2015 NCAA Uniform Changes
Yet another season of college football is just around the corner. Fall camps have started and the players and coaches are getting back into the swing of things. Fans are already planning their trips and tailgates for fall weekends, enjoying the game and campuses they love.
As for the rest of the summer, equipment teams all across the country were working countless hours every single week getting every last piece of equipment in the right spot. Outside of the typical cleaning, restocking, reconditioning, and fitting of players, many teams – the number of teams continues to grow – are putting the final touches on new uniforms that they either revealed during the offseason or will reveal at some point during this season.
For the fourth straight year, I will be compiling a comprehensive list of new uniforms and countless updates from across the NCAA football spectrum, from the Power 5 conferences down to the lower divisions of the sport. Before we start with each team, there was a rule change regarding uniforms – well, facemasks to be exact. This past summer, the NCAA followed the NFL’s lead and banned “overbuilt” facemasks. The NFL claimed the larger masks to be a weight issue, which would lead to a heavier load on the neck and in turn the head. The NCAA also claimed weight to be an issue, but also cited the risk of players’ fingers getting stuck within the small openings. Here is the list of approved facemasks, while a list of banned designs can be seen here.
ACC:
- The ACC changed logos last year, and teams are already wearing a new conference patch on their jerseys after wearing the new logo last year.
- Boston College – For their game in Fenway against Notre Dame, the Holy War, the BC Eagles will wear some Flutie era throwbacks. The sleeve stripes worn on the 1985 team has been moved to the undershirt sleeves.
- Clemson – a chrome prototype helmet was shown very early in the season. Doubt this will actually hit the field though.
- Duke – After honoring the 1989 ACC championship team with throwback uniforms, Duke is moving on and going back to their Colts-like uniforms. The team has also added some chrome accessoriesto the helmets. Here’s a great look at all three uniforms.
- Florida State – the Seminoles have updated their away jerseys to the new Mach Speed template. The home jerseys were updated last season when the colors where fixed to match better. They also tweaked the helmet decals to where the spears don’t cross in the back anymore unlike last season.
- Georgia Tech – GT has tweaked their previous Russell Athletic uniforms. The shoulder loops were replaced with stripes, the collar now has a blue square at the front with the GT logo, and gold side panels have been added.
- Louisville – Adidas has produced a new “Uncaged” uniform for Louisville to be worn in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game against Auburn in Atlanta. The uniforms feature silver chrome-like numbers and shoulder stripes. The helmet has a chrome Old English “L” logo on the right side, and the left side features a very unique cardinal illustration – one that I will refer to as “Laser Chicken” from here on out. An oversized “L” logo is also placed on both hips on the pants. The Cardinals’ other uniforms have also been updated to the new ShockWeb 2.0 template, complete with tire treads, chrome number details,and oversized hip logos. The helmets also feature chrome decals and facemasks.
- Miami – Miami ended a 27 year relationship with Nike, one of the Swoosh’s first big teams, and jumped to Adidas. The new uniforms feature modified Northwestern stripes on the shoulders and pants, with slashes through (adidas’ design of the summer). The shoulder stripes actually have a curved edge to them, which is supposedly referring to the leaves of the palm trees throughout Miami and southern Florida. Rumors of a black alternate, and some kind of another alternate, are in the future. It is odd that Adidas only showcased the default, traditional helmet, when Nike added three other helmets last year. Here’s the original leak of the uniforms from mid-summer.
- North Carolina – One of the best redesigns of the summer, Nike and UNC made a change to make the brand more consistent across all sports. The UNC logo was slightly tweaked and updated. The wonderful argyle pattern that has donned Tar Heel basketball uniforms for years now has now been added to the football uniforms – and in a very classy application at that. The black alternate looks much better than the past rendition.Here’s the previous look for comparison.
- Syracuse – After a complete redesign last season, the Syracuse Orange didn’t even get to wear their main color as a jersey, as they were not available. Those namesake-colored jerseys will be available for the team to mix and match this season.
