tBBP

"Lou-ventus". Cute.

Unrelated, but it amuses me how often that's the case. Just right off the top of my head... - Kansas University and K-State are about 80 miles from each other, up in the northeast portion of Kansas, both within 120 miles of KC proper (which is saying something because once you pass Topeka going west or south, you finna hit a whole lotta nada--except for Wichita way down south). - North Dakota State and NDSU, same thing--both are about 80 miles apart, both right on the eastern border of the state, in Fargo and Grand Forks, respectively (leaving practically the entire rest of the state to the west wide open). - Even here in South Dakota...South Dakota State is 50 miles north up the road in Brookings; USD is about 50 miles the other way down in Vermillion, both again pretty much on the eastern border (and in the case of USD, pretty much in what I call the "toenail" of the state, not unlike Evansville in Indiana). I'm sure there are other examples--but let's get back to the Ducks and the Beavs

so what are they gonna be, "Spaceknights" now? Shoot, just reclaim the "Citronauts" moniker and be done with it. That's a more fun nickname, anyway.

I had to look at their new primary logo to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me... ...There's a way to incorporate subtle design features to enhance a brand, but that 9° download thing ain't working here. The whole identity looks more at home in an airport. That said, i understand what they were going for, and despite the fact that I definitely ain't the biggest fan of the visuals, I do believe they hit their mark in terms of simplicity, scalability, and ease of reproduction. That said...have they all but axed out the gold? Just about everything I've seen favors just green and white. Not that that's an issue, but I am curious. And since I'm curious...just why the heck is this program nicknamed the "49ers", anyway?

How were they able to secure rights to the name? And yes, those uniforms are . Nice double entendre play on the eagle imagery, too.

Since we're on this tangent of patterns, let me take you back in time a lil' bit... ... First off, circa '94, when the first pattern trim showed up. A better look... Apart from the impeded "f", the current pattern really is sort of a callback to this, at least with the fire symbols-- they're just turned and stretched in places to make the pattern. I often get nostalgic for this one. (And yes, for reasons unknown to mankind FSU still had the mismatched "gold" on their jerseys that late into the decade--up until 1997. Made for a nice little quirk, though.) Glades Bold (and proper gold trim on the jerseys) showed up in 1998, along with the pattern many of us knew well, this time based on feathers rather than symbols... (I had the toughest time trying to recreate that in Illustrator back in my greenhorn days...)

Pattern stays...even going back to the early 90s (maybe even late 80s, I'd have to double-check), Florida State has always had some kind of pattern on their collars and cuffs. This one is a nice update...but after so many years I think now I see what it is that’s been missing: the little touches of black in that trim. That said, this one is cool...but they do need to get it off the sleeves. Or... I really won't disagree on the face. That there is classic FSU, to include the respective shades of garnet and gold. If anything, they should've just simply updated the pattern, maybe add the Unconquered font (in white, as will be whenever/if CFB takes the field again), and left it at that. Agreed. This is why fanciful things are best left to moderation. (Take note of that for all those who keep clamoring for the Arizona Cardinals to adopt more Southwest native pattern/imagery on their next uniform update...)

I don't know about y'all, but I don't miss the great Yankees dynasty of the mid-late '90s...

I know some didn't care for him, but I really enjoyed Jon Gruden when he was in the booth. He didn't talk too loudly or fast, and of course had that same fire (albeit subdued because TV). And, until ESPN turned him into Sean Salisbury 2.0, I really liked Trent Dilfer as an analyst, as well. Neither would be mistaken for Madden or Summerall, but they weren't wooden like a Troy Aikman or *gasp* Joe Buck, either.

Shoot...why not use 'em both?? Only because this is a college we're talking about, and many colleges like to promote their name/initials, it'd make sense to me to go with option 1 as the primary and option 2 as the secondary. Pair that with font 2--but close up those horizontal bars. As rendered, that looks like something more for Star Trek than for Slugs. Speaking of slugs...kudos on whoever came up with these for finding a way to render a doggone slug in a distinctive, attractive and half-formidable way. This might become one of my new favorites.

