American Union of Interscholastic Athletics (Football Updates 10/15)

[kb105]

 

Colors

 - Rhode Island Red

 - Aquidneck Green

 - Sea-glass Silver

 - White

Logos

 - Emblem: Shield with the inverted coat of arms of the Knights Hospitaller with the Maltese Cross and the Rhode Island Anchor in the four corners of the shield.

 - Primary: The helmet is based on numerous styles of knight helmets.

 - Secondary: Italicized UIR with a Hospitaller sword.

 - Tertiary: Crossed hospitaller swords. 

 

 

          In 1934, a group of Catholic nun successfully created a female-only institution in the city of Newport. The state legislature of Rhode Island realized that the southeastern portion of the state had no public institutions (notwithstanding any militiary colleges). So, in the first session of 1935, the town of Tiverton was chosen to house the new university. Construction began in 1938 with set to begin classes in 1942. However, the onslaught of World War II in 1939 slowed construction and the construction completely stopped in 1941 when the US entered the war. The partially completed campus sat abandoned for nearly 40 years before the legislature decided on its future. By this time, nearby Portsmouth had surpassed Tiverton in population and petitioned for the a new campus to be built within the city. Ultimately this plan won out and the University of the Ile of Rhods (a combination of multiple early names for Aquidneck Island, where Portsmouth is located) began serving classes in 1978.

         The nickname was chosen to honor the namesake for the state, the island of Rhodes in Greece and its nickname, the Island of the Knights. Football, basketball, baseball, and hockey were all sponsored in the schools first year, however by 1985, both football and hockey were dropped due to losses of revenue. Both programs were reinstated when UIR joined the NEAU in 2012 and have seen moderate success.

 

Spoiler

 

Colors

 - Navy Oil

 - Acadiana Gold (more yellow version that the previous color)

 - White

Logos (previous)

 - Emblem: Shield with the element of the flag of Acadiana.

 - Primary: A Feur-de-Derrick (Same design as before, just cleaned up some lines and made line widths even)

 - Secondary: AU monogram (elevated from tertiary designation, right leg of the A and the left arm of the U now are one continuous line )

 - Thowback: Plain Fleur-de-leis and AU monogram. 

 

 

          In 1996, the University of Louisiana System was founded and the system wanted a junior college that could serve both McNeese State and Louisiana-Lafayette. The city of Jennings was chosen as it is nearly smack-dab in the middle of the two schools along I-10. Jennings State College began classes in 1998 and soon the system realized a junior college was not sufficient. After expansion and relocation to the outskirts of the city, Acadiana University was established in 2004. The name was a slight against Louisiana Lafayette, who in 1984 tried to rename to just the University of Louisiana. The nickname Oilers comes from Jennings being the first well in Louisiana to strike oil. 

          Athletics began in 1998 when the school was just a junior college competing in the MISS-LOU Junior College Conference in all sports, except football, who competed in the neighboring MACJC with Mississippi schools. In 2004, the teams joined the Division III SCAC prior to joining the AUIA for the 2012-2013 seasons.

 

Here is the first finalized football schedule, some notes

     - Gold denotes home, White denotes away, Grey denotes neutral sites

     - Conference play is denoted by *

     - Bye week is Week 9

     - Design of the date box is the helmet, color of the date is the jersey color being worn (Week 4 (Homecoming) and Week 7           (Rivalry) is the throwback design).

 

 

Football (previous)

     - Facemask now white

     - Home and Away sleeve cap design is now in color, not sublimated and the logo is removed

     - Pants number removed and thin striping added to the sides

     - Away throwback removed, striping on helmet and pants thinned out. Helmets have numbers instead of logos.

Basketball (previous)

     - Stripping continues onto the jersey sides and collar and arm holes get coloring

     - redundant navy alternate and the gold alternate make way for an Acadiana alternate that uses navy, gold, and red from            the school emblem.

Hockey (previous)

     - Habs and Nordiques inspiration is no more, design is more conventional using the striping design from the rest of the                   uniforms.

     - Acadiana alternate introduced

Baseball (previous)

     - Jersey cut changed to the cut Auburn and Notre Dame wore in the CWS recently

     - Piping made way for sleeve and color striping as well as the pant stripe follows football instead of basketball

     - Acadiana alternate introduced.

 

[heavybass]

The Knights who say eh?

[Timothy_1947]

I have been quietly following this project for a while now and I just want to say that all of the teams look amazing. Keep up the great work. Also this project has been one of a few threads that has inspired me to start a college sports project of my own. 

[kb105]

 

Colors

 - Periwinkle

 - Indigo

 -  Silver

 - White

Logos

 - Emblem: Badge depicting a lighthouse in the sea during the day, similar to other school emblems in the University of Maine System.

