2014 NCAA Football Uniform Changes
As we get prepared for the clock to strike on yet another wonderful season of collegiate football, teams of equipment managers have been working around the clock to get all the uniforms and such ready for the beginning of the year. New trends have hit athletic uniforms like never before. And with that, many different teams have adjusted to keep with the times. Many organizations claim they help with recruiting, but we know many release new jerseys just for the retail money. Regardless of the reason, there’s so many changes from year to year. I started doing this rundown three years ago now, and back then it was just documenting small changes and whatever (single) alternate helmets a team may have added. Now teams are adding 15 new uniforms, a dozen helmet designs, and are able to mix and match for a total of 125 different combinations. Sadly, my exaggerations aren’t that crazy. There’s already a ton of teams and uniforms to go through, so let’s get started.
SEC
- Alabama – Alabama was updated to Nike’s most recent template prior to the 2012 National Championship game, and they’ve been updated again to the template that Oregon debuted in their 2013 bowl game. Also, check out this fan made chrome helmet for the Tide, that I think looks great. Don’t worry, it won’t see the field anytime soon. But it’s still fun to see things like this and the guy that made it did a wonderful job on it.
- Arkansas – Arkansas has truly had some identity crises the past few years. Thankfully Arkansas dropped their awful “anthracite” uniforms last season, and this year they have another new set (they just recently received their new uniforms in 2012 I believe). When these new uniforms were revealed, I wasn’t sold on them. But the more I look at them the more I like them. They aren’t the greatest uniforms, but they are pretty decent. They just seem a bit unfinished with the tusks or whatever on the shoulders and down the pants leg. Also, Nike designed a new Lion King-looking front facing pig head, which was the butt (no pun intended) of many jokes when it was released.
- Auburn – No changes uniform wise for Auburn, sadly. Auburn is still stuck with UnderArmour’s older template, which means the shoulder and pant stripes are still messed up. Oddly enough though, during the annual picture day, there were a few players that wore pants with the full stripes. Also, there is a new 75thseason logo for Jordan-Hare Stadium. It’s already been printed on some shirts. I wouldn’t expect to see it much beyond that.
- Kentucky – Kentucky just recently added black to their uniforms, which looked pretty bad. I’d saw awful, but I’m saving that adjective for these new grey alternates. Hopefully the prototype grey lid won’t see the light of day. Why do this if you’re Kentucky? Anyone for that?! I can understand black for many teams, but grey? It makes no sense! What’s Nike’s reasoning for them? They resemble the famous Kentucky horse racing tracks? That’s laughable. Congrats Kentucky, you have an alternate road uniform that you may not get to wear. Also, there have been a few chrome lids floating around. I have to think the chrome silver and blue lids are real. These are hopefully not. I actually think the blue chrome helmet is nice. It could easily look pretty good paired with the blue shirts and white pants. Be smart Kentucky. Please.
- LSU – LSU has updated their Tiger head logo and the helmets now reflect that change. They originally tested this during their Spring Game, but have apparently decided to go to it full time, which is smart. Wouldn’t make sense to have two different renditions of the same logo like that just to keep the helmet slightly unchanged. And thankfully LSU has fixed their skinny uniform number issue.
- Mississippi State – The Bulldogs from Starkville will be wearing new uniforms in the season opener for the 100thanniversary of Davis Wade Stadium. It would be nice if they went to these full time versus the “too similar to Texas A&M” uniforms. Hopefully these will be worn more than just once. Sadly, they have the adidas “tire tread” template, but whatchya gonna do? The worst part about these are the pants with the giant MSU logo on the left hip only. That could’ve been done much better.
- Ole Miss – Ole Miss will be wearing #38 decals on one side of their helmets versus Memphis to honor Chucky Mullins, a player from the 1980s that was injured in a football incident that left him as a quadriplegic and passed away not long after due to a blood clot.
- Tennessee – UT will be switching to Nike following this season. Unfortunately that still means another year with adidas. There’s a rumor going around that the Vols will be getting a grey helmet to match their awful Smokey greys.
- Vanderbilt – Vandy will be revealing a new helmet on August 28th. There’s been no information regarding what it is, so I’m very interested to see it.
Pac 12
- Arizona – With the new uniforms rules dropped last season, Arizona had to drop the gradient numbers. Even though last year’s uniforms were new, the NCAA gave them a free pass since the ruling came down after Nike had designed these. So it was a year later and those uniforms still don’t look any better.
