aawagner011

Bayern’s home kit includes a white short and sock option, as shown by the women’s team.

If they would just wear black socks with the all white road uniform, I think it would help immensely. I’d like them to also wear white socks when wearing black pants on the road. They should stick with black socks when wearing all black, though, because white socks would stick out like a sore thumb in that uniform.

New WVU jersey appears to have leaked. It looks like a yellow variant of the Country Roads design.

Not new, but a couple things on Florida and Florida State. The way Florida has placed the Jumpman and Gator logo means they will not be able to place a bowl patch in its usual location above the swoosh. They have placed these patches much higher than other schools. More than likely, they will place a bowl patch closer to the armpit. https://x.com/gatorsfb/status/1691117483233579008?s=46&t=fJldYzp_3ZnF5iTRlBZtWQ https://x.com/gatorsfb/status/1693026621148590160?s=46&t=fJldYzp_3ZnF5iTRlBZtWQ I believe these are our first looks at FSU’s new uniforms besides the models that showed them off at their spring game. I’m really looking forward to these and hope they wear mostly traditional combos. I am on board with them wearing garnet pants and white pants on the road, but they need to stop with the odd combos such as pairing white helmets with garnet jerseys. Also, the decal on their white helmet desperately needs gold instead of being rendered only in garnet and white. https://x.com/saltystudley/status/1693410944502665375?s=46&t=fJldYzp_3ZnF5iTRlBZtWQ ——— Edit - apparently Tweets don’t embed anymore.

It looks like there’s finally a United shirt I will not be purchasing. I have every primary, secondary, and third shirt thus far (besides Parley which have mostly been ugly; only one I wanted was the super dark gray and it sold out instantly). This new shirt is just ugly. I am open to new ideas and love the idea of local culture as inspiration, but this just ain’t it.

Vandy looks phenomenal. Now do Mizzou.

Apparently the Jets are wearing the new template for their white jerseys, but the old template for their green jerseys (I included a photo where you can see the Panthers in the new template so you know it’s from this season).

FC Bayern third kit. It was supposed to release yesterday but I assume they delayed it one day to coincide with the Harry Kane signing. The kit will debut tonight in the Super Cup. Loving the vintage color way and crest. I was uncertain about the floral pattern but it is subtle. Still think the button from the original leak would have been class but overall a top kit. Adidas rarely misses for FCB (well they certainly did with the away kit this year).

Pete Thamel has since come out and said all of these moves are unlikely now.

This argument assumes all things are equal. College football in 2024 is as unevenly weighted as it has ever been in history. Like it or not, the SEC and B1G will hold about 80% of the teams that can realistically win national championships. Beyond those two conferences, there is a big drop off in talent and overall quality (just look at the roster composition with recruiting information). We are going to give auto bids to four other conference winners (two of which will come from conferences like the MAC, AAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, and the Sunbelt). All this will do is result in more games like we just saw in the national title game. The current CFP proposal makes zero sense with the recent conference changes.

I disagree. The conferences are no longer equal. If the PAC 12 somehow survives and merges with the Mountain West, that conference is not on similar footing to the SEC, B1G, ACC, or Big 12. Similarly, there is a drop between SEC and B1G competition and the ACC and Big 12. I like the idea of using a hybrid system similar to the BCS for seeding and rewarding strength of schedule. In the current era of realignment, the idea of guaranteed conference winners getting top seeding is outdated. I don’t like realignment but the conferences no longer being equal is a reality that needs new solutions.

Now that we’ve seen the Cincinnati black uniform, are we sure the white ones were placeholders? They are the real deal, in my opinion. Same template, same contrasting collars and cuffs, same font. Only difference I can tell is the chest wordmark is applied with a patch on the white jerseys whereas the black jerseys have a slightly bigger wordmark directly applied.

Might be a dark horse nomination, but that United third kit gets my vote for one of the kits of the season. Pure retro class. It also includes a pair of red change shorts with tonal logos.

Thankfully those other ones were just placeholders!

I agree. Who is looking forward to midweek Oregon at Ohio State volleyball? UCLA at Rutgers basketball? Maryland at Washington softball? Football will likely be fine because they’ll only have six road trips in the regular season. College sports worked great as a regional competition with the occasional road trip. For other sports, none of this was seemingly thought out for the impacts on the players doing the traveling. These kids still have to go to class.