 - Primary: A leaping 'Horned Whale', a narwhal

 - Secondary: Arched UPC

 - Wordmark

 

 

          In 1878, the state of Maine was poised to establish multiple new schools of higher education. The first was set up in Fort Kent to 'Americanize' the French-speaking border residents, the second in the biggest city of Portland, and the third in York County, which accounted for a tenth of the states population at the time. The York County school was located in Kittery and was called Pepperell Cove State Normal School. This name remained the official name until 1949 when it became Pepperell Cove College. In 1965, all of the normal schools joined with the University of Maine to form the University of Maine System, which changed the schools name to the University of Maine at Kittery-Pepperell Cove. In 1978, in conjunction with the school's 100 year anniversary, the name became the University of Pepperell Cove after years of alumni protests.

          In the realm of athletics, sports began in 1919 when World War I veterans flocked to the school and raised the student population three-fold. The first athletics field was built on the north side of campus, by the shores of Chauncey Creek. Temporary stands were moved to accommodate football and baseball games throughout the year and capacity fluctuated drastically. The first permanent seating stadium was built in 1927 on the Southeastern side of campus and is now called Piscataqua River Stadium I and was used for football and some major baseball games. PRS I was partially burnt down in 1942 and the remaining structure was torn down and used for repairs for other buildings on campus as rationing began with the war effort. PRS II was completed in 1951 along with Kittery Park right next door. In 1952, the Fort Foster Fieldhouse was built on the other side of the stadium. In 1978, the current iteration of Piscataqua River Stadium was completed, called PRS 2.5 was completed with the endzones enclosed and a capacity of 45,000. The Fort Foster Fieldhouse was demolished to enclose the North endzone and Fort Foster Arena replaced it a few hundred yards away from the original site. In 2011 the stadium reduced capacity to 40,000 when the pressbox was renovated and club suites were increased in number and size.

          The school colors were originally Navy and Light Blue, just like the University of Maine. However, when the school name changed to the University of Pepperell Cove in 1978, a new football coach was hired from his assistant position at UCLA. He introduced a "Powder Keg" Purple and Silver color scheme to football and also white-silver-white/silver-purple-silver shoulder hoop stripes on the jerseys. The next year, players wanted navy back, so the coach introduced an indigo color instead and added the color to the outside stripe. In 1980 the stripes were added to the pants and the other sports also adopted the colors and stripe design. In 1996 the nickname "Horned Whales" was redefined when the mascot was changed from a fantastical beluga whale with bull-like horns and a nose ring to the current Narwhal mascot. Peter the Narwhal received upgrades in 2008, 2014, and most recently in 2022.

[kb105]

 

Colors

 - Violet

 - White

 -  Industrial Black

Logos

 - Emblem: "Pillars that unlock academic success"

 - Primary: Blackletter-inspired P-Key

 

 

          In 1823, the Nashua Manufacturing Company was incorporated and subsequently hired over 1,000 people. This led to the company starting a training facility in the city of Nashua, right next to the mill. In 1847, the city took over the running of the facility and grew the curriculum to educate both the industrial workers and the young adults. In 1961, Sanders Associates purchased the school and shifted the focus primarily to engineering and computer systems. In 1970, the now university moved just outside of Nashua in nearby Hollis and began athletic competition.

          The name Gatekeepers was chosen as well as the colors of Violet and White in honor of Nashua's "Gate City" nickname and the color found in the city seal. The School name was adopted at this time as well, as it was previously Nashua College, and is the translation of Nashua from the native language. Pebblewater is known as the doormat of the conference in all sports. However, the 1990's did see a sustained period of success in football, basketball, and hockey when every year of the decade saw at least one DIII title, and the trifecta was won in 1993-1995 and 1998. This period of success is also when A very dark grey, almost black color was first added to the football uniforms in 1992 when they reached the semi-finals. Soon, all of the sports adopted the color before it was phased out in 2006. However, when the Gatekeepers signed on with Nike in 2019, the color was added and the previous one-color three stripe motif under Adidas was outlined in black, just like in the 90s.

[kb105]

 

Colors

 - Salmon

 - Navy

 -  White

Logos

 - Emblem: W-I lockup

 - Primary: Westerly Salmon 

 

 

          In 1870, the town of Westerly opened up its first high school. For the first 10 years the only form of higher in-state education was about 40 miles away in Providence. In 1880, the town yearned for a closer college and lobbied state legislature for the school to be placed in Westerly. The legislature was going to start a large college in Kingston, but instead decided to create a college for agriculture and mechanics there and a second state teachers college in Westerly for the 1888 school year. The college in Westerly was also funded by Connecticut as it served New London, CT as well. The agreement between the two state governments stipulated that neither state name could be used, leading to the Westerly school being named Western Island Joint Teachers College. In 1957, Connecticut halted its funding. The school had expanded by this point and renamed to Western Island State College. In 1973, the college became a university, being renamed Western Island University.