- Arizona State – In 2011, ASU and Nike revealed one of my favorite rebrands. This year, they’ve added a new copper uniform, to represent the rich mining history that Arizona is known for. I really like these, mainly because they did copper SO much better than their rivals.
- Colorado – New 125thseason logo for the Buffalos. Nothing real special here. Pretty basic design.
- Oregon – It’s always hard to plan and document changes for Oregon pre-season. There’s two things we know for certain though – they will be changing uniforms every week, and they’ll be wearing Nike’s newest template. Oregon debuted this template in their bowl game last year, and many teams have already switched over to it. They will be wearing base layer shirts with a blue collar to emphasize the team’s blue collar work ethic.
- UCLA – What’s wrong with adidas you may ask? This. And this.Actually everything about this UCLA “LA Steel” uniform that will be worn this year. They’re pretty similar to last year’s “Midnight LA” uniforms, except the UCLA stripes on the shoulder and the pant striping have been chopped into razor blade shapes, which doesn’t make much sense at all. The best thing going for this set is the helmet. But that’s not saying much. The good news? The normal UCLA blue jerseys will see the return of the traditional Clarendon font.
- Utah – UnderArmour released somenew uniforms for Utah this season, and they’re pretty underwhelming. Despite the fact that the Utes are using UA’s new template, the only thing worth noting is the mountain top motif that is used on the shoulders, as well as the base layer and socks. The shoulder mountains are a lot more detailed than the other two designs. It just feels kinda high schoolish. Not something I’d prefer to see on a college team. But hopefully they look better on the field. A new white helmet was revealed well before the new uniforms, so who knows if we’ll see these. The Utes will be wearing the Utah Tribal seal on their helmets for their game versus Arizona on November 22nd in a campaign to raise awareness for the Ute tribe.
- Washington – “Hello, Nike? Yes, we’d like some new uniforms. Oh! You have a new template?! GREAT! Let’s see what you can do!” That’s pretty much how it worked for many teams. And Washington is another team that got new Nike uniforms. And by that, I mean pretty much paint-by-numbers designs. The triangle inserts are meant to resemble the overhang of the Huskies’ stadium. But don’t those also represent a razorback’s tusk? Is Arkansas wearing a design that is meant for Washington? You’re confusing me Nike. Anyway, back to the design. The first number in every double-digit number (and every single digit for that) will have a gold arrow in the northwest corner to represent the Pacific Northwest, which “assert(s) the school’s ownership of the territory” (Nike). Yea, ok then. The color matchups aren’t awful. Some will always be better than others though. But I’m saddened that they removed the striping on the white helmet. I always thought that was a great helmet design.
Big 10
- Illinois – Another team with a full Nike rebrand, Illinois will be wearing three new sets of uniforms, complete with matching helmets. Sublimated vertical stripes throw back to the designs of the early 1900s. Word is that the blue uniforms won’t be ready this season for whatever reason, so expect to see more of the orange. The bookstore was selling grey retail jerseys, so we can just hope those won’t be ready ever. A mannequin in the athletic department weeks after the reveal shows that the number outline on the blue uniforms has been changed from blue to orange. Interesting to see which the real design is.
- Indiana – Last year Indiana attempted to jump on the “we have multiple uniform combinations and awesome looking helmets and such” bandwagon, and failed miserably. The helmets they broke out were absolutely comical, and they’re keeping them, and adding more, this year, which is pretty sad.
- Maryland – The Terps have changed conferences, and will now be competing in the Big 10. We haven’t seen much from Maryland as of yet, other than the new B1G patches on the jerseys. Two helmets have basically been confirmed through photo shoots and ads, but expect to see some other ones. The specifics of those helmets are unknown, so we’ll have to wait and see. Rumors are that they will reveal a brand new uniform later in the season.
- Michigan – Put Michigan in the group that adidas has no business ruining. They did so well before too. These are just hideous and embarrassing. Black stripes on a blue uniform? No maize pants? Awful. Way to go adidas, making yourselves look like even more of a joke. In a better change, the nose bumper now has a 3-D M logo, versus the Michigan wordmark last year.