- Virginia Tech – The Hokies have played around with alternate helmets many times over the last few years, and a new one will be worn this season on September 12 versus Furman for Military Appreciation. The helmet is a clone of the (wonderful) Navy helmet that has been an all-time favorite of mine. Many teams, mainly high school, have tried to pull off this design and not done very well. But these are one of the best designs I’ve seen. Navy still owns this look in my opinion though.
- Wake Forest – Wake Forest has worn the same uniform design since 2006 (granted it feels like much longer), and they finally got a much needed redesign to their football uniforms. The team rolled out three new uniform sets – three helmets, jerseys, and pants. The helmets come in gloss black, matte black, and chrome gold. The pants come in white, gold, and black. The unique part comes with the uniforms, where there is a white top as well as two different black designs. All three jerseys feature a stylized “W” design on the shoulder caps, which draws from the school’s academic logo and some architecture around campus. The white jersey features a gold shoulder cap and W design. One of the black jerseys also features a gold shoulder cap design, whereas the second black top has a black design, which makes it very difficult to make out the W design. The numbers on the jerseys have “angled notches at 18 and 34 degrees at the top and bottom, respectively” to honor the school’s founding in 1834.
Big 10
- Illinois – The Illini got a redesign last season, but unfortunately didn’t get their blue jerseys then, apparently due to a budget issue. Thankfully they received their blue jerseys this season.
- Maryland – Under Armour revealed new uniformsfor five teams in early August, including Maryland. The reveal touts the use of the newest template, but Maryland was one of the teams wearing the template last season.
- Michigan –Michigan has signed to return to Nike next season, and will become the first team to wear Jordan Brand football uniforms. Harbaugh has said the team will not wear any alternates this season, and the Legends jersey series has been retired. Harbaugh has also considered bringing back pride stickers. The team does have new white jerseys, with striped sleeve cuffs, and a new pair of white pants. Harbaugh did want to have throwback uniforms, and these are the same as the uniforms worn in 1974. The yellow pants have had the block M removed from the front, an element that has been worn since 1993.
- Michigan State – I’ve been a big fan of State’s recent redesign, and I must say, I really like these new uniforms. On the new Nike Mach Speed template, Michigan State’s new uniforms feature a nice Greek pattern on the shoulder caps and (odd) pant stripes. The traditional green helmet now features a beautiful “anodized aluminum finish”, which, according to photos, looks like a mix between the traditional gloss finishes and the new matte helmets. An alternatethat looks a good bit similar to their old Pro Combat uniforms is also in the mix. The Greek pattern dons the shoulder caps again, as well as the MSU initials. Gold shoulder and pant stripes help break up the green uniforms. The gold helmet has a nice “oxidized metal finish”, but the seemingly-oversized green logo seems to get a bit lost.
- Nebraska – continuing adidas’ summer long series of reveals, the Cornhuskers will be wearing an all-black alternate, with a matte black lid. The shockweb template actually has “HUSKERS” detailed into the sides of the jerseys, which is the ultimate Adidas gimmick. The odd thing is that these are the exact same design as last year’s alternate, just with the colors reversed. Shame on you Adidas. That’s extremely lazy.
- Ohio State – A few years ago, Ohio State added buckeye leaves to the back of the collar. Those are seemingly gone for a BUCKEYES wordmark, which seems very out of place. The reasoning was that if anymore championships were won, there wouldn’t be any more room for the buckeye leaves on the collar.
- Penn State – “Black Shoes, Basic Blues” is the mantra for Penn State this season, as they are removing the nameplates that Bill O’Brien added during his time, to help distance the team from the Paterno era. The jerseys have also been updated to a new template.
- Purdue – Purdue has a new grey uniform this season, as well as what seems to be an updated railroad track-striped helmet. Also, a new white helmet, with number on one side and train logo on the other, will also be available. This helmet also features a striped facemask, which seems to be a continuation of the helmet stripe.
- Wisconsin – Rumor is that Wisconsin is looking to leave Adidas after this season and sign with Under Armour next year. Hints have been dropping all summer, but one of the most telling signs is that the football team downgraded jersey templates. According to picture day photos, the team has switched back to an older template, abandoning the TechFit and Shockweb designs. The switch thankfully brings TV numbers back to the shoulders, something that had been missing in previous seasons.