          Athletics unofficially began in the first semesters of the school, namely baseball and football intramurally. In 1898-99 the school fielded their first sponsored teams to play other schools. The teams wore navy tops and red bottoms and were called the Two-Staters. In 1957, the school wanted to become more localized in branding after Connecticut removed its funding and changed the navy to a salmon color in reference to the salmon found in the Pawcatuck River and the famous pink-granite that was quarried in the area. The teams were also began being named the Westerlies, both in reference to the town name and the aforementioned species of salmon. The program had maintained a rather hostile rivalry with the Yale Bulldogs up to the 1956 College-University Division split. After 1956, the athletics played in Division III up to their joining the AUIA. Prior to '56, hockey and football were national powers with some of the best players in the nation. After the re-classification, the programs kind of declined to be middle of the road among DIII programs up to a cinderella run in baseball in 2004 to the national runner-up. In 2005, hockey did the same with baseball winning it all the year. This new projection continued into AUIA play for hockey and baseball, however football and basketball have yet to reach the same levels, however both are looking on the up and up with new coaching hires starting in 2022 seasons along with a new athletic director.

[heavybass]

Fear the Fighting Fish!

[kb105]

Here is an update for Space Coast

Spoiler

 

Colors

 - Canavel Orange

 - Atlantic Blue

 -  White

 - Blossom Green

Logos

 - Emblem: Florida outline with a launched shuttle

 - Primary: A navel orange in an astronaut's helmet

 - Secondary: Team specific Florida state flag  

 

          Florida Space Coast began as a satellite school of the University of Miami in the years after World War II as soldiers who were stationed in nearby military bases looked to settle in the sunny state of Florida. This partnership with Miami was short lived as the state bought the school in 1950 to develop a large crop of engineers for the missile program that began at nearby Cape Canaveral and later in the decade for the fledgling space program, also based at Cape Canaveral. In 1963, Florida Technical University (now UCF) was founded to aid the new space voyaging NASA program. This led to Florida Engineering College (as it was then known) to gear towards broader engineering fields and started offering majors in new disciplines such as Civil, Mechanical, and even Electrical. These new programs still helped the nearby Kennedy Space Station in some projects, but also began helping building up the infrastructure for the growing populous in the state. In 1988, FEC had obtained university status and also became a space-grant institution. School leadership wanted to be made the lead institution for the Florida Consortium, however so did UCF. The school changed its name to Florida Space Coast University (the naming convention Florida Gulf Coast would borrow about a decade later) and began construction of a new engineering building and observatory in hopes of beating out the school in Orlando. However, the school did not become the lead institution which led to a rather large shake-up in university leadership. This shake up led to a shift from a heavily engineering school to a larger emphasis on hospitality, chemistry, and business majors in the late 1990s. In the late 2010s, the school established strong ties with Blue Origin and SpaceX, leading to a resurgence in the importance of the engineering programs, specifically Aerospace majors. This, coupled with athletic successes, has led to increasing enrollment year after year

          Sports began in 1951 with a club football team who would go around the state and sometimes in Georgia or South Carolina playing larger schools junior varsity teams. In 1960, a club basketball and baseball team formed and also played junior varsity teams, although only within the state. School sponsored athletics began shortly after, in 1962, with teams participating in the NAIA as an independent. In 1974, FEC joined the DII Gulf South Conference. Into the 1980s, FEC held a fierce rivalry with UCF both on and off the field. In 1984, UCF elevated to DI membership and the athletics rivalry cooled as games became much less frequent. Athletics were in the lower echelon of the conference up until the mid-90s after the school expanded past engineering-only majors. This allowed for higher caliber athletes to come on board and in the early 2000s, the program even flirted with elevation to DI-FCS classification. This athletic renaissance was all under the direction of the popular university president, Dr. Mike "Papa Bear" Barry. Going into the first year of AUIA play, Dr. Barry Passed away, leading to commemoration by the football and baseball field crews striping the fields in the design of his famous crisscross ties.

          FEC first began being called the Groves after the orange groves in which the school was nestled in. The club football team borrowed heavily from its former parent school, the University of Miami. The helmets were white, the colors were a dark green and orange, with some royal blue mixed in. This identity continued into varsity sports up until the 1988 season, when the school was renamed Florida Space Coast. That is when the teams were renamed the Canavels, after an unofficial mascot that was maintained by a fraternity, and the colors were changed to Orange and Light Blue. The uniforms were again slightly changed in the late 90s when green was reintroduced to the color palate, albeit in a minor capacity. Prior to the 2022 season, the Canavel primary logo was updated from the 1988 original to be more even and geometrical, as well as a larger emphasis on the moniker of "Florida's Premier College Team" with the introduction of the state flag and state outline logos. Since the 1990s, the football team dons two-toned helmets, mimicking the astronaut helmet in the logo. In more recent years, the teams have also worn space-inspired uniforms, usually around homecoming or highly-anticipated  space launches.

 

[kb105]

Spoiler

I decided to call an audible and instead of continuing on with the model of one conference at a time, I'm going to start introducing teams in a more spread out manner. So here is the Frontier Lakes Conference, the first school coming from Van Wert, Ohio.

