Iowa, then ND doesn't look like Purdue.
Very true sir. I also take a little issue with the idea that UConn's blue helmet distinguishes them sufficiently from Penn State, but ISU's yellow pants aren't enough to set them apart from other red-wearing teams.
Remember their uniforms before Friedgen, before UnderArmour...
The black helmet with the iconic Maryland flag "M" logo, deep crimson jerseys with the rounded letters, just a hint of gold in just the right places? I believe Lamont Jordan rocked this jomph before going pro.
They were onto something there... then they scrapped 'em for the crap they wear now. It's a shame really.
The irony of it is that number font is part of their overall branding, they use it on everything else....and then plain block ones for the football unis.
That uniform screams Steelers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13636927@N03/4314054785/
Very close to being identical!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyfephotography/3221358918/
Only difference is one says NAVY.
http://www.pressboxonline.com/upload/1.28_navy_6.jpg
You are all suspended then!
You realize there are very specific, purposeful reasons behind those similarities, right? Hayden Fry deliberately copied the Steelers' uniforms since they were the era's dominant team and Iowa shared their colors. And Notre Dame got their colors from Navy, way back when they started their rivalry and Navy let ND borrow some spare uniforms, or so the story goes.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:38 PM ^
Iowa and Purdue's uniforms had a baby, it would be Mizzou
April 21st, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^
I'm pretty sure IU, Oklahoma, and Alabama have the exact same colors