- Michigan State – The Spartans have updated their look this year, removing the green shoulder yokes from the white tops. Also, a few mannequins were spotted with last year’s chrome helmet and the ProCombat uniform from a few years ago. MSU will be wearing all white on September 9th at Oregon, complete with new white helmet. That prompted this very nice fan-made concept.
- Minnesota – The Golden Gophers redesigned their uniforms last year, and they looked wonderful. This year they will be adding a new gold helmet, with their battle cry “Ski-U-Mah” on the helmet stripe twice – once on top and then again at the bottom. Odd that this helmet is the traditional glossy finish, while the other helmets are all matte.
- Nebraska – Nebraska will be playing their 125th season of football this year, so of course a logo was created to commemorate the occasion…Oh, and adidas went complete stupid once again in creating some absolutely crazy alternates for the Huskers. I wish I could say the worst part of these were the tire tread template, but there’s just so much wrong. Nebraska wearing anything but a white helmet is odd to me, so the matte red (that transitions abruptly to black in the back) is an eye sore. The chrome black and silver stripes and stencil font are annoying. The pant striping even has an “N” in the stripes! Ugh…adidas, please, just quit.
- Ohio State – Ohio State will be playing their 125thseason of football also and have a logo, as well. Nice to see the throwback uniform number font used as well as the helmet striping. As for the uniforms, the Buckeyes have updated to Nike’s most recent template. Also, there’s been some talk about the rivalry helmet making a return for a few games this season.
- Penn State – Penn State added names to the back of their jerseys last season. This year, with another new coach, more changes aren’t farfetched. The collar and arm sleeves were white when seen on a player during an outing, and there are rumors that numbers may be added to the helmets.
- Wisconsin – With the red lids from an alternate uniform a few years back, Wisconsin has now added a second red helmet to the arsenal.The first one just had the two white stripes, with the new one having a single white stripe with two black stripes on the outside of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if adidas releases new alternates for the Badgers later in the season.
ACC
- Duke – Duke revealed new uniforms this summer as a tribute to the 1989 ACC Championship team, making these 25 year anniversary uniforms. Chrome decal on the matte black helmet. Seems wrong to commemorate a team by designing new uniforms based on the old ones without doing it completely right. The helmets worn by the 1989 squad has a script “Duke” on them, yet these new ones have the present day “D” logo. And a BFBS uniform that was never worn back then. Just doesn’t seem like it should be that way.
- Florida State – I thought FSU had a really nice uniform before the change. I think the sleeve cuff and collar designs could look like cheap duct-tape at times, but it wasn’t truly that bad. When Nike and FSU announced that the changes on the new uniforms would be “subtle,” I had my concerns. Then the reveal. And these things are anything but subtle. Nike designed a new tribal pattern (that sounds wrong by itself doesn’t it?) and it’s repeated on the shoulder caps and the huge Nike collar. Thenumbers look ridiculously huge, but I can get used to that. The updated spear logo, which looks alright, now crosses on the back of the helmet, which feels pretty gimmicky. And speaking of gimmicky, the black/maroon/whatever jerseys and helmet are unnecessary. Actually, this whole update feels unnecessary.
- Louisville – Louisville will be wearing brand new all black uniforms against Miami on opening weekend. A new black helmet with a dark red logo is included, which is pretty tough to see. They aren’t wonderful. They could be much worse though. But good ole Bobby Petrino sure loves awful uniforms…
- Miami – Nike unveiled some new uniforms for Miami this summer. Reactions were all across the board, but I for one like them. I’m not a fan of the connecting stripe between the collar and shoulder caps. I really like how the Ibis logo was incorporated into the shoulder caps and new alternate helmets. Three new helmets were revealed, with the traditional helmet still in the arsenal. The orange helmets won’t be available this year though. The worst part of these are the grey uniforms, which are completely unnecessary. Anything is better than the eye-brow uniforms that were worn way too long.
- Pitt – Pittsburgh will be playing their 125thseason of football this year. A recruit posted this picture during the summer, which shows a possible new gold jersey and helmet. We can only hope the helmet dons the script wordmark of years past.
- Syracuse – Nike had their hands full this offseason with so many teams undergoing uniform changes, but they completely dropped the ball with Syracuse. These are easily the worst uniforms of the offseason. The super tall numbers are meant to represent the skyline of New York City, a city that is over FOUR HOURS away and on the opposite side of the state. The stripes in the numbers and shoulder caps are all at 44* angles, because Nike felt Ernie Davis’s #44 was such an important factor in Syracuse football history that it needed to be used like this. (I loved The Express: The Ernie Davis Movie, but all this is just absurd.)
