aawagner011

5 hours ago, McCall said:

The College Football Playoff, honestly, shouldn't be affected. When it goes to 12, it will be the top 6 ranked conference champions (regardless of power/group of 5 status) plus the top 6 ranked non-Champion schools. If anything, it gives the Group of 5 (6) a guaranteed TWO spots in the playoff instead of just one, as now there will only be four power conferences for 6 champions spots instead of 5 for 6.

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 In the current era of realignment, the idea of guaranteed conference winners getting top seeding is outdated.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.

36 minutes ago, mattb6 said:

Cincinnati will be unveiling their new Nike uniforms tonight at 6: 

https://twitter.com/GoBearcatsFB/status/1688943201330028544?s=20

 

Thankfully those other ones were just placeholders!

10 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

Mizzou’s Head Football Coach made some interesting points about realignment-

He’s right. Student Athletes really weren’t considered in this at all. Especially those outside of football.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/missouris-eli-drinkwitz-asks-a-good-question-about-athletes-mental-health-after-big-tens-latest-expansion-224121448.html

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.

3 minutes ago, solvetica said:

 

it's just insane how quickly this all materialized. I understand it's been rumored for awhile, but it all just hit the fan over like 2 weeks

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.

24 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

per espn, "It also remains a partial member of the ACC in football and has a contract with the league stating that if the Irish were to relinquish their independence, it would be for the ACC."

 

According to other sources, their deal runs concurrently with the rest of the conference's rights deal, which goes through 2036.

 

They obviously don't have the same rights issues since they have their own deal, but would still likely have to pay a huge penalty to break it - and right now, there's no reason for them to since they can still qualify for the playoff and still have a lucrative broadcast deal.

 

Of course, if they even hinted at breaking it, the ACC would probably panic and bend over to appease them.

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.

11 minutes ago, BBTV said:

The only thing I know about college sports is what I read on these forums, so forgive me if this is common knowledge, but I just gave espn.com a read and it said that Notre Dame's deal with the ACC stipulates that if they decide to join a conference for football, it has to be the ACC, so any talk about Big Ten is wasted breath.  Also, ACC's deal with its schools seems to be iron clad (and pretty draconian... but the schools agreed) so none of them are going anywhere.

 

That would leave the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and ACC as the big-4 conferences, with the PAC-4 dissolving, and no good reason for anyone to take Stanford, Cal, WSU, or Oregon State.  Not sure if it was a lack of foresight on their end, or if they were just never attractive to any conference anyway.

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.

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

How did we go from "Big Ten has begun preliminary talks to potentially add Oregon, Washington, Cal, and Stanford on WEDNESDAY to Oregon and Washington being officially admitted on FRIDAY?

 

 

The articles made it seem like some Big 10 officials were going to start possibly thinking about pondering the possibility of maybe reaching out to other teams, and two days later it's a done deal?  This had to have been in the works for a year or more.

 

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.

26 minutes ago, j'villejags said:

 

I wish Nike had a better solution for the wordmark across the chest. Pushing it and the numbers further down makes it look like an afterthought.

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.

52 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

I don't think this was posted yet but this is going to be interesting in light of how Florida State feels about the ACC lately.

 

FLORIDA STATE TAPS JPMORGAN FOR EQUITY RAISE AS ACC DECISION LOOMS https://www.sportico.com/business/finance/2023/florida-state-athletics-jpmorgan-private-equity-funding-acc-1234733152/

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:

2 hours ago, 406Cane said:

New Kentucky football unis.

https://www.aseaofblue.com/platform/amp/2023/8/3/23819505/kentucky-wildcats-football-new-uniforms-2023-cfb-season
 

I like ‘em. Glad they dropped the checkerboard finally. 

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.

Clemson in the new template:

The Barcelona socks don’t work for me. The shirt has clean lines with distinct blue and red. From more than a few feet away, the sock details blend into purple.

11 hours ago, SSmith48 said:

The "shadow"/black uniform is a bit redundant for a school that wears a darker shade of green primarily, but the overall look is pretty nice. I don't really have any complaints.

 

Like it or not, Nike has pretty much hit it out of the park with all of their new designs, with a handful of exceptions (UCF and Cincinnati have been the only misses so far IMO). Florida State, Oklahoma State, Cal, Michigan State, Illinois, WKU, Ohio State... all of them will look pretty good this season. Just wish these were all on the old template instead of the FUSE.

I wouldn’t give Nike credit (positive or negative) for some schools. Cincinnati has a deal with an apparel provider that sources Nike uniforms but not a deal with Nike directly. UCF may be similar as they definitely don’t get the top flight Nike templates. Theirs are more akin to teamwear like Vandy and Mizzou have had the last few years. Cal is another school with a contract with the apparel provider and not with Nike.

Couple more looks at Sparty. I like the green jerseys and pants. The trim on the collar and sleeves works because it is subtle and tonal. The pants also solved one of my biggest gripes with Michigan State - they had that weird abbreviated stripe. I don’t think I like the helmet stripe. The black is stupid.

3 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Florida seriously needs to go back to the previous number font. These are far superior to the crap they've been wearing as of late.

 

 

I agree that regular block is better but I have never disliked Florida’s modern font like a lot of others. It still reads to me as a mostly block font with some subtle tweaks.

Has this been posted in this thread? If it has, I missed it.

———
 

Florida finally fixed the stripe on their orange pants. I hope this means they also fixed the orange jersey so the stripe is consistent from head to toe.

The Gators used to have the proper stripe on the pants. However, when they added an orange jersey, they broke continuity from the master stripe. So the pants matched the helmet but the orange jersey was a recolored version of their blue jersey.

Florida then double down with their master stripe mayhem. Instead of just fixing the jersey, they changed the orange pants to match the orange jersey stripe.

Hopefully this means Florida will have a consistent stripe across all garments, regardless of color.

20 minutes ago, VampyrRabbit said:

The one with the heat press is the matchworn version, the big patch version is the retail one.

That part makes sense. But it doesn’t make sense why there are two versions of the match worn shirt.

Match worn sponsor is larger and intrudes into the outer stripes all the way to the pinstripe.

Retail authentic has smaller sponsor with full outer stripes:

Now I am confused. I have seen multiple images with the Team Viewer ad applied as a direct heat press with the stripes intentionally broken off as part of the adidas design. I have also seen multiple images with the ad as one big patch applied over the stripes. 

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

Looking at the United away kit, I thin if they went with white shorts they would look much better. not great, just an improvement over this. 

It seems weird that some pictures on the shopping sites are leaning into lightening up the shirts as well. 

I noticed a weird discrepancy with this kit. The retail authentic shirt (shown in two photos above) places the sponsor over only the two middle stripes. However, the shirt that United just wore in a match is different. Their shirts use an even wider sponsor area which cuts into part of the outer stripes (but not the full stripe, the sponsorship area stops at the thin pinstripe within the stripe). The retail shirt looks much better.

Assumed it would be the case, but retail leak confirms Alabama will upgrade templates. This company also has retail products in the new template available for a few schools that have already been confirmed, but you may be able to find some others that are so far unknown.