Big 12
- Baylor – Baylor has a new “gunmetal grey” uniform for this season, which features a new grey helmet, in which the gold BU logo seems to get a bit lost on.
- Kansas – A bad football team that actually looks worse than they play. Kansas has been an absolute mess for years now. The jerseys have been updated the new Adidas Shockweb 2.0 template. Two helmets we’ve seen recently are a white lid with the Jayhawk logo and a blue on with the Jayhawk on one side and the KU logo on the other. During a kids’ camp during the summer, many different helmet designs were also spotted. No word on the legitimacy of these though.
- Kansas State – The Wildcats have finally updated to a newer Nike template. Here are the older ones.
- Oklahoma State – The Cowboys from Stillwater have enjoyed their alternate helmets in the past years, and they have a new white lid with chrome accents.
- Texas – The Longhorns have updated to the Mach Speed template this season.
- TCU – In one of the worst design in recent history, Nike and TCU have revealed some gaudy uniforms that feature their frog skin pattern pretty much from head to toe. A purple and grey pair of jerseys and pants both feature this design. Thankfully, the white set don’t showcase this pattern, except in the numbers and collar. The purple helmet also features the frog skin pattern, which seems much more like a natural fit. A white lid was also shown during the reveal, which seems to be the one they wore last season, except with the frog skin pattern. A full frog skin helmet was shown outside the promo shots, and it’s pretty annoying. All in all, it’s easy to say Nike went way overboard with the frog skin pattern. I understand sticking with something that’s unique to a school, and this pattern certainly is unique to TCU, but c’mon guys, this is ridiculous.
Pac-12
- Arizona State – ASU jumped from Nike to Adidas this offseason to increase the athletic department’s revenue from $2.1 million annually with the Swoosh to $4.2 million with Adidas. The uniforms, on the other hand, are rather similar to what the team wore the last few years with Nike. Some minor changes were expected, but the end result is rather nice, especially with adidas’ recent track record. First noticeable item is the addition of the tiretreads with the Shockweb 2.0 template. You’ll also notice that the ASU on the shoulder caps has been removed, and the pitchfork stripes have been moved towards the sleeve cuffs. The pitchfork logo has also been placed on the pants. A Pat Tillman memorial patch has been added to the collar, which in turn moves the Adidas logo to the chest (where it belongs). A black, white, and maroon version of each uniform were shown in the promo videos, but a gold helmet was shown elsewhere. Overall, it’s a nice tweak on a uniform I already really liked. Unfortunately, adidas’ usual gimmicks hurt the overall look. But, I’ll try and look past that for a while. In addition to the sets revealed here, Adidas has a reported three alternates in the plans for the Sun Devils this season, the first of which will be worn on opening weekend against Texas A&M. These “Desert Ice”uniforms are a white edition of their “Desert Fuel” uniforms from last year, tweaked to match the rest of the Adidas line. The main details – the pitchforks in specific – are much larger than their Nike counterpart. The helmet and pant forksare about double the size in the previous rendition. The number on the other side of the helmet is also way too big, which is the biggest problem with this design – everything is too big. Tone down the sizes of these elements, and you have a good look. But hey, it’s Adidas after all.
- Colorado – Colorado revealed a new set of redesigned uniforms during the summer. The main sets include a gold, black, and white version of each helmet, jersey, and pants. A fourth set includes an all grey/silver look. A cool detail is the flatiron rock-like details that are in the numbers. I like these overall, I’m just saddened to see the Northwestern stripes disappear. I don’t feel like they’d complete these new jerseys, but they certainly wouldn’t be a sore thumb in the design.
- UCLA – Adidas has transitioned the traditional UCLA uniforms to their new Shockweb 2.0 template. Sadly, these look awful. The tire tracks are awful regardless of team. But the theme of adidas’ designs this season was to add unnecessary slashes on any striping and the numbers, which truly ruins this set. UCLA is the prime example of how Adidas loves to ruin a good design. And even when they make a decent design (i.e. Miami), they ruin it with these things – the tire tracks, the slashes, the duct tape-shiny numbers. It’s pitiful. Along with the new home jerseys, UCLA has a new black alternate uniform, like many of the previous seasons. It’s basically last year’s design, just updated to the current template.