 

 

 

 

Colors

 - Arctic Blue

 - Black Swamp

 -  Aviator Grey

 - White

Logos

 - Emblem: An aviator mosquito, an allusion to both the Great Black Swamp in which Van Wert is located in and a VW Bug. 

 - Primary: VW lockup that is based on the academic mark. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Higher education in Van Wert began in 1910 when the state legislature sought a location in northwestern Ohio to hold a new teachers college. Van Wert and Bowling Green were the two finalists with the decision ultimately going to Bowling Green. In 1950, the county decided to start a trade school in Van Wert that focused on granting licenses instead of degrees, particularly in trucking and aviation. In 1960, the school became a community college, being named Van Wert County College and began offering associate degrees that automatically transferred to Bowling Green State. In 1966, some bachelor degrees were offered and athletics began being played. In 1972, more bachelor programs began and the school was now controlled by the state and renamed to Van Wert State College. In 2008, the legislature allowed for masters programs to begin at Van Wert leading to the elevation to Van Wert State University, effective for the 2011-2012 year.

          Athletics began play in the Ohio Athletic Conference in 1966 as the Aviators, named for local hero Walter Hinton. Athletics really got rolling in 1978 when for the next two decades, the school only finished lower than third in the conference in any sport in the 1996 Basketball season when the team finished 10th after two star players had season-ending injuries in early January. In 1999, Van Wert joined the DII GLIAC, alongside rival Findlay. Athletic performance remained the same in the new conference and by 2008, Van Wert had accepted an invitation to join the  DI Horizon League and the FCS Missouri Valley Football Conference  for football  effective in 2012. However, the school decided to jump ship to the AUIA before reaching Division I athletics.

[the_grateful_ted]

Awesome logo!

[BobsonDugnutt]

I think that court is my favorite thing in this entire series so far.

[kb105]

Whelp, school had started back up and this was kind of put on the back burner. But, now I've been able to get back into it so here we go, but first some house keeping. First off, the schedule I had mentioned a few pages back along with a playoff system has been completed for football. I used some previous school stories along with some gut feeling to make wins and losses to create a playoff and ranking system for the 2022 season. Any team that made the playoffs will have the playoff logo on whatever uniform they wore in the playoffs just to show what it would look like. Additionally, I will try to post some uniform matchups as we go along and I either unveil new teams or update previous teams more. Speaking on uniforms, inspired by Raysox's Danger Brand series I have made all the uniforms for this series (and another one I am planning to post soon surrounding local high schools) will follow the same uniform template and branded with my logo with the same minimalist principle of the manufacturer logo not being a design highlight.

 

Without further adieu, here is what the playoff would look like.

Spoiler

 

[kb105]

Colors

 - Dakota Blue

 - Wheatgrass

 - White

 

 

Spoiler

          Dakota A&M began in 1888 as Dakota Metallurgy College. By 1900, the school was then under some size restraints along with the school in Brookings, Dakota Agricultural College, and so the state decided to combine them into one school, Dakota Agricultural and Metallurgy College, helping expand the two campuses. In 1904, the Brookings campus was renamed to South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts while the school in Pierre replaced ‘Mechanical Arts’ with ‘Metallurgy’. Both schools fielded separate teams, however retained the same colors of light blue and bright yellow that adorned the flag adopted in 1909. Brookings went by the State College Jackrabbits while the school in Pierre was called Dakota A&M Shiners. Both schools started as independents before becoming founding members of the North Central Conference. Dakota A&M would stay in this conference for decades until some members began jumping up to Division I play in the mid 2000s. In 1964 the arrangement with State College, now becoming South Dakota State University, ended as both schools were reorganized into universities. Now called Dakota Agricultural & Metallurgy University, would see a stagnation in their enrollment as highways and interstates began bypassing the city of Pierre. This led to other schools in the state and the conference surpassing them both academically as well as athletically. In 1995, the school underwent major rebranding under a new president. Out was the Shiners nickname and in was Triceratops. Also new was a Navy and Old Gold color scheme, one that was tougher than the previous, flag inspired colors. However, fan and alumni response would lead to a return to the original blue in 2003.

          Athletics were never too spectacular in Pierre. Schools in larger cities took out of state kids and much of the talent within the state, leaving Dakota A&M with only local kids and some scraps from northern Nebraska. Due to the fact most major roads bypass the area, travel was difficult leading to low attendance. Many times in the 70s, 80s, and 90s there was buzz about a total shutdown of all athletics. Luckily for the school though was the ‘95 rebrand, centered on a new football coach who was bringing in a new style of football centered around a vertical passing game. These teams lit up the scoreboard in the conference and even led to a semi-finals appearance in 2001 against North Dakota. When the conference disbanded in 2008, Dakota A&M joined the Northern Sun Conference, home of future conference mate Minnesota Mines. While in the conference, A&M and Mines began a fierce football rivalry despite Mines prevailing each time while in the Northern Sun, despite the close battles (only one game ended before 3 overtimes). The football success led to the rumblings of new life in other sports, namely basketball who never missed a DII tournament in the 2000s. 

