All American Football League

[m0sherman]

For those of you who aren't aware, the All American Football League will be a new spring football league launching in April 2008. The basic idea is that they associate the teams with a major college university and try to sign alumni from that school to fill out that roster. As of now, it appears these will be the teams/schools involved:

Alabama

Arkansas

Florida

Florida State

Michigan

Mississippi

Tennessee

Texas

Anyway, the AAFL has an advertisement on their website raffling off free tickets to Florida games, and this is the graphic they are using:

I don't know if those are going to be the real helmets, but I thought they were interesting. How they handle the uniforms in general will be intriguing - they won't be able to use the actual college uniforms, but they want fans to be able to easily identify each team. They need to be careful that the uniforms don't just look like weak rip-offs of the real thing (like those helmets in the ad).

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to see them maybe do versions of retro uniforms - there's plenty of quality designs out their for all of these schools, and that's a great way to identify with the university without copying the current stuff. And above all, they need to stay away from the XFL, Arena League style stuff. They are selling an old-school, classic style product - their players should be dressed as such.

[pcgd]

I'm not sure if they will go the route of a knock off. Perhaps colors, but many teams will be made up of sourounding schools as well. For example: The Purdue team would likely pull players not only from Purdue, but possibly Notre Dame, Indiana, Illinois, Northern Illinois, Ohio State if they don't have a team, and others in the area. Some schools down south may be "Florida only" but I'm sure some of the northern teams will be a variety of players from a variety of schools.

I also doubt those will be the helmets. I really hope not that's for sure. I'm sure there will be some attempt at marketing and selling merchandise even if it (the merch...I have some hope for this league) won't be that successful.

I think you'll see a company like Under Armor or Russell try to sign some kind of deal with the league for the uniforms. They are a few of the companies trying to get the NFL deal when its up in 2012 and they will need to have all the experience they can get to beat out Reebok/Adidas and Nike.

[Cooleyvol]

No way they'll use that color for the Tennessee team uniforms............its patented by the university.

[BRice16]

No way they'll use that color for the Tennessee team uniforms............its patented by the university.

Not exactly true.

Use of the official Tennessee orange in connection with products that say "Tennessee" or anything that could be confused with the actual school could be shut down by CLC. You can't patent a color, you can only claim the right to use it with certain phrases.

However, I would imagine that an agreement to use colors, etc. would be a part of the hefty sum of money that the league is going to be paying to use the stadiums of the respective schools.

[m0sherman]

I'm not sure if they will go the route of a knock off. Perhaps colors, but many teams will be made up of sourounding schools as well. For example: The Purdue team would likely pull players not only from Purdue, but possibly Notre Dame, Indiana, Illinois, Northern Illinois, Ohio State if they don't have a team, and others in the area. Some schools down south may be "Florida only" but I'm sure some of the northern teams will be a variety of players from a variety of schools.

We'll see. Even though they'll be using players from all different schools, the idea of regional teams is much less appealing than collegiate ones. I think they'll try to tie their team as closely with the host school as the universities will let them, regardless of who is actually on the roster.

And in theory, one day Notre Dame, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio State will all have their own AAFL franchise.

[TBGKon]

I don't think FSU will have a team, with UF pretty much covering the state of Florida market.

[cyandlux]

I don't think FSU will have a team, with UF pretty much covering the state of Florida market.

They'll play in Gainsville and Orlando, I believe, so you may see a FSU player or two. Too bad all the Miami players are either in the NFL or jail.

[m0sherman]

I don't think FSU will have a team, with UF pretty much covering the state of Florida market.

Actually, they've released a preliminary schedule for the Florida franchise, and Florida State is the home opener:

4/05   Florida Sate
4/12 @ Alabama
4/19   Tennessee
4/26 @ Arkansas
5/03   Michigan
5/10   Texas
5/17 @ Mississippi
5/24 @ Florida State
5/31   Alabama
6/07 @ Tennessee
6/14   Playoffs
6/21   Playoffs
7/03   Championship

[BlueSky]

I hope those helmet designs are just placeholders.

[B-Rich]

I hope those helmet designs are just placeholders.

I'd wager they are. Those are just too weak.

[FSUViking]

I hope those helmet designs are just placeholders.

I'd wager they are. Those are just too weak.

The entire concept of this league is weak.....

[m0sherman]

For what it's worth, the league held tryouts in Orlando and the players were wearing blue Florida-style jerseys with the same sleeve pattern. They have pictures on their website (aafl.com), but it's of the slide-show variety so I'm afraid I don't know how to post one here.

[Burkell007]

I hope those helmet designs are just placeholders.

I'd wager they are. Those are just too weak.

The entire concept of this league is weak.....

espically when mich is like out on a island there, y not call it the southern football league????

[paynomind]

Seems a shame an entire football league is starting and no one around here got the business to design their logos and jerseys.

ANyone have any contact info, so we can approach them?

[Ez Street]

Seems a shame an entire football league is starting and no one around here got the business to design their logos and jerseys.

ANyone have any contact info, so we can approach them?

I tried once, but to no avail....

[JQK]

Know what's weird...

...I had this very same idea sketched out in my Latin 1 notebook when i was a sophmore in high school.....

....weird.

[ManCalledAmp]

While I don't know about helmets, logos, and team names, I think this league may be on a fast track to templates-ville. However, considering the concept of the league itself that may not be that horrible of a way to go.

While I see near the end of the tryout photos the UF jerseys (with AAFL on the front) in question, and the tryout shirts matching UF or UT colors, I really don't see them going that route so blatantly. The league's teams want to be associated with the Universities' teams...not confused with them. Similar, but not identical. (Well, that and I doubt the schools would let their looks be duplicated.)

What I expect is something like Steve & Barry's does, a sort of template-based designer-imposters thing. The 2 templates I've seen @the local S&B's are Broncos and Titans, in school-esque colors: grey/Red/White for Ohio State, Maroon/Orange (sort of FSU/VT/USC ish), 2-tone-blue (like the TN Titans, both versions), black/yellow (old, knockoff Vandy, or WVU with black instead of blue and easier to read numbers)...etc.

Here's me in what I consider my "Florida" jersey, though the blue is much lighter.

It goes against the old-school feel of the league, but I could see stuff like this in the AAFL's future...maybe the present for a team or two. My two cents.

[Wellsandt]

Actually, they've released a preliminary schedule for the Florida franchise, and Florida State is the home opener:

4/05   Florida Sate
4/12 @ Alabama
4/19   Tennessee
4/26 @ Arkansas
5/03   Michigan
5/10   Texas
5/17 @ Mississippi
5/24 @ Florida State
5/31   Alabama
6/07 @ Tennessee
6/14   Playoffs
6/21   Playoffs
7/03   Championship

That sked is a fake, huh? They even havn't officially announced where the teams will be positioned but the sked is already in place?

[pcgd]

I hope those helmet designs are just placeholders.

I'd wager they are. Those are just too weak.

The entire concept of this league is weak.....

espically when mich is like out on a island there, y not call it the southern football league????

Purdue & Iowa are being considered or have signed on. According to their site...Purdue has signed on and Iowa a letter of intent...whatever that means.

[m0sherman]

That sked is a fake, huh? They even havn't officially announced where the teams will be positioned but the sked is already in place?

The schedule is preliminary, not fake. Here is the link to the graphic.

They list six teams under their "Teams" section: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas. As of now, I'd think those are the only definites.