Big 12 Complete! / Perrin actually takes on the NCAA for real this time I swear

[PERRIN]

Alrighty! I’m resurrecting my NCAA Concept thread from Fall 2022, wherein I attempted to redesign the entire NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision in my own image with a fully realigned conference landscape. I got four teams in before losing inspiration and ditching the project.

 

Then, last summer, I got another burst of inspiration and kept at it a bit more. I moved my existing designs to a new uniform template, finished the rest of the Big 12, and made progress on some SEC and Big 10 schools. Then, again, I lost inspiration before I even posted anything.

 

But now I’m back, hopefully for real this time! I’ve once again changed my conference alignment and uniform templates, reconsidered a bunch of changes, and finally have the momentum to nail down at least a conference of two. I’ve got the full—newly aligned—Big 12 finished, and will post in batches of four at a time over the next few days.

 

For starters, I’ve got to address my ideal vision for conference realignment. To put things lightly, what’s going on in reality with conferences is a crapstorm and I hate pretty much all of it. Thus, pretty much all of the IRL changes are gone and my own personal preferences take over. My setup includes 9 conferences with 16 teams each, for a grand total of 144 teams. To get to this number, I included all the teams that have moved up to FBS from FCS in recent years and promoted a handful more to suit my geographical alignment needs. Welcome to FBS Delaware (early), Eastern Washington, Idaho (again), Missouri State (Also early), Montana, North Dakota State, Sacramento State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, and Villanova!

 

I’ve included a handy-dandy color coded map of every conference below. School locations aren’t very accurate sheerly due to laziness.

 

In case the color-coded map isn’t clear enough, here’s a conference-by-conference breakdown of all 144 teams:

Spoiler

 

Atlantic Coast Conference:

 

Army

Boston College

Duke

Maryland

Navy

North Carolina

NC State

Rutgers

Syracuse

Temple

UCF

UConn

USF

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

 

Big 10:

Cincinnati

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Louisville

Michigan

Michigan State

Northwestern

Notre Dame

Ohio State

Penn State

Pittsburgh

Purdue

Wisconsin

West Virginia

 

Big 12:

Arkansas

Baylor

Colorado

Houston

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Missouri

Nebraska

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

SMU

Texas

Texas A&M

TCU

Texas Tech

 

Conference USA:

Arkansas State

Charlotte

James Madison

Liberty

Memphis

Middle Tennessee State

Missouri State

North Texas

Old Dominion

Rice

Sam Houston State

Texas State

Tulsa

UTEP

UTSA

Western Kentucky

 

Mid-American Conference:

Akron

Ball State

Bowling Green

Buffalo

Central Michigan

Delaware

Eastern Michigan

Kent State

Marshall

Miami OH

Northern Illinois

Ohio

Toledo

UMass

Villanova

Western Michigan

 

Mountain West Conference:

Air Force

Colorado State

Eastern Washington

Fresno State

Idaho

Montana

New Mexico

New Mexico State

North Dakota State

San Jose State

Sacramento State

South Dakota

South Dakota State

Utah State

Wyoming

 

Pacific 12 Conference

Arizona

Arizona State

Boise State

BYU

California

Hawai’i

Oregon

Oregon State

San Diego State

Stanford

UCLA

UNLV

USC

Utah

Washington

Washington State

 

Southeastern Conference

Alabama

Auburn

Clemson

Florida

Florida State

Georgia

Georgia Tech

Kentucky

LSU

Miami FL

Mississippi State

Ole Miss

South Carolina

Tennessee

Tulane

Vanderbilt

 

Sun Belt Conference:

Appalachian State

Coastal Carolina

Eastern Carolina

Florida Atlantic

Florida International

Georgia Southern

Georgia State

Jacksonville State

Kennesaw State

Louisiana

Lousiana Monroe

Louisiana Tech

South Alabama

Southern Miss

Troy

UAB

 

 

Ok, hard part out of the way, it’s concept time. Let’s start with the new Big 12, in alphabetical order.

 

Arkansas joins the Big 12! They feel like a natural fit to me for whatever reason and work quite well geographically. They get a twist on their 2014-2018 set with swooping stripes to reflect the fangs of a razorback. I opted not to give them white helmets, they simply don’t feel necessary to me. I kept things simple across the board but added the throwback set they’ve worn recently as an alternate.