          In 2012, Dakota A&M announced their move alongside Minnesota Mines to the AUIA. Both were placed in the Plains States Conference (separate divisions) and their rivalry only grew. Both remained strong in football, many times knocking one another out of high rankings or even automatic berth bids. In hockey, even though Mines has dominated the series, A&M has played spoiler plenty of times in the regular season as well as in the conference tournament.

 

[jbird669]

Those playoff logos are on point! Dakota's football helmet is nice. Makes me think of the Brahmas, a bit. 

[Blindsay]

The White Wordmark on the Basketball alternates ain’t good. Other than that, I have a suspicion of what happens to every team that loses to this team.

 

 

DAM U!!!!

[kb105]

 

Colors

 - Carob

 - Watermelon

 - Ivory

 - White

 

 

Spoiler

          Hudson as a city was long an important town in the early US, even nearly becoming the state capital of New York. In the mid-19th century the location on the Hudson River made the city prime for factories and merchant ships. This influx of wealthy business men and families and the relatively large size led to a private school being built in the northern side of town. Originally teaching what would today be considered late high school and associate degree level education, the school was geared towards children of well-off families, but not necessarily the ultra-wealthy like other New England private schools. By 1853, the school began offering four year degrees and resembled more of a liberal arts college, leading to the school being renamed to Hudson College. The local name was simply the School on the Hudson by townsfolk and factory workers. Hudson College would remain rather small, only having enrollment reach around 5,000 up until the 1920s. In the 20s, the school saw a massive increase in admissions and enrollment ballooned to 20,000 by 1929. During this time was also the first admittance of African-American students and of women. The school became a research university during this time and for a short while was named the University of Hudson before quickly being renamed the College on the Hudson in 1946 as a call back to its roots in the 1850s. In the post-war era, the school experienced another spike in enrollment to around 45,000 by 1950, which was quickly brought down to 35-40,000 by the 70s. Today, the school boasts numbers of 28-32,000 and has one of the best business and law departments in the state and the country. One rather unique tidbit is also that the school boasts a top agricultural sciences program in the region and hosts monthly farmers markets around their football stadium on Sundays with watermelons being the staple produce sold.

          The first athletics were boys teams from the high school days. The only sport that has continued on from that time is baseball, and coincidentally that is the pride and joy of the school’s athletic department. Football began in the 1880s, hockey in 1903, and basketball in the 20s. Hudson was historically independent and competed in the college division prior to 1973, and then they competed in Division III after the college division was split in two. In 2003, they joined their first conference, Empire 8, and immediately had success winning conference championships in football and baseball. Those two sports would continue to dominate in conference and soon was joined by hockey, while basketball struggled to reach the same level of success. When they joined the NEAU of the AUIA in 2012, football and hockey took a step back initially. By now, football has become respectable in their division, usually competing with Green Mountain Central for the spot in the championship game. Hockey meanwhile has stayed in the middle of the conference along with basketball. Baseball continued being dominant, winning the majority of conference titles so far, along with a national title as well.

 

 

Spoiler

On 4/12/2023 at 12:42 PM, jbird669 said:

Those playoff logos are on point! Dakota's football helmet is nice. Makes me think of the Brahmas, a bit. 

Yeah, what's funny is that I started the football uniforms around Thanksgiving. The inspiration was the wraparound Seahawks and Jacksonville Bulls helmets (something that isn't exclusive to Dakota A&M in the conference).

 

On 4/12/2023 at 3:35 PM, Blindsay said:

I have a suspicion of what happens to every team that loses to this team.

 

 

DAM U!!!!

Yep, and then when a ref makes a questionable call, "DAM U Suck!" instead of "Ref, you suck!"

 

On 4/12/2023 at 3:35 PM, Blindsay said:

The White Wordmark on the Basketball alternates ain’t good.

Yeah, I was trying to keep with the whole different colors, single layer thing. Here's an updated version with the South Dakota and NOB outlined. Let me know how that is an I'll update the original post if it's better.

[Bomba Tomba]

Mmmm ice cream

[kb105]

 

Colors

 - Yellow-Orange

 - Charcoal grey

 - White

 

 

