College Football 2012 Season

[jgiff17]

Reminds me of this:

http://news.sportslogos.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/white-2.jpg

[rtrich11]

Tech in an all-red uni looks good. Get rid of the star logos, and put white numbers and you have a good start to something.

[Jamikel]

Someone really needs to tell Texas teams that there's no law requiring them to use a star and/or the state flag on all their uniforms.

[cajunaggie08]

That's not what Texas told me.

I just don't think they look good? I don't see why you have to say I don't like the state of Texas or it doesn't like me?

I just got off the phone with Texas, and it called you a dick.

Its words, not mine! Just thought you should know Texas is pretty upset with you and talking behind your back.

EDIT: I'm done.

You're a really being a dick.

Haha, the butthurt is strong for the burnt orange bunch this fall

In all seriousness, there does seem to be a trend for the major colleges in Texas to link themselves to state pride. Texans are a very proud bunch so whenever any of the state's school do well, people get behind them. The perfect storm (too soon?) happens when UT is up in that they are just known as Texas so even the casual sports fan will claim them as their team because they are named Texas. This leaves A&M and now Tech trying to brand themselves as the school for the state to throw their support behind. Granted, there never will be a single team that over 90% of the state supports a la LSU in Louisiana as Texas is way too big for all the site pride land on one school no matter how many lone star flags and state outlines are slapped on uniforms

[thespleenenator]

If they replace the Blue with Black, that's not a bad uniform. Either that, or they should've given them a red helmet. The black helmet just looks out of place.

[MJWalker45]

They should have gone with black pants or used the white helmet shell.

[andrewharrington]

oh c'mon now, Oregon has no identity? you can't tell who they are? quit trollin!

thats one of the strongest identities around. would we recognize them in 2002? uh, hell yes! they would be even more unique then, then they are today. how many schools are trying to copy them now? yet, they are still a strong and unique team. and their identity reflects their brand as well as anyone elses. this is a school thats different in everything they do. they practice faster, run more plays, and Kelly's offensive system is as inventive as they come. (anyone see that read option bubble screen yesterday?) its totally appropriate for who they are.

the "i cant tell who they are" argument is lame. they have a consistent design every game. theres on screen graphics and announcers telling you who is playing constantly, and as much as you guys follow uniforms and CFB i cant believe you flip to a station and see that team is in whatever color and not know who it is. theres no possible way to be confused about who you are watching on tv.

OldschoolVikings, what does their record have to do with design? would this be a better design if they won a championship? would you like it better if they did? would it be a stronger identity if they went undefeated instead of losing 1 game? you know better than that

is it loud and obnoxious? depends on who you ask. older and/or more conservative people like simpler design. but do you think thats the type of people they are recruiting? or the type of people who are enrolling at their school?

Spleenator, tell us, how many students at Oregon hate the football team's uniforms?

you guys can reply if you want, but im not going down this rabbit hole too much. this is all i have to say about Oregon for now

OK,one point at a time;

1. I never said they had no identity... I agree they have a strong identity. So does the cast of Jersey Shore. Both feel fake to me. Not fake as in "non-existant", but fake as in "cynically manufactured by an outside entity".

2. I never said I can't tell who they are. I did say the uniforms were "unrecognizable", and that was probably a poor choice of words. What I meant was one uniform to the next... IMO... the uniforms do not nessesarily have much visual connection. Still... they are all definetly (sadly) recognizably Oregon.

3. Oh, no... I would not like the design any better if the won a championship. I'm pretty sure I'd hate it more. My point was, their aesthetics are all part of the "image over substance" movement (again... IMO!!) that makes me feel what I'm seeing isn't entirely real.

You are right, however... we have done this arguement to death.

There's a big distinction being missed in all this, and that is the difference between brand and identity. Consumers' intangible perception of your company or product make up your brand. This is something that is built up over time, sort of like a reputation or a track record if you will. Your brand is the feeling provoked in others when they see or think of your company or product, whereas the identity is the collection of assets that are used to, you guessed it, identify yourself and/or your product. Oregon has built a strong brand over the past decade, but they've done it primarily through the use of a weak identity (and a bit of success on the field). It's really an extraordinary thing. They've eschewed the idea of having a strong identity and instead focused on following a nontraditional path to creating a strong brand; they never built and reinforced a set of consistent, recognizable trademarks that can cement themselves over time as being uniquely belonging to Oregon. Rather, they opted for a dynamic approach that changes the team's identity on a small scale from game to game and, on a larger scale, every couple seasons.

In short, Oregon's weak identity has played a big part in its strong brand. I suppose the downside is that they're sort of locked in to keeping up the dynamic nature of their identity, though I think if they decided to start toning it back and fall into a more consistent look as they enter an extended period of championship-caliber football, they may find that they've created a way to fast-track the process of building a college football identity from the ground up. 1. Use marketing techniques to attract recruits and quickly build a winner. 2. Once the success is established, drop back a little (visually) and let your program run on the merits of its quick ascent and sustained success.

[TimEOBrien]

tl;dnr

[CS85]

tl;dnr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnvHGaHl04o

[TimEOBrien]

Well played, sir. Well played...

[andrewharrington]

tl;dnr

How does one earn a college degree without an attention span robust enough to read two paragraphs?

[BigDmo]

Back to actual news

[OchentaYOcho88]

Back to actual news

For the love of all that is holy and sacred in this world why would they change the color of their beautiful helmet!

[TimEOBrien]

^Bad.

[CS85]

What's the deal with those socks?

[andrewharrington]

Back to actual news

For the love of all that is holy and sacred in this world why would they change the color of their beautiful helmet!

I think the theme is 'night' related. I forgot about these. This one falls in the 'I enjoy it for one game, but maybe not full time' bucket. I really want those cleats, though.

What's the deal with those socks?

Same socks that have been worn with all the other one-gamers this year. Also the same pattern for the RGIII socks, minus the phrases.

[OchentaYOcho88]

I like everything from the neck down, but I can't get on board with UCLA wearing anything other than their golden lid. It's like Notre Dame's 3/4 helmet or if Alabama were to wear anything but numbers on crimson helmets.

[aawagner011]

As an isolated uniform? I kinda like it. Would be nice with contrasting pants or helmet, but it's nice. For UCLA? Kinda weird. But I like the way the color palette is used here.

[Kevin W.]

Are they wearing that for the USC game?

[wILL-INI]

Back to actual news

For the love of all that is holy and sacred in this world why would they change the color of their beautiful helmet!

I don't... get it? Why the navy? Night game aside, why Blue Blue? I feel like this just doesn't make sense. AND WHY DO TEAMS KEEP CHANGING TO LOOKS THAT LOOK LIKE ANOTHER TEAM!

Those d@mn TT uni's don't look anything like TT. These look like a blueberry, not UCLA. Illinois with the blue lids looks like Virginia. Virginia with the Orange lids looks like Illinois. Air force looks like a 90's Rap Group. When will this madness end?