Big 12
- Iowa State – I’ve liked Iowa State’s look for a while now. The Colts-inspired shoulder striping looks really good in red and yellow. For whatever reason I think their helmets have always been an issue. A block I (just like Illinois) just doesn’t work well on a helmet in my opinion. This year the Cyclones have added a matte red helmet. And it’s…alright. I still hate glossy decals on a matte helmet, but what are ya gonna do about it? It’s certainly inferior to the original glossy-finished helmet as you can see in this picture. Here’s what it looks like with the uniform, with an Instagram filter that makes it difficult to see well.
- Kansas – What happens when your basketball team makes the tournament every year and looks great doing so, and your football team is a laughingstock? You do this. That was actually last year. This year, adidas presents “Crimson Chrome” uniforms, which are just…disgusting. An oversized Jayhawk logo with a red body gets lost in a red helmet, complete with a chrome facemask and number on the other side (another bad trend recently). The full body Jayhawk, in only chrome, is placed on both shoulders. How many Jayhawk logos do you need?! I’m not even going to try to defend adidas, Kansas, or these uniforms. There isn’t one good thing about these. I feel bad for the Jayhawk for having to be plastered all of these…
- Oklahoma – There’s a few programs that have yet to wear alternates or change completely (well, at least not wear crazy alternates), and this list continues to decrease. And the saddest team to be removed from that list is Oklahoma. For whatever reason, the Sooners have a new set of alternates complete with new helmets. The helmets (and shouldersand collars) feature a wood grain pattern, supposedly to represent the Schooner. Yea, whatever. These are simply awful, even more so for a team that just did NOT need a new set of uniforms. Thankfully these are only alternates (which still doesn’t make sense to me), so hopefully we won’t see much of them. I do like the black base layer shirts though. Kinda odd that those were a point of emphasis during the reveal though…
- TCU – A white helmet for TCU has been floating around the web, and it’s been confirmed by a “source close to the program”. We’ll wait and see. I actually like the use of the chrome facemask and decals on it.
- West Virginia – The WVU Mountaineers received a rebranding of their uniforms last season, so no big changes this year. There has been a rumor going around that they will receive an all-black alternate.
Mountain West
- Air Force – The Falcons of the Air Force Academy have revealed a really nice alternate uniform. I’ve always been a fan of their color scheme, and feel these utilize that very well. The helmet is chrome, which is okay here, because it somewhat resembles the sky – you know, what a pilot would see. These are easily up towards the top of the best uniforms of the year.
- Boise State – The team that started the “oversized logo on one side, number on the other” trend is back at, this time with their first orange helmet. I actually like these, but think it would look better without the chrome.
- Fresno State – The Bulldogs have another set of new uniforms this year. New white and red uniforms and helmets this year, as well as a slightly new black alternate. Each uniform features a new number font. There’s also a new chrome bulldog head logo helmet. There’s also apparently a new blue jersey in the works. Fresno wore this last year.
- San Jose State – SJSU released a new helmet design, alongside some new uniforms. First off, the new yellow helmet consists of an SJ logo on one side and a possibly chrome Spartan logo on the other, with the spear stripe. The blue helmet is the same as last year. The team also appears to be wearing two new uniforms – a white top and a blue one. The yellow jersey is the same as last year.
- Wyoming – Wyoming is apparently going back to their old school look. Good, cause the recent attempts to look good failed miserably. The school posted pictures of their helmet history, and that look was included. So we’ll just have to see exactly what they do at this point.
American Athletic
- East Carolina – ECU was updated to Nike’s ProCombat template this season, so new uniforms came with that. A new, updated Pirate head logo was revealed late last season. Naturally the helmets reflected that change. Here’s a few prototypes a long with the black uniform that will return.
- Houston – The Houston Cougars will be playing in a new stadium this year, complete with new uniforms. The stadium and turf look pretty good. Sadly, the uniforms are simply a paint-by-numbers design straight from the Nike catalog. Thankfully they are better than last year’s uniforms. I do like the white helmet though. Just think it could’ve been much better.