 

Baylor gets a play on the set they recently abandoned for a knock-off Packers look. It keeps the simple color blocking and flowy elements but married it with the bear claw sleeve elements from their other previous set. I ditched white pants and helmets in order to prioritize their main colors but kept plenty of yellow and green mix-and-match options.

 

Colorado marries their current set with their historical set, with some shiny gold elements to help things feel modern without getting too flashy. Simple, stripy, slick.

 

Houston retains there simple classic set with a few tweaks. First off, the sleeves move from two stripes to three, as per tradition, but also to separate them from other red stripey teams. They stick with red helmets as primary, now with their excellent Cougar logo in place of their more generic UH monogram. Numbers get double outlines to match the aforementioned monogram and help them stick out from other red schools. They get a tasteful black-based alternate, might not be necessary, but this would be the way to it.

 

 

That’s it for this first round. I’ll post another four teams in a bit, don’t wanna front load with too many concepts and then lose all my inspiration immediately. I’m gonna try my best to actually get this whole series done if I can. I’ve got a good headstart on updating my existing concepts to my updated templates, and thus should probably be able to keep my momentum going enough to finish the Big 10 and SEC.

 

That’s all for now. Made in Affinity Designer. C&C appreciated.

[FrutigerAero]

That is the most beautiful conference realignment map I've ever seen.  Very common-sense arrangement too.

[jbird669]

8 hours ago, FrutigerAero said:

That is the most beautiful conference realignment map I've ever seen.  Very common-sense arrangement too.

I agree, save for Notre Dame in the Big 10. They don't need a conference. 

 

Love Houston's helmet and the designs so far! Wish Baylor would ditch the boring BU on the helmet. 

[PERRIN]

22 minutes ago, jbird669 said:

I agree, save for Notre Dame in the Big 10. They don't need a conference. 

 

Love Houston's helmet and the designs so far! Wish Baylor would ditch the boring BU on the helmet. 

I don’t think Notre Dame needs a conference either, but independent teams ruined my perfectly mathematical 16-team conferences, a grave and unforgivable wrongdoing that I cannot in good conscience allow. Notre Dame and the other independents have been accordingly punished for their insolence. May they never test my wrath again.

[maxwasson]

12 minutes ago, PERRIN said:

I don’t think Notre Dame needs a conference either, but independent teams ruined my perfectly mathematical 16-team conferences, a grave and unforgivable wrongdoing that I cannot in good conscience allow. Notre Dame and the other independents have been accordingly punished for their insolence. May they never test my wrath again.

 

Villanova in the MAC is wild, their basketball program would run circles in that conference. 

[mamiller99]

Everything about this project has me incredibly hyped, I love the character you’ve brought back to Baylor a lot. Would have liked to have seen a blue alt for UH but the blackout is tastefully done. Loving the new template!

[McCall]

1 hour ago, maxwasson said:

 

Villanova in the MAC is wild, their basketball program would run circles in that conference. 

It would only be for football.

[Nickishim2838]

The Uniform sets so far have been Absolutely Incredible! Love that you're Making the Necessary Tweaks and designs for teams that could Realistically Pull these off in the near Future. 

Also Love That you've split these conferences  Perfectly in a way that makes the most sense. 

Big Project Ahead of you man, Keep it up.

Edited Sunday at 07:57 PM by Nickishim2838

[PERRIN]

Big 12, Batch 2!

 

Iowa State, like Baylor, gets a set inspired by their now-previous modern look. Like Baylor, they get tweaked color treatment across all jerseys, limits on black and white, and collar and pants detailing that feels modern, but natural given the elements of the rest of the set. No black and white alts or alternate helmets, but a yellow jersey makes an appearance.

 

Kansas gets a set inspired by their basketball uniforms, a choice that feels natural given their success on the hardwood. Circus fonts make a comeback, as they far outshine Trajan in terms of flair. They wore a powder blue set a little while back, and I quite liked it, so I brought it back. A red jersey would work fine, but this felt more natural to me for some reason.

 

Kansas State gets very small changes, as their existing set is near-perfect. Their wordmark is added to the chest and their number font is tweaked to be a slightly more modern take on a block font. Their alt—also inspired by a basketball set— embraces lavender. We need more lavender in sports. Please. It’s such a good color. I need it.