- USC – The Trojans have updated their jerseys to the Mach Speed template. There have been rumorsof the Trojans breaking out some alternate uniforms this season or the next. The most detailed description of these alternates involves a bronze helmet and jersey.
- Utah – Under Armour revealed new uniformsfor five teams in early August, including Utah. The reveal touts the use of the newest template, but Utah was one of the teams wearing the template last season. The Utes will also wear throwback uniforms for their homecoming game against Cal, combining various elements from Utah uniforms worn in the past. The interlocking “UU” logo was on the helmets during the 1960s, the number font is from the 1970s, and the stripes on the shoulders and pants were worn from the 1970s to the 1990s. It’s a really nice design – and I really love seeing a logo sitting on top of the shoulder stripes like they used. On top of all this, Utah will also have a new, beautiful satin-finished red helmet.
SEC
- Arkansas – No major changes for the Razorbacks this season, as they received a complete rebrand last year, but it does look like the hog on the helmets have been changed to a chrome decal.
- Auburn – Auburn has finally updated to Under Armour’s newest template. The shoulder stripes are larger and no longer truncated, just as the pant stripes no longer come to a point at the knees. The helmets this season will feature metallic finished facemasks and stripes to match how the AU logo has looked for many years now. A more detailed look at the changes can be seen here.
- Kentucky – Kentucky updated their logo over the summer; it’s a small tweak. The football field will now be turf and reflectthe new logo. A new white helmet with chrome decals has been circulating, no word on its legitimacy.
- Mississippi State – The Bulldogs are transitioning their ever-popular DWS 100 Year uniforms from last season to their default home and road uniforms. My friend Paul Sullivan over at the MSU Uniform Tracker has done a lot of great work regarding the upcoming State uniforms. A black edition of the DWS 100 uniforms have basically been confirmed through this Adidas catalogue leak. For more information and different concepts, be sure to check out Paul’s site. After much speculation, the team did add a maroon version of their DWS 100 pants, including the dreaded oversized hip logo. Matching stripes would be such a plus here.
- Ole Miss – Last season, Ole Miss broke out the powder blue helmets for the first time in many years, and then auctioned the helmetsoff after the game. This offseason, during a radio show, Ole Miss’s athletic director stated that they will once again wear the powder blue lids again this season.
- South Carolina – The Gamecocks have updated their black alternate jerseys to match their garnetand white tops. Here’s the previous black top.
- Tennessee switched from Adidas to Nike this season, and Nike did a wonderful job placing the traditional Vols design on their Mach Speed template. The helmet and pants stripes all taper off to a checkerboard design, which I love how they implemented this. The “Smokey” grey alternates are staying, but with a twist. The jerseys feature an anthracite shoulder yoke, which barely contrasts with the Smokey grey. This year, Tennessee has added a grey lid (which was really needed with the last set) that features the same checkerboard stripe. A cool detail with this helmet is the imagery of the Smokey Mountains on the shell. It looks decent in photos, but it’ll be interesting to see how it looks on field.
- Texas A&M – Texas A&M has had their normal uniforms updatedto the new ShockWeb 2.0 template. Another Adidas team to reveal new uniforms is the Aggies of Texas A&M. These uniforms are all black (the blackest they could possibly be, apparently) and feature reflective technology from the guys at HydroGraphics, whatever that means. The helmets looked pretty bad from the reveal, but under the rightlight they look pretty cool. Unfortunately, you can’t dictate the lighting during gametime, so it’ll be pretty brutal on TV. These uniforms are scheduled to be worn on Halloween against South Carolina. If they really wanted to go all out for Halloween, they should’ve added a red nose to complete these clown suits.
- Vanderbilt – Vandy appears to have new white and gold uniforms this season. Each features black shoulder capsthat look to have the anchor logo sublimated within them. These also match the infamous “ANCHOR DOWN” black uniforms of last season. The Commodores also have two new helmets for this season. A black and white matte helmet with an oversized V-star decal and a unique anchor and chain decal going down the middle of the helmet. Here’s a good look at three combinations, with the three helmets Vandy will wear. Along with these changes, there’s a new grey alternate uniform. The pants feature ANCHOR DOWN written down the legs, since we all know they can’t place that on the nameplate anymore. These new alternatesare being called “Deep Water,” and are paired with a really nice helmet that is a dark grey water paint color, with chrome gold anchor decals and facemask.