Several of us (and by "us" I mean Pensacola natives and residents) have been trying to find out if they'll actually release these bad boys for sale in the team shop. We've yet to hear an answer, so here's hoping they actually just do it. (Of course I already have my bright-rose-brimmed cap--along with the other two primary caps--so I'm just waiting for them to greenlight production.) If nothing else, hopefully they'll at least release a t-shirt...I remember when the Indianapolis Indians released their Circle City alternate jerseys, and after talking with some team reps there, they said they decided not to have them produced for sale because they didn't think they'd sell enough. They did, however, release T-shirts with the Circle City alternate script...and they couldn't keep them on the shelves. (And one of them made it into my closet. ) Silly reps.

So this is back again, eh? Heh...suppose I'll go swim through the Goldmine and see how much of that last round I remember. No, I don't intend to change my screen name--at this point, what else would I change it to? And no, I and @Bucfan56 are not the same person! (Plot twist: I stopped caring about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers years ago; it just is what it is. That said, if they bring back the orange--or an identity that doesn't belong on the shelf at Wal-Mart...) I don't suppose "Sean O Mac" would work at this juncture, would it?

That is the same dude who had the new Tappan Zee Bridge renamed, is it not?

Yeah, that. Words cannot express the amount of commotion I kept up in my little studio apartment (that at that time still had free cable--now I'm dating myself) watching that game, and in particular seeing my big cuzzo run back two of those INTs. So yeah, I can count that as probably my second-favorite sports moment. I got two more, one listed only because I was there to see it live in person... - 5 January 2008, AFC Wild Card Playoff. Jacksonville Jaguars at Pittsburgh Steelers. The girl I was dating at the time decided on a whim to StubHub some tickets to that game, and surprisingly some were available, so down to Heinz Field we went. Now me, being the Florida Boi* that I am, had on my Maurice Jones-Drew jersey up underneath my coat; of course, she had her Roethlisberger sweater on. Naturally, I caught it at the gate the second they saw teal on me, and caught it the whole way up to the upper bowl, where folk was looking at her and I like we both had a foot sticking out the side of our necks (this was Pittsburgh, after all). Anyway, long story short, after watching MJD32 run a punt back for a TD to put the Jags up by a pretty good margin, I heard some of the most beautiful silence I've ever heard to this day--with me laughing my head off in the middle of that. The Steelers fought back, but the Jaguars won 31-29, and after the game I found the other 11 Jaguars fans who were at the game and boy did we whoop it up. Now as for my favorite moment... 6 January, 2014. The [last] 2013-2014 BCS National Championship game. this was so because a/ the SuperHawk had just blown through Indiana, meaning the big black Peterbilt wasn't going anywhere , and b/ because of the manner in which the game was won (down 18 at the half, three lead changes in the last five minutes), not to mention who it was won against (meaning the very worthy opposing team and the officials, at least in the first half--but I digress)--AND I got to catch this game with a friend of mine, also a native Floridian. (Man I miss those uniforms...)

I wouldn't say that, speaking for myself. What I will say is that 2007 had to have been the single most random CFB season ever in the history of athletics. Aside from WV and Missouri actually making it to the top of the polls, let me remind us that this was the year South Florida decided to register itself into the national conscience, beating Auburn at Auburn in overtime (I remember watching that game live and laughed my head off so hard at Auburn while being so happy for USF), then took down North Carolina, prior to beating West Virginia to get to I think #8, the once Auburn beat Florida, USF jumped all the way up to #2 in the polls (and all this in just their eleventh year in existence!), and then came that game against Rutgers (yeah, speaking of random randomness), which took the wind out of their sails--they ended up losing their last two games and then dropped out the polls altogether. Also embedded in that most random season, ever, speaking of randomness, was the single most random team ever, the freakin' Kansas Jayhawks, led by everyone's favorite coach of all time (haha!), Mark Mangino. I don't think Todd Reesing ever got the credit he probably deserved for his part to play in that season, but this was the team (& season) that produced CBs Aqib Talib and Chris Harris. Somehow they made it to--and won!--the Orange Bowl that postseason against Virginia Tech, wherein aforementioned Talib won game MVP...and then KU just faded right back into obscurity like they were never there in the first place. Yep...that year was quite the doozy.