- South Florida – South Florida revealed two new helmets – a matte green with a giant, oversized logo and a chrome lid (of course). I actually like the green lid. The chrome lid is just mainstream nowadays. USF had planned to wear “The Team” in place of player names on the back of their uniforms, but a new NCAA rule forbid that, citing only military schools are allowed to place anything similar to Honor, Integrity, etc.
- Southern Methodist – SMU has revealed some new uniforms, including the traditional blue jerseys. Sadly, all three jerseys are lacking any striping or anything, but these are pretty clean.
- Tulane – Tulane recently joined the uniform arms race and added many new different helmets last year. This year, the team has new home and road uniforms, which oddly enough, are different from each other. The home green uniforms feature the Arizona/Fresno State gradient stripes, while the white uniforms have a solid set of stripes. Tulane also changed their logo a bit, adding an awful shade of lime green. A new helmet was revealed that reflected the addition of lime green.
Conference USA
- Florida Atlantic – FAU used to have one of the best uniforms ever. And if you read this post last year you know just how hurt I was when they changed it. And they continue to make it even worse. Early in the offseason this picture was circulating of an all chrome red helmet including chrome red facemask. What was over looked by the uniform media was the nicely done chrome blue helmet with chrome silver facemask in the background. I certainly want to see that blue one. Burn the red one.
- Louisiana Tech – LaTech changed their helmet design last year from a white T to a red T that I think was a major downgrade. This year, they’ve made another small change. They’ve added the state of Louisiana flag crossed with the American flag on the back, which I think is pretty cool. Also, an alternate helmet was announced. This new helmet is basically the same, except with a bulldog logo. These will be worn versus UTEP on October 4th. It just seems a bit odd to have the dog facing the wrong way…
- Marshall – I recently ranked my top 25 college uniforms, and included Marshall in that list. They’ve dropped out since changing their home uniforms to this garbage. The helmets and away uniforms stay the same, thankfully. So, look good on the road, and awful at home. I just can’t believe they messed with perfection.
- Middle Tennessee State – MTSU will be playing in the C-USA for the first season this year. And, well of course, new uniforms! Each uniformis nothing but a cookie cutter design from Nike, which is the ugly trend of the year (except adidas. All of adidas). The new design also features a new, funky (pretty poor) number font. Sadly it doesn’t seem these early prototypes will see any playing time.
- Old Dominion – ODU will be wearing new uniforms and helmets this year, which are nothing but rip offs of other teams. The helmet is straight from Navy, the jerseys are Arizona/Fresno State gradient stripes, and the pants are from Miami’s old eyebrow uniforms. We saw these helmets last year, so expect to see these more.
- Southern Miss – The Golden Eagles of USM revealed many prototype helmets over the season. Some are pretty nice (#4and #5) and some are just awful (#2 and #6). It’s a mystery as to if any of these will see the field or not. A few others didn’t make it into the collage, including this nice chrome helmet.
- UAB – U of Alabama at Birmingham released some new uniforms this year, along with a radical new helmet design. The helmet consists of two oversized dragon heads with dragon scales at the bottom of the lid. Thankfully they didn’t add a number to one side like the recent trend has been. The uniforms on the other hand are pretty bland. Shoulder caps consist of the dragon scale design from the helmet. Here’s what they looked like previously.
- UTSA – A new helmet for the UTSA Roadrunners is on taps for this season. The helmet has a matte finish with what appears to be a chrome logo on one side, and (sadly) the player numbers on the other.
- Western Kentucky – With their (awful) new redesign last year, Western Kentucky has added a new red chrome helmet. I can’t really decide if I like it better or worse than the original lid.
MAC
- Akron – What do you do when you’re a small school like Akron and haven’t had a winning season since 2005? You do whatever you can to help with recruiting. And in today’s world, that means new uniforms. And adidas was fully obliged to give them some new uniforms. Except they’re very loud. A new gold chrome lid was floating around the internet for a long time. Akron finally confirmed it, and then Coach Terry Bowden confirmed that a white chrome lid would be coming soon. Also included are a new set of uniforms. Thus far we’ve only seen the black uniform. This jersey was on display, but it looks like everything was just pinned in place. The kangaroo head on the shoulders would be interesting to see, yet probably laughable. Another helmet was seen online, this time a matte blue lid with a poorly photoshoped decal. There’s a tank patch on the back of the uniforms to honor a former assistant coach that passed away in a car accident in December.