American Athletic
- Cincinnati – A long-time relationship with Adidas has come to an end, and another Tommy Tuberville team will be wearing Under Armour. Once the contract began, Under Armour revealed a new stripe to go along with the rebranding. That stripe is used throughout the new uniforms the team will wear this season. The helmets, shoulders, collar, and pants all feature this stripe. It looks even better in white!
- Connecticut – Two years ago, UConn revealed a new logo as a part of their rebrand, and with it came one of the more unique football helmets of recent years. This season, the Huskies have a new set of uniforms and a helmetthat replaces the awful “dog eyes” helmet. Unfortunately though, these are extremely plain. The pants and jerseyshave some odd striping that actually seems to resemble the Pepsi logo. The helmet features a red facemask and blue stripe, with a red back bumper. Red seems to be a bit overkill on these uniforms, rather than being an accent color like it used to be. As much as I hate piping on uniforms, I actually thought the last set looked pretty decent. I feel like this new helmet would work better with the old uniforms.
- East Carolina – ECU has updated their black jerseys to the Mach Speed template, and changed a few details. The team also has a new pair of purple pants. According to the equipment team’s twitter account, the purple and black helmets have a satin finish and gold flakes.
- South Florida – USF has revealed one of my favorite redesigns of the offseason. The team revealed two new uniforms, a white and green version, on the new Under Armour template. Each features a stylized stripe down the pants and on the shoulder caps, with the shoulders showcasing a bull horn from the main logo. They also showcased five different helmet designs, all of which are from past years. Also shown were the “Irish Rainbow” uniforms that were worn last year. All three uniforms make this one of the best looking USF teams of recent years.
- Tulane – Tulane has added chrome green facemasks to their helmets this season.
- Tulsa – Tulsa has a new white helmet to go with their billion other helmet designs.
Conference USA
- Louisiana Tech – LaTech has a new turf field design. It’s nice to see the uniform stripes featured on the field, but the placement is a bit odd.
- North Texas – The Mean Green has revealed a new set of home uniforms and helmets. The uniforms feature two stripes around the sleeves, which come to a gradient finish similar to the old Arizona uniforms. They also have a shoulder loop stripe, which just compounds the look. One or the other would look fine, but not together. The helmets got a new, darker finish that looks great. The black helmets feature a Seahawks style stripe on the top, which once again makes the entire look a bit too much.
- Old Dominion – After wearing Nike uniforms for their first few seasons in FBS football, Old Dominion has made the change over to Under Armour uniforms. Here’s a slightly better photo of the new uniforms.
- UTSA – The Roadrunners have two new helmets this season, each feature a matte finish, white and dark grey, a chrome orange stripe and logo decal, and chrome orange facemask, with one fading to white at the bottom.
- Middle Tennessee – The leader in offseason prototype designs, MTSU equipment managers love to play around with new designs. I’ve always enjoyed seeing what they come up with, and of course, some are better than others. Instead of posting each one individually, here’s a gallery of them.
- Southern Miss – The Eagles have a new set of uniforms that are a massive upgrade over their last set. The new uniforms feature grey numbers andshoulder caps, on both the white and black jerseys. They’re pretty plain, but after their fiasco of uniforms the last few years, anything is an upgrade. Hopefully they add a gold jersey and pants at some point.
Mid-American
- Ball State – Ball State has a new logo, which the only change is the removal on the motion strokes behind the bird head. Their new turf field showcases the new logo. The football team has introduced six new helmet designs for the season. They can be seen in this video.
- Bowling Green – Bowling Green switched from Adidas to Nike this offseason, and of course some new Mach Speed uniforms were revealed. The change brought the return of the brown jerseys, something that had been missing for many years. The design of the uniforms are very simple, with contrasting shoulder caps (white on brown and orange jerseys, brown caps on the white top) and FALCOLNS written down the pant leg. I see the orange jersey as being much better than the brown top, but I know many fans are just happy that those are back in the rotation.