Spoiler

          Ouisconsin got its beginnings in 1882 with the creation of a railroad line from Monico to Rhinelander by the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad. This rail line was meant to spur the development of the city as much of the land the line was built on was sold by one the founding families for this very purpose. The first school building of what would become Ouisconsin University was built on the Pelican River near the convergence with the Wisconsin River. First called the Pelican School, the institution taught students 12 to 21. Most of the curriculum was about trades in the local area along with some science, engineering, math, and history. As the town grew around it, so too did the Pelican School. In 1889, a high school was started and students up to 18 began attending there. By then, the school was named The Pelican Institute and began offering degrees in teaching, medicine, and science. In 1924, the family who owned the school sold it to the state who renamed it to the Wisconsin Pelican Education Center and operated mostly as a community college, something that led to the name change to Pelican Community College in 1928. In 1934, the college was getting ready to be shut down by the state due to financial issues, but was instead bought by local families in order to save the city's only form of higher education. In 1950, the enrollment picked up and the campus needed some expansion, which happened southwards towards Lake Julia. By 1960, the Pelican Community College changed to just Pelican College and by 1965, Pelican University. In the 70s, many of the people who had purchased the school from the state began to die off or had begun divvying up their assets to relatives and the people inheriting the university had no desire to continue running the school. Seeing as the school was highly profitable and had a modest enrollment of around 15,000 students, the state once again purchased the school in 1977. This state ownership led to the name representing the state and it became Ouisconsin University, the French name for Wisconsin.
          Sports were first started in the 20s before being quickly shut down in the 30s under the first round of state operation. They then returned with football in 1945, followed by basketball and hockey in 1947, then baseball in 1948. The first teams wore gold uniforms, sometimes entirely gold with white accents or a dark color accented in gold. Due to the gold color and the state’s infatuation with all things lactose, the teams operated under the unofficial nickname of the Golden Curds. This name, however, was never adopted by the academic side and no such mascot ever was until the state's second takeover and the subsequent name change. To honor the school’s past, the school would go by the Ouisconsin Pelicans wearing their traditional Gold and White scheme.
The play on the field was actually pretty good in their original decade of play while a community college. However, their return was a rather slow process. They joined the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1947 and stayed there until they became a public institution again in ‘77. While in the MCAC, they had middling success and only won conference championships five times, four in football during a six year stretch of 1967-72 and 1959 in baseball. Otherwise, the teams averaged from mediocre to downright awful. In 1977, they joined the then dubbed Wisconsin State University Conference (now called the WIAC) that held most of the other state schools. There, they began seeing some success as they now were a public school and had some success in all sports. Conference championships were claimed in all sports but football, who had to contend with Wisconsin-Whitewater every year and failed to beat them ever in their time in the WIAC. When the opportunity to jump the AUIA was presented, the football side of the department was ready, but the other sports were not so sure. Thus, they did not compete in the first season of play and instead began in 2013. Off the bat, football experienced great success winning their division and establishing an in-state rivalry with Manitowoc alongside other schools in neighboring states. Other sports also stayed strong, particularly baseball where they are in contention for both conference and national titles seemingly every year.
 

 

[heavybass]

1 hour ago, kb105 said:

 

Colors

 - Yellow-Orange

 - Charcoal grey

 - White

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

          Ouisconsin got its beginnings in 1882 with the creation of a railroad line from Monico to Rhinelander by the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad. This rail line was meant to spur the development of the city as much of the land the line was built on was sold by one the founding families for this very purpose. The first school building of what would become Ouisconsin University was built on the Pelican River near the convergence with the Wisconsin River. First called the Pelican School, the institution taught students 12 to 21. Most of the curriculum was about trades in the local area along with some science, engineering, math, and history. As the town grew around it, so too did the Pelican School. In 1889, a high school was started and students up to 18 began attending there. By then, the school was named The Pelican Institute and began offering degrees in teaching, medicine, and science. In 1924, the family who owned the school sold it to the state who renamed it to the Wisconsin Pelican Education Center and operated mostly as a community college, something that led to the name change to Pelican Community College in 1928. In 1934, the college was getting ready to be shut down by the state due to financial issues, but was instead bought by local families in order to save the city's only form of higher education. In 1950, the enrollment picked up and the campus needed some expansion, which happened southwards towards Lake Julia. By 1960, the Pelican Community College changed to just Pelican College and by 1965, Pelican University. In the 70s, many of the people who had purchased the school from the state began to die off or had begun divvying up their assets to relatives and the people inheriting the university had no desire to continue running the school. Seeing as the school was highly profitable and had a modest enrollment of around 15,000 students, the state once again purchased the school in 1977. This state ownership led to the name representing the state and it became Ouisconsin University, the French name for Wisconsin.
          Sports were first started in the 20s before being quickly shut down in the 30s under the first round of state operation. They then returned with football in 1945, followed by basketball and hockey in 1947, then baseball in 1948. The first teams wore gold uniforms, sometimes entirely gold with white accents or a dark color accented in gold. Due to the gold color and the state’s infatuation with all things lactose, the teams operated under the unofficial nickname of the Golden Curds. This name, however, was never adopted by the academic side and no such mascot ever was until the state's second takeover and the subsequent name change. To honor the school’s past, the school would go by the Ouisconsin Pelicans wearing their traditional Gold and White scheme.
The play on the field was actually pretty good in their original decade of play while a community college. However, their return was a rather slow process. They joined the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1947 and stayed there until they became a public institution again in ‘77. While in the MCAC, they had middling success and only won conference championships five times, four in football during a six year stretch of 1967-72 and 1959 in baseball. Otherwise, the teams averaged from mediocre to downright awful. In 1977, they joined the then dubbed Wisconsin State University Conference (now called the WIAC) that held most of the other state schools. There, they began seeing some success as they now were a public school and had some success in all sports. Conference championships were claimed in all sports but football, who had to contend with Wisconsin-Whitewater every year and failed to beat them ever in their time in the WIAC. When the opportunity to jump the AUIA was presented, the football side of the department was ready, but the other sports were not so sure. Thus, they did not compete in the first season of play and instead began in 2013. Off the bat, football experienced great success winning their division and establishing an in-state rivalry with Manitowoc alongside other schools in neighboring states. Other sports also stayed strong, particularly baseball where they are in contention for both conference and national titles seemingly every year.
 