 

 

Missouri gets a few tweaks to their recent striped getup. They can’t seem to decide on number colors or whether or not to have a wordmark, so I standardized things in line with tradition. I like the white helmets and pants as an occasional alternate for them, but they mostly stick with their historical color combos.

 

 

 

That’s all for now. More to come soon! Made in Affinity Designer. C&C appreciated.

[PERRIN]

Batch 3 of the Big 12!

 

Nebraska keeps things simple, the only changes are adjustments to their block number font, and an updated primary logo that acts as a middle ground between their Thin N and Block N logos. A blackshirt alternate is included, with enough red that it still feels like Nebraska.

 

As an OU fan, I find the Sooners’ uniforms to be so plain that I don’t mind straying from tradition a bit. I essentially coopted the RoughRider alternate template, made the wood patterns more subtle, and made things crimson and white throughout. I included a cream alt as well, just because it looks so damn good.

 

Oklahoma State gets a look that marries their current striped set and their bandana patterned set. The pattern detailing in the collar is just too good not to use. Striped pants make a long-awaited comeback. Plenty of mix-and-match options are available.

 

SMU joins the Big 12, renewing their rivalry with TCU. They get a simple set with standardized stripes and a blue home jersey, but the away remains red-dominant as per tradition. A red jersey stays as an alternate. I considered doing a Dallas themed-alt like they’ve used the last handful of seasons, but don’t really see the need.

 

That’s all for now. More to come soon! Made in Affinity Designer. C&C appreciated.

 

 

[Section30]

I feel like the OSU helmet logo should be recolored on the orange helmet, it's a little hard to read currently.

 

Otherwise I'm loving this series so far!

[Lights Out]

The stripes on Mizzou's gold jersey should match the gold pants.

[Nickishim2838]

So Far So Good, I wouldn't Worry about adding any tweaks to the sets until you finish tho, I'd love to see all 144 teams Completed 

 

Keep it coming and take your time, Loving it so far! 

[MJD7]

I loved your NFL series, so I'm excited to see you take on college football! All of the designs look great so far, I don't really have any specific comments to make, other than I'd love to know the name of the font for Kansas if there is one  Excited to see the rest!

[PERRIN]

Wrapping up the Big 12 with batch 4!

 

Texas gets slight changes to revert back to their set from a few years ago, with longhorn logo and tv numbers on the jersey. I updated the wordmarks to a custom block font with a bit more southern flair, just to have changed something. Their helmet number throwbacks make a return.

 

Texas A&M returns to the Big 12 with a set that acts as a middle ground between their current classic set and the Manziel-era look. Flat numbers, no gray anywhere, with shoulder yoke stripes. Brought back the 1939 throwback, mostly for that gorgeous helmet.

 

TCU gets a slightly simplified version of their frog-spike necklace set, with subtler necklace coloring, less obnoxious silver detailing, and a simple diamond-pattern pant and helmet stripe. Plenty of mix and match combos.

 

Texas Tech gets a shoulder yoke version of their existing half-and-half stripes. Black and red helmets are included to promote mix-and-match combos.

 

That wraps up the Big 12! The SEC is next, I'll post the first four teams soon. To keep from getting stuck I plan to always have a batch of four teams on deck before posting.

 

That’s all for now. More to come soon! Made in Affinity Designer. C&C appreciated.

 

EDIT: I'm noticing that the colors in the images are a bit off from what I intended them to look like in Affinity. I'll try to compensate for that a bit better going forward.

 

 

[Ben5]

When you are putting a logo on a helmet, just put it on straight. You don't have to angle it. On the template you use, the helmet is oriented how it would sit on a players head. So you want the decal to be oriented correctly when the helmet is level.

[PERRIN]

1 hour ago, Ben5 said:

When you are putting a logo on a helmet, just put it on straight. You don't have to angle it. On the template you use, the helmet is oriented how it would sit on a players head. So you want the decal to be oriented correctly when the helmet is level.

I do it that way for a reason. The slight rotation prevents the logos from being cut off by the helmet vents as much. I'd rather it be rotated 5 degrees than get cut off by vents the way many helmet logos are. You don't need to tell me how to use my own custom template.