- Central Michigan – CMU has changed from maroon to yellow facemasks.
- Eastern Michigan – EMU has a new set of away uniformsthat feature chrome eagle wings on the shoulder and diamond-plate numbers. The Eagles will also wear “patriotic uniforms” during their game against Army on September 26th. The jerseys feature and American flag across the shoulder yoke and a giant E logo on the chest above the number. To add to these new uniforms, EMU will wear a third uniform to honor track and field coach Bob Parks, with track uniform inspired football uniforms.
- Massachusetts – One of the newest FBS teams, UMass has worn a few different uniforms. This season’s design feature a white, red, and grey set of jerseys and pants. The uniforms feature a Northwestern stripe, with the jersey stripes being thinner than the pants, and the pant stripes truncated halfway down the legs. The back of the jerseys feature a state outline as well as nameplates, which seems awfully cluttered.
- Miami (OH) – A table set up at a recruiting event early this summer showcases a few concept Miami helmets. The two eagle head helmets (one white, one chrome) look really nice.
- Northern Illinois – After a contest over the summer, fans have decided on a new turf design that features a shadowed Illinois state. The team will also be wearing some nice throwbacks this season. In an attempt to throwback to the 1965 team, NIU will be wearing black helmets with red and white stripes and player numbers on the side, a red jersey with NI on the shoulder caps, white pants, and NFL-style socks that include some nice stripes.
- Western Michigan – The Broncos have new “Row the Boat” white jerseys, a slogan used by the head coach.
Mountain West
- Air Force – The Air Force Academy has updated to Nike’s newest Mach Speed template and looks fantastic. The team has struggled to find a great uniform identity over the last few seasons,but these are exactly how I’ve always imaged Air Force to look on the gridiron. It’ll be interesting to see what helmets of years past that the teams wears this season, or if they break out any new designs. Air Force is one of the very few teams I’ve always thought could perfectly pull off the grey uniforms, so it would be nice to see some grey return back to these uniforms.
- Boise State – Some recruits showed off the helmets and jerseys of years past. As you can see, there’s still no consistency with these uniforms. The team did wear some nice helmets for their spring game that features their B logo rather than the horse head logo. The team has come out and said that these were only for the spring game, and won’t be worn during the season, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing something more along these lines this year.
- Hawaii – The return of the Rainbow Warriors to the gridiron calls for new uniforms, unfortunately with zero rainbows. The new uniforms, updated to Under Armour’s newest template, feature a Hawaiian floral design on the shoulder caps and pants, which happens to be the first set of pants Under Armour has produced for NCAA competition with full sublimation. It’s also the first time silver pants will be worn since the 2007 season.
- New Mexico – The Lobos have updated their white and red uniforms to Nike’s new Mach Speed template. They have a new black jersey, albeit on an older template. They also have a new matte black helmet, and what seems to be a camo pattern inside the decal on their grey lids.
- San Diego State – The Aztecs have new Mach Speed uniformsand helmets showcasing the Aztec calendar pattern. The helmet, shoulder caps, and pants each feature this pattern. It’s a unique idea and execution of it. I really like the helmets, just hope it’s not overkill when the team hits the field.
- UNLV – The award for the Most Comical Uniform Reveal goes to UNLV. The team posted photos online that featured Photoshop templates that are available online. I’ve seen amateur designers provide more professional concepts than what UNLV revealed these on. They didn’t just use one Photoshop template, but two! I understand possibly not having the uniforms on hand to showcase, but there’s much much better ways to showcase anything, especially uniforms. As for the designs themselves, they too could be much better. The helmets look great, and actually feature the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegassign on the back. The silver lid features a nice chrome red facemask. The jerseys each feature grey numbers and lettering, which look to be illegal on the black jerseys, even with the red outline, but don’t look so bad when seen on the real thing. The UNLV rebel logo is featured on the shoulder caps of each uniform. The pants are the weirdest part for me. The white pants have LAS VEGAS written up the pant leg, which actually looks upside-down to me. The black and red pants have the star design from the Las Vegas sign. Each look awfully high school-ish. As displeasing as the uniforms may be, the new turf for UNLV looks mighty awesome, continuing the team’s usage of the Las Vegas sign.