Now, with all that said, and in accordance with several previously stated observations of recent Brandiose work, well... ...Yeah I can definitely see a certain recurring theme or two here--most notably, the side smirk/grimacing teeth thing, which I'm guessing at this point must well be an unstated Brandiose trademark, not unlike Nike's opposing-cornered jersey number thing.

Time out--how old is this photo? I recognize some of the names in that caption--in particular Jack McKeon, who I presume is the same free- spirited, fun-loving, stogie-bitin' Jack McKeon who skippered the three-headed-monster-led '03 Florida Marlins past the Yankees for the World Series title?! Okay, now to the rest of this... I need somebody to help me out on this one here, particularly the name. "Paddlehead"? Mmkay. And as for this alternate logo above, I racked my brain trying to figure out why I was looking at one broken paddle up underneath the other one--i presume that orange thing is supposed to be an inner tube?-- and then I ran across this on the mothership regarding said alternate logo: (If not for the fact that I've actually seen that giant peace sign on the hillside going through Missoula for myself, I'd have probably glossed right over that part.)

Oh, what the heck... - 1996 Sugar Bowl. Until one comes along and tops this, this will forever rank at the top of my absolute ill-tasting memories of my Florida State Seminoles, not to mention sports period. I've long since moved on from this, but there's just simply no undoing that. For those too young to remember, this wasn't just another bowl game: a/ This was a rematch against the archest-of-archrival Florida Swamp Thangs Gators, just weeks after we beat them in the annual rivalry game and took the #1 ranking from them (which really added a lot of salt to the gash in the Sugar Bowl--read on); and b/ this was for the national championship. (Now I don't care what anyone outside my home state says about our in-state archrivalries--I've yet to see any other archrivals, much less in-state ones, play each other for the National title.) I'll save the details, but FSU entered into the game #1, Florida #2--and then the Gators commenced to chomping the mess out of my Seminoles, to the tune of something like 52-17 or something like that (I don't care to look it up). Oh my gawd...and I mean they went STRAIGHT savage mode after the game with those "Sugar Sweet" championship t-shirts (a play on "sugar-sweet revenge"; refer back to subpoint a above). The killing thing is that was one of FSU's three best squads of all time, behind the 2013 team and the '99 team. Still though...that dadgum Sugar Bowl. Dadgummit... - 1999 NFC championship game. All Imma say about that is this: Bert Emmanuel caught that ball. I'll leave that alone for now, except to say that due to that official's gaffe of an overturned good catch, we got to witness the culmination of thr Greatest Show on Turf (which I will add was held to just 11 points in that conference championship game). - October 6, 2003. Every Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan remembers this day, but probably dares not bring it up. Aside from the fact that former Buccaneer head coach Tony Dungy was on the opposing sideline, in his former home stadium, in Indianapolis Colts blue, Tampa Bay needed that win to make a statement and stake claim to conference superiority (remember they had just won the SB the previous year). And late into the fourth quarter, up 21 on the Colts, it looked for show's like they had it. And then Peyton Freaking Manning happened. I watched that one live--and even then 21-year-old me knew something was on the horizon when Mannign completed thay first touchdown pass with about four minutes to go in the game (well, regulation time anyway). And from then on I watched a staunch bend-but-don't break Tampa Bay defense become all the way unglued, and four minutes later it was 35-all heading into OT. 21 points. In four minutes. I don't even think TB got the ball in OT; alas, the Colts kicked a FG and that was that. I had just moved to Pittsburgh from Florida just four whole days before that game--and boy was I pissed. Had I had any actual furniture in my apartment at that time, I'm sure some of it would have moved. That's really it, present and previous Florida State football seasons excepted, of course... EDIT: One more, not personal to me, but because I saw it live...the 2011 Coca-Cola 600. Now, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I know enough about it to find it interesting, and because I was broke down in Des Moines, I and several fellow drivers took this one in. I remember a caution flag going up before either the last or second-to-last lap of the race, and Dale Jr. was at the head of the pack, but gambled by not going into the pit to refuel several laps before. When they raised that caution flag, I saw Jr. take off like a bat out of hell down that track, instantly separating himself from the pack. He had that race won, and handily too--except, due to that earlier gamble, he ended up running out of fuel in the final turn of the last lap, and ended up getting passed by half the field. Dude was thatclose to winning, and then that happened. It hurt me watching that...I can only imagine how devoted NASCAR and/or Dale Jr. fans must have felt at seeing him tap out like that.