- Ball State – Nike has awarded Ball State with a new all black uniform, including a matte black helmet. They also received new red jerseys. This is what they used to look like.
- Buffalo – After an embarrassing rebranding as “The State University of New York in Buffalo” last year, they are adding that awful name/moniker/whatever to their playing surface. Buffalo (as I will always refer to them) will also be breaking out an all black uniform, complete with matte black helmet, when they host Baylor on September 12th, a nationally televised game.
- Central Michigan – Here’s a team that revealed some pretty decent new uniforms two years ago that has another set of new uniforms. These are a great upgrade over an already good looking set. Unfortunately, they consist of adidas’ pitiful tire track template. I do like the yellow alternate with maroon shoulder yokes. Can’t wait to see what they wear the rest of the year.
- Eastern Michigan – EMU revealed a ton of new uniform combinations a year or two ago. Here’s all the helmets after returning from the manufacturer. This year, they’ve added a grey turf field. I honestly don’t even want to know why.
- Northern Illinois – The Huskies of NIU have new uniforms and helmets. They’ll also be wearing some corn uniforms on opening weekend to coincide with the annual DeKalb Corn Festival. The jerseys will be auctioned off at the festival to benefit local charities. Northern Illinois wore these the past few years.
- Toledo – I’ll save you the “Holy Toledo” joke today. But thankfully Toledo has new uniforms, and boy do they look good! Thankfully the rocket logo has returned to the helmet…on one side. The other has the TU logo, which is better than a player number. I really like these. They’rebetter than anythingthey’ve wornrecently.
SunBelt
- Appalachian State – App State will be playing their first year in the SunBelt Conference, so new uniforms are on tap. The helmet consists of a gold chrome facemask and the old Yoself logo. The jerseys feature what seems to be a custom font, which lacks a lot. The design isn’t the worst, but it’s kinda sad being they revealed some pretty nice new uniforms last season.
- Arkansas State – A photo of ASU’s recruiting table circulated around the webs over the summer and it revealed many new uniform aspects for the RedWolves. The matte red and black matte with oversized RedWolf head logo helmets are two brand new lids. The white helmet is an older lid, but the red stripe is a new addition. All the jerseys are the same as the past season, even the red numbers on grey jersey that they wore at Auburn that caused a lot of mis-information. We won’t get into that today. Since then they revealed their new black uniforms, complete with adidas’ tire tread template. Ugh. A new 100th season of football logo was also revealed.
- Georgia Southern – Georgia Southern has new jerseys to reflect their switch to the SunBelt Conference. Thankfully that’s all that changed.
- Louisiana-Monroe – UL-Monroe has added some chrome detailed decals to their helmets. They also now have three different facemask combinations – white, maroon, and chrome gold – which is a nice change of pace from the different helmets many teams have.
Independents
- Army – This picture was posted extremely early in the summer. Ever since then there have been some rumors about new helmets on tap for Army.
- BYU – BYU announced once again that they will be having a few color-outs – a white-out versus Virginia, a black-out versus UNLV, and they’ll also be wearing their gorgeous throwbacks versus Utah State. I know I’m not alone in wishing they would go back to the royal full time.
- Navy – The Naval Academy switched from Nike to UnderArmour over the off-season, and received a new uniform design. The jerseys consist of six stripes across the back and front, representing the six Naval fleets. The stripes certainly look bigger on the retail jersey than the on-field version. Will be interesting to see how they look on field. Another thing to watch will be if the Army-Navy game helmet will make a return with UnderArmour. Although the helmet was used with a Nike uniform, the helmet itself was made by HydroGraphics Inc, the company that makes all of Oregon’s helmets and many other teams. I for one would like to see it again, if not full time.
- Notre Dame – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are another team that switched to UnderArmour over the off-season, this time changing from adidas. UnderArmour revealed the new uniforms and they look great! UA didn’t change much at all with the basic uniforms. Some new accessories, but that’s always part of the deal. Notre Dame also has a new uniform for their Shamrock Series game, which thankfully isn’t as wild as in year’s past. The helmets feature the pattern from the Gold Dome that the normal helmets are based off, as well as the ND logo for the very first time in school history. The shoulders and base layer feature a design that is visible inside one of the buildings on campus. The pants feature a bandaid stripe, with the left leg reading NOTRE DAME. Also, Notre Dame changed from a traditional grass field to a new turf field, complete with the mid-field logo, which I believe is the first time ever for that.