 

I like this, the scheme to me works.

[kb105]

 

 

Colors

 - Wren Brown

 - Atlantic Blue

 - White

 

Spoiler

          Carolina Atlantic is located in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, who for much of its history relied on agriculture as its main driver of economy, and thus relied heavily on slave labor. In the aftermath of the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, much of the region declined both population wise and economically. Not truly until the later half of the 20th century did the area recover to pre-war levels, thanks in no small part to the region along the coasts becoming vacation and retirement hot spots. 
          In 1959, the University of South Carolina decided to expand its reach throughout the state, and decided to build a campus in the southern corner in Beaufort County. USC Beaufort sustained continued growth over the next 30 years and soon needed to either expand or find some way to relieve itself of some of its student population. The solution proposed was to build a two-year college that allowed students to start there before transferring to USC-B. The state legislature agreed that the new school must be in neighboring Jasper County, and the city of Hardeeville was chosen in 1991 due in part to its proximity to I-95. The specific location of campus is east of 95, nestled between Hardeeville and the unincorporated communities of Okatie and Switzerland. Construction of the first few buildings began in 1996 and by 1998, the first few hundred students began classes at USC Jasper College. By 2002, USC Beaufort was still outgrowing its campus and needed more than a few hundred students being taken at USC Jasper, and this led to Jasper becoming its own separate institution. The USC system did not want two universities so close together and decided to allow Jasper to become independent. Thus, the school changed its name to Carolina Atlantic University and continued to expand its campus. Every year, enrollment increases substantially and more and more buildings are cropping up. As it stands, only one third of the more than 5,600 acres is developed for the campus.
          Athletics began for Carolina Atlantic in 2002, when they became a university. The first athletic director came from Coastal Carolina, thus heavily influencing some of the design choices. Instead of bronze and teal, brown and baby blue were worn. Instead of being named after a fictional rooster, the teams would be called the state bird, the Carolina wren. Along with the Brown and blue, black was carried over from their days in the USC system (black was nixed in 2021 as the program went more traditional in their branding). They began play as an all-sports member of Conference Carolinas and as a football only member in the South Atlantic Conference. All of their teams had a predictable slow start before rather quickly getting better year after year. In 2005, the football team was second in their conference and the next year won. In 2008, they reached the DII semifinals. They followed that up with three straight years of reaching the finals. Basketball and baseball also experienced success in their short time in the NCAA, winning conference titles as well as national titles in 2009 and 2007, respectively. The only team that never quite found their footing was hockey, who were made to play as independents in Division I. 
          Since joining the AUIA, all sports have seen even greater success. Football as never missed a playoff, winning the A*Gulf’s automatic bid three times (second only behind Space coast with five). Basketball is a perennial power and always in the top of the conference and has never been lower than the 13th seed of the playoffs. Baseball is arguably the best in the nation, undoubtedly in the conference. Even hockey has seen great success, only missing the playoffs three times, two of which happened in the first four years.
 

Spoiler

Here are some of the football uniform matchups in the playoffs between teams already revealed. I'll try to do this for any new team and I'll probably also show some teams from recent reveals before the new unifomr template if I don't plan on changing their looks much.

 

Play-In Game | Hudson

 

 

          In the first play-in game, 9th-seed Carolina Atlantic faced 24th-seed Hudson. CAU was the second ranked team in the week 15 rankings and was the highest ranked at-large team after finishing the regular season with a 10-2 record and beating then 3rd ranked Space Coast in the final game in the annual Battle for the Beach in Jacksonville (39-38 2OT). This all coming off a semi-finals appearance in the 2021 playoffs with much of their starters returning, hoping for a chance at the title. Their two slip ups were against divisional opponents, both on the road and both being inferior competition. 

          Hudson entered in a completely different way. They won a weak West Division in the NEAU, going 7-2 in conference and 8-5 overall. In the conference championship, they faced 14th ranked Barnstable and were considerable underdogs (17.5 points to be exact). However, they battled hard and jumped out to a 23-18 halftime lead. The 2nd half kickoff was returned for a touchdown by Hudson, but was brought back to their own 10-yard line after a penalty, and quickly gave up a safety. Barnstable then scored another field goal before popping off for a touchdown the next drive and then a pick six immediately after. From there, the teams would trade off touchdowns in what quickly became a shootout before Barnstable mishandled the snap with 5 seconds to go on what was supposed to be a kneel down to go into overtime, 65 all. This muffed snap was on Barnstable's own 25, as Hudson just touched back the kickoff after tying up the game. This led to a walk-off, 42 yard field goal to send Hudson to their second NEAU championship and playoff appearance. 