Sun Belt
- Appalachian State – The Mountaineers have revealed a brand new yellow uniform, and I absolutely love it. It’s not often you see shoulder stripes with a logo over them on anymore. Not a huge fan of the Missouri rip-off pants, but the black pants make this a strong uniform.
- Louisiana-Lafayette – One of the early summer reveals, UL-Lafayette revealed an oversized fleur de lis logo on the helmet, which looks pretty good. Oddly, we haven’t seen anything else out of Lafayette since this photo. No photo, but the team will wear “Lafayette Strong” decals to honor the victims of the movie theater shooting in July.
- South Alabama – USA is another team to update to the Mach Speed template.
- Troy – The Troy Trojans have revealed three new uniform sets – red, white, and grey – and at least three new helmets – chrome white with chrome red facemask, matte red, and a classic glossy black. The uniforms are very inconsistent, with the red jersey having the T sword logo on the shoulders, the grey jersey has the Troy shield logo, and the white tops have an odd stripe style. The pants also feature the same inconsistencies. And to make things worse, these are all set on the Adidas Shockweb template.
Independent
- Army – An offseason rebrand of the entire athletic department, the Army teams will now be referred to as Army West Point. Rumors of dropping the Cadet nickname were false. Army joins the long list of teams this season that will be wearing the new Mach Speed template from Nike. New black and white jerseys are available with black, white, and gold pants. Gone is the stylized A logo, and in is a new shield logo featuring an old Spartan-style helmet (looks more like a Michigan State logo than Army to me).
- Notre Dame – The Fighting Irish have updated to the new Under Armour template. The team also revealed a new Shamrock Series uniform, to be worn in Fenway Park against Boston College. The Irish will wear mono-green uniforms with Seahawks-style chest stripes. The stripes on the chest and pants have eleven slashes through them, to represent the eleven national championships. The helmet is the traditional golden dome lid but with a new chrome leprechaun decalon the sides, a blue and green stripe down the middle, and a blue and green facemask split right down the middle.
FCS
- Bethune-Cookman – BC has revealed new jerseys and a new helmet.
- Charleston – New home jerseys and white pants give the Golden Eagles some new combination options.
- Citadel – The Citadel Bulldogs have enjoyed playing around with alternate uniforms, and this season they have a new black alt, dubbed “The Black Nights of the Ashley River.” The Ashley River runs through Charleston and right by the Citadel campus. Here’s a good photo of each combination. That black on grey combo is brutal.
- Dayton – Dayton unveiled a new logo last year, and this year the team has anew set of uniforms.
- Delaware – after a few years of wearing Under Armour uniforms, Delaware football has switched over to the Adidas banner. The new uniforms feature plain blue jerseys and yellow pants, just on the ShockWeb template. The winged helmets stay the same.
- East Tennessee State – The ETSU Buccaneers will be playing their first season of football since being shut down in 2003, so of course they have a new set of uniforms.
- Elon – Elon has updated their old uniforms to a set that includes some nice UCLA stripes.
- Georgetown – It’s always nice to see teams use their unique patterns on their uniforms, much like UNC and their argyle. Georgetown has always enjoyed using their kente-cloth pattern on their basketball uniforms, but they’ve finally added it to the football uniforms. The pattern dons the helmet stripe and the shoulder caps on their new Mach Speed uniforms. The pants legs have HOYA SAXA written down the legs.
- Harvard – The Crimson have a new set of uniformsfrom Nike for this years. The wardrobe includes a new matte red helmet with black H, a red, black, and white jersey, and a red and cream pair of pants. They wore these uniforms last season.
- Howard – A team known for using a rip-off Buffalo Bills logo for many years finallyhas their own set of logos. The football uniforms have also been updated. Here’s a new helmet for this season.
- Jackson State – A new matte helmet with chrome decals has appeared for JSU, but I honestly think it’s just a fan-made helmet.
- James Madison – The Dukes have updated to the Mach Speed templateand have an all purple option for this season.