That’s all the Division 1 – FBS teams that changed their uniforms this season. Crazy, right? Well, just wait. Rather than breaking up the smaller schools by conference, or even division, they’ll all just be below in alphabetical order. Here we go!
- Campbell – The Campbell Fighting Camels (Yes, seriously) an FCS team out of North Carolina, has a new set of helmets as well as UnderArmour uniforms.
- Central Arkansas – The team with the crazy purple and grey field has added a new matte grey helmet.
- Charleston – The University of Charleston Golden Eagles have a new UConn-inspired helmet.
- Citadel – The Citadel has added a few new helmets. Two differentcamo helmetsand a chrome lid. No word if these will actually be used on field or not. They will be wearing nameplates with Honor, Duty, and Respect though.
- Colgate – Possibly the smallest change of the year, Colgate went from a solid maroon helmet to one that now transitions to black at the bottom of the helmet. Always have loved the ‘gate helmet decals.
- Dartmouth – Dartmouth, an Ivy League team, has released an alternate set of their uniforms. They typically wear these.
- Davidson – Another FCS team with new uniforms, that unfortunately follow the trend of logo on one side of the helmet and player numbers on the other.
- Florida A&M – FAMU, a school famous for their awful orange and green uniforms, showcased three prototype helmets. Two consist of a nice Rattler head logo, one on a white lid, the other on some odd snake skin helmet. Unfortunately, the Rattler head decal is mostly transparent. It would be nice to see it given some color rather than just having an outline on a helmet. The third helmet is a green chrome lid, with a white stripe that features that odd snake skin design. The lack of any decals makes it seem like this was a work-in-progress prototype at the time of the photos. Call me crazy, but I’d like to see those hit the field sometime. A team like FAMU could always use a little spark(le) like that.
- Georgetown – The Hoyas have a new uniform that looks like Miami’s old eye brow uniforms.
- Liberty – An FCS team, Liberty University has some new uniforms that add up for 27 different combinations. Three sets of jerseys, pants, and helmets are now available to mix and match. The red and white helmets seem to be matte, with the blue being glossy. The Flames wore these last year.
- Mercer – Mercer seems to have new uniforms from adidas, tire tread and all. The helmet seems to be matte. These are their uniforms from last year.
- Morehead State – Remember UConn’s radical husky head helmets? Yea, Morehead stole that idea, but placed an eagle in the stripe. The eagle head bulging out at the front of the helmet, and the stripe being chrome, certainly don’t help their cause. They did one-up UConn by adding adecal to the side of the helmets though.
- Murray State – A new set of logos was revealed for Murray State over the summer, so the football helmets naturally reflected that change. I like the checkerboard stripe, but just wish it fit the stripe better. Feels incomplete.
- Nicholls State – Nicholls State has a new matte grey helmet. Gotta say, it looks pretty good.
- North Arizona – New uniforms for the Lumberjacks.
- North Dakota State – The three-in-a-row FCS Champions NDSU Bison have new uniforms. The yellow uniforms will be revealed later on.
- Sam Houston State – New uniforms on tap for the Bearkats this season. Seems to include a matte helmet. They wore these uniforms last season.
- Steven F. Austin – SFA has new South Carolina inspired UnderArmour uniforms this season. A new custom number font dons the jerseys, as well as a new shoulder design. Also they have a new matte helmet design. They wore these last year.
- Tennessee Tech – TTU showed off a great prototype helmet at the earliest parts of the offseason. It appears to be chrome purple, but tough to tell for sure. I hope this does see some playing time.
- Western Carolina – The Catamounts have some new adidas uniforms on tap for this season.
- Westminster College – a D3 school has a new helmet. They wore these uniforms last year. It’ll be a rough looking combination if worn with the home navys.
Yea, that’s a lot of uniform news. Some schools look good, some look others. Some changes were for the better, many more were just awful. These will certainly not be the only new uniforms for the year. Many teams will reveal new uniforms a few days, if not immediately before, the game they wear the uniforms in. Lots of new uniforms to come, so let’s just wait and see what comes! Here’s to a great year of college football. Hopefully the action is better than what many of the teams look like on the field.
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