          Despite Hudson's amazing path to the playoffs, they had no respect. Coming into Jeff-Smith as 24.5-point underdogs, very few experts saw them doing much against the Wrens, although they were the betting favorites. However, the experts were not wrong in this one. Hudson was blanked in the first half 31-0, only getting past the 50 once, where the quarter back was strip-sacked on their own 47. The third quarter was the same story, with CAU putting up another three touchdowns before putting in the backups. The final score was 62-3, the three points coming in the last minute after the third-string freshman punt returner for Carolina Atlantic muffed the punt on CAU's 45.

          Aesthetically, the game looks like how any normal game would. Usually in the playoffs, AUIA encourages more color on color matchups when possible as some teams will be playing teams for the first time ever or at least in a long while. This game, however, is heavily brown and the no alternates in the playoffs prevented a color on color matchup here. The fields here in the Play-In round will be at the higher seeded campuses and thus will not have much difference in the regular looks, aside from the playoff logo being added opposite conference logos on the 20-yard lines.

 

AUIA Championship | Space Coast

 

 

          In what was a rematch of a double overtime thriller in the regular season finale, divisional foes and heated rivals met in the title game in Nashville. Both entered at 14-2 and both coming off wins against top-10 foes in the semi-finals. The game started off slow, the first three possessions ended in punts. Space Coast drew first blood at the 11:26 mark, with a 13 yard touchdown pass. Carolina Atlantic answered with a field goal at the end of a 12 play, 5:14 drive. Space Coast stalled out after 6 plays and 3:17 of game time before Carolina Atlantic scores a touchdown run from 3 yards out on the first play of the second quarter, but the holder couldn't get the snap down and they missed the fire call 2-pt conversion attempt. The game stayed at 9-7 for a bit before Carolina Atlantic scored another touchdown with 6:58 remaining in the half, increasing their lead 16-7. Space Coast led a 3:49 drive and scored another touchdown, cutting the CAU lead 16-14. The Wrens drove down the field right before half and got to the 2 yard line. Their QB ran a RPO with the TE running to the front pylon. The tight end caught the ball at the 1-yard line, turned to head up field before being blown up  and fumbling the ball through the back of the endzone, a touchback. Space Coast decided to kneel with the remaining :03 in the half, with them set to receive to start the 3rd Quarter. The start of the 3rd was the same as the 1st, this time with the first score not coming until 5:04 left as Space Coast scored on a 62 yard post to their record breaking wide out, making the game now 21-16 in Space Coast's favor. Carolina Atlantic answered this with a swift three and out and three incompletions, leaving 4:21 left in the 3rd. Space Coast wouldn't be able to capitalize, leading to another scoring drought that lasted into the 4th. Carolina Atlantic would take their first drive in the fourth all the way down to the 11-yard line before an illegal forward pass penalty on third down led to a 33 yard field goal, making the score now 21-19 with 12:31 left in the game. The two would both fire off big play drives culminating in touchdowns in the next five minutes, leading to a 28-26 Canavels lead half way through the 4th. Space Coast would drive down to CAU's 35 with 4:48 left after a 15 screen pass on 2nd & 3. They ran a speed option that ended up gaining 9 yards. On second down, the took a shot and sored a touchdown, but not before a ref blew an inadvertent whistle prior to the pass, bringing it back. The replayed down led to a sack back at the 31-yard line before a 3rd down interception with 4:04 left. Carolina Atlantic put together a swift 1:26, 6 play drive from their own 48, going up 33-28  with 2:38 left. Space Coast would then compile a great drive, scoring a touchdown with just :13 left. On the subsequent kickoff, they didn't want the returner to have a chance to get a good return, so they tried squibbing it. Unfortunately, this backfired as the ball ended out of bounds and the rule in the AUIA is that the ball would be placed at the minus 45. So the Wrens had 13 seconds to score from 55 yards out. The first play saw them reach plus territory the 49-yardline  with 8 seconds left. They tried for a quick shot to the sideline, but the pass was tipped and fell with 2 seconds left. This set up a 66 yard field goal attempt with the wind at the kicker's back. Before the attempt, CAU called a timeout and the game went to a commercial break. During this break, some of the players began talking to each other and a few players got into one another faces. Ultimately, a Space Coast player took a swing at a Carolina Atlantic player, leading to an ejection and a 15-yard penalty. Now, the field goal was 51 yards and much more feasible. The snap and hold were perfect, however, the refs failed to see a Space Coast player jump offsides on the end of the line. He got past the blockers on the outside and blocked the kick. Both sidelines erupted, one in jubilation, one in anger. Unfortunately, the AUIA does not allow for non-contact penalties to be reviewed, so the play stood and Space Coast won the game, 35-33, avenging their regular season loss.