This entire season is becoming dark for my Seminoles...

Just out of curiosity, what city in your experiments comes in ahead (or behind?) it? Asking for a friend........

Hmm....looking at that now, I'm curious as to how that video-game render would translate to an updated Rangers sweater. The red RANGERS looks strikingly good against that background. Wonder how it'd look with red numbers...

"Because few things are more intimidating than a half-green golden knight with a candy cane shoved through the side of its head..."

Well...just from my short time having practically lived there (Bordentown, if you're curious), and all the other many times I've gone through there... - NJ is the Garden State. I'm sure there's a reason it got that nickname, and while flora floral symbols may not be the greatest, if you can find a way to render them in an interesting manner, it could work. That to the side, gardens are mostly what color? Green...so a green field could work as the base (or field) color. - For some reason, I always associate yellow with the state of NJ...it must be the license plates. (Or the fact that the current state flag is yellow...but I see license plates first!) So that could also be a color to work in. (And I do know the state colors are "buff" and blue, but those colors get overused, so...) - New Jersey was the third state admitted to the union. And while I don't recall the name of the guy to whom the "Garden State" nickname is credited, he did mention something about both ends of the state being open, with Philadelphia eating from one end and New York eating from the other. Make of that what you will. - I think you got something with the current stripe. Most of that state, the way its shaped, lies in a northeasterly orientation, as do its main freeways, the Garden State Parkway and of course the NJ Turnpike. Perhaps translated vexillologically (jeez--there's a tongue-twister for you!), you could blazon it as "pierced per bend sinister or vert or, in bend sinister three bezants or". Translation: a field diagonally divided into thirds, direction from bottom left to top right, yellow/green/yellow in color (yellow because current state flag, green because garden), with three six-point stars (because third state admitted to the Union) adorning the middle green center part (which, if extracted on it own, would be a rough approximation of the state itself). It'd be simple, but it'd get the job done. If you don't beat me to it, I may have to work up a concept of that. (Yeah I've long had a huge love of heraldry, so pardon me if a little bit of that slipped into here!)

Too late...I remember hearing that word used in Pittsburgh as early as 2005. (And yeah, it was spelled "john" back then, too.) That said, I've yet to hear it used outside of Pennsylvania--except when I catch myself saying it...

That would be cool in theory--but 0% chance the Douglas family (which owns Indy Motor Speedway) allows it. They are super-duper protective of their intellectual property (and for good reason, but still). That added to the fact that they've had the same since 1887 (?). I'm not even sure if I'd want them to change their name...as it is the Indy Indians have some of the most unique branding in all of sports--and it wasn't until today upon closer look that I realized just how versatile the potential for it is and can be. Aaaaannnnnd they're not making any jerseys for retail--at least not this season. I spoken with some team reps over at Victory Field earlier today and as it turns out, the reason they chose not to produce any Circle City alternate jerseys is that they were not sure they would sell well. Meanwhile, their other Circle City merchandise is flying off the shelves...so perhaps they should've pulled the trigger on that one. (I did get a nice consolation prize, however: one of their Circle City 108 Stitch shirts with the "Circle City" script minus the big tail on the Y. I got the cap, though!)