I think a lot of these schools (and conferences) saw the writing on the wall and did their homework over the last year to prepare for all possibilities. After the UT/OU and USC/UCLA dominoes fell, it became a race between the PAC 12 and Big 12 to lock up their media rights deal. The Big 12 acted quickly by snatching up UCF, Cincinnati, BYU, and Houston. While those moves didn’t bring the “wow” factor, they certainly brought stability and gave the Big 12 new life. They beat the PAC 12 to the punch and we have since seen that networks have finite dollars they are willing to allocate to college sports. The PAC 12 realized there were no major broadcasters willing to give them a deal with the money to compete with the other conferences. The inability to secure a media deal was what killed the PAC 12. Because their contract only runs through the 2023 season, schools saw an easy exit with no penalty and then it was every school for themself. Colorado triggered the rest of the dominoes by fleeing for the Big 12, Oregon and Washington were big enough brands to justify a move to the B1G, and from there the Arizona schools and Utah had to find safe haven in the Big 12. It all happened very fast, but it was very predictable by how the PAC 12 mismanaged its negotiations and waited until the very last year of the contract. They should have resolved this 3-4 years ago.

This is the kicker. Notre Dame can get out without forfeiting media rights and only paying an exit fee. While that exit fee would be initially expensive, it would be recouped within 2-3 years if they go to a conference. This report states exit fees are 3x annual payouts. For Florida State, that was estimated at $120m. Surely Notre Dame’s is less as a partial member. Supposedly their NBC contract pays them $22m per year. I don’t know what the ACC payout is to Notre Dame, but if Florida State was $40m ($120m/3), let’s put Notre Dame somewhere in the $20-25m range as a partial member. They are probably earning around $40-50m combined between their NBC and ACC deals. But that ACC deal will remain locked in for the next 13 seasons. That’s diminishing returns. Notre Dame can do the math and see the deals in both the SEC and B1G. They would earn substantially more over the length of their deals by aligning with one of those conferences. Perhaps they could re-up their NBC deal, but NBC is now carrying B1G football. Notre Dame is no longer being treated as the exclusive college property on NBC that they have enjoyed for years. The B1G on NBC is competition to Notre Dame because as we have seen with the PAC 12, broadcasters only have certain amounts of money to allocate for the sport. I feel like for as much as FSU has publicly complained lately, Notre Dame is in the position FSU wishes they were in. Notre Dame can act and has mobility due to the way their ACC deal is structured. FSU is stuck for a long time.

Everything I have seen tells me that the ACC deal is locked down for the next decade plus. Not only do those schools have massive buyouts to break the contract, they would also forfeit their media rights because they have been granted to the conference. Also, while ESPN holds rights to the ACC, they have little incentive to try to force a move in the background because they are essentially broadcasting FSU and Clemson games at a discount versus what they would cost under the SEC or B1G contracts. Those schools can raise pitchforks and whine all they want, but they will be stuck for a very long time. That’s the problem with signing such an incredibly long contract. The market will pass the ACC by (already has) and widen the gap again when the SEC and B1G are up for renegotiation before the ACC’s deal is up. I am less knowledgeable about Notre Dame’s deal but I would imagine it is less iron clad seeing as they are not a full member.

You just answered your own question. If you’ve been following realignment, Oregon and Washington have been rumored to go to the B1G for probably 6-12 months now. The conference already did their homework and the last couple days were just a formality once other dominoes began to fall.

Nike does have a better solution. It’s a horizontal seam across the upper chest instead of the deep V seam. However, I’ve only seen it used on a couple teams, mostly teams with UCLA stripes.

I feel like this is mostly just posturing. Not only do they have a massive exit fee, they granted their media rights to the conference. They are not entitled to media payouts for a long time. Unless they can convince over 50% of the conference to blow it up, but that seems unlikely. A school like Wake or Syracuse have no incentive to blow it up because the ACC in the current format is likely their best option. FSU (and Clemson and Miami) is stuck for a long time.

Couple template updates: Alabama - we saw the retail jersey but here’s a gamer UNC - the argyle stops a bit higher due to the collar Oklahoma - the template pushes the wordmark and number down, making the gap between the Jumpman and conference logos very noticeable In other news:

Checkerboard is still there but more subtle. I referenced these 6 months ago when they teased them during the Super Bowl. Of note: much simpler design on the new Nike template with the Kentucky chest wordmark, wildcat design on the sleeves, gray outline on numbers, simple double stripe on pants, standard helmets with contrasting facemasks, tonal checkerboard on the collar. No signs of black, anthracite, or chrome at this point. Couple still shots:

Holy smokes those are terrible. This might be the worst case of BFBS yet. Sure, they are pitching it as a military thing, but when you have such great colors to work with, there is no need for black. If you really want to do something for the military, there are other ways to go about it. Also, why do the Gators insist on reinventing the wheel for every alternate? The script sticks out like a sore thumb. Just use the standard Gator logo opposite the Jumpman logo and the small SEC logo on the collar. They did something weird like this with the gator print uniform, which had a full size SEC patch and an oversized Gator patch that didn’t fit on the collar.

Notre Dame has fixed the navy numbers while creating a new, unwanted problem: green pants.