- Kennesaw State – 2015 is the Kennesaw State Owls’ first season of football. The uniforms this season will have a special inaugural season patch. The team will have black, white, and yellow pants and jerseys to mix and match. The team went through many prototype helmets, but looks to have settled on a yellow lid. I’m still not sure exactly what the stripe is, but I believe it’s to resemble the owl wings from the logo.
- Lamar – The Cardinals have revealed a new set of uniforms for the upcoming season. The shoulder caps have an interesting vertical stripe. Along with the new uniforms, the team has a new black helmet that features the team name down the back of the stripe.
- Montana State – The Montana State Bobcats have new jerseys and helmets this season that allow them to wear 16 different combinations. The twitter account actually revealed each combination over a series of days. Here’s all the uniforms in one photo. The team has their traditional gold lid, a blue helmet, and a brand new white alternate helmet.
- Nicholls State – The Colonels out of Louisiana have returned back to their silver helmets after wearing matte silver/grey lids last season. Great move.
- Norfolk State – The Spartans have a new jersey as well as a really nice, shiny helmet.
- North Carolina Central – A chrome maroon helmet was showcased early this summer for the Eagles. The team also has a new jerseydesign, as showcased at MEAC media days, as well as another new helmet.
- North Dakota – The overshadowed football team from North Dakota has a nice new matte green helmet. Here’s a look at the new uniforms with the new helmets.
- Presbyterian – The Blue Hose have a new set of Adidas uniforms. I love the look of their helmets with the chrome decals.
- Samford – A team that always wore on of my favorite designs , has decided to move from that and wear a modified Nike-Miami uniform. The team will have new white, blue, and red uniforms, with contrasting shoulder caps and details. The helmets seem to have changed to a matte finish with a new red stripe.
- Tennessee Tech – The Golden Eagles have a new matte purple helmet with an oversized decal. They revealed a chrome version last year; not sure if they wore that. They did wear thischrome helmet though.
- UT- Chattanooga – The Mocs have switched from Russell Athletics to Adidas and have some new uniforms to showcase the change. The uniforms are on adidas’ Shockweb template and have the infamous tire treads across the chest and shoulders. The uniforms are pretty basic, but look good nonetheless, especially with last season’s uniforms having some interesting striping. Unfortunately, Chattanooga will be sticking with one helmet, as per the promo photos. I’ve always enjoyed UTC’s look, and I’d love to see some throwback helmet designs for the team. I’ve always thought a yellow lid with a train logo would be a great look.
- Youngstown State – The Penguins have a new Under Armour jerseyfor this season.
Division 2
- Ashland – The Eagles of Ashland University have a new purple chrome helmetfor this upcoming season.
- Colorado School of Mines – The Orediggers have a new set of uniforms. They wore these last year.
- Colorado Mesa – The Mavericks have a new set of uniformsfrom Under Armour. The helmet shown has two different decalson either side. They wore theselast year.
- Florida Tech – The Panthers have a new set of white, red, and grey Adidas ShockWeb uniforms.
- Jacksonville – The Jacksonville Dolphins have a great new helmet for this season. The shell has gold flakes painted on. The stripe fades from gold in the front to grey to green in the back. The only drawback is that the player numbers are on one side, while an oversized JU logo is on the other. Two normal sized decals would make this a wonderful design. The Dolphins have worn a glossy and matte version of a green lid with a normal sized JU logo. Here’s a look at the uniforms with the helmets.
- Tiffin – Tiffin University out of Ohio will have a new gold chromehelmet. The white lid is what the team wore last year.
- West Alabama – The Tigers have revealed a new set of uniforms, which includes two jerseys (white and red), and four pairs of pants (white, red, black, and what looks to be a camo pair). The team wore these uniforms last season
- West Florida – The Argonauts of West Florida have revealed a new helmet design for their inaugural football season in 2016. Here’s the uniformsthat will accompany the new helmets.
These are in no way every single uniform that will be worn this season. Of course many teams will be breaking out new alternates throughout the entire season. It’s going to be a fun season of football, with some really great teams hitting the field. Hopefully teams will be more conscientious about their aesthetics on the gridiron this season and won’t just add a million new elements throughout the season.
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