College football Road Jersey Rules

[wlightcap]

Are there specific rules on wearing a colored road jersey on the road ? I know home team picks to wear light or dark...but what is the rule about a road team wearing a light colored road uniform when the home team wears a dark color.

So Wake Forest broke out gold jerseys this week at home. They play NC STATE on the road this coming week. If NC State wears red..as is likely, could Wake wear gold or no ? Or do they have to get permission from the ACC and NC State to do so ?

And are the rules different by conference ? I believe Oregon has worn Yellow as a road "light" color before..

thanks for the help...

[baseballking99]

didn't buffalo wear blue while the team they played wore red this past week on election day

[vicfurth]

didn't buffalo wear blue while the team they played wore red this past week on election day

Yeah, but it was a special, every-four-year event. ;-)

[JetsLuvver]

I-AA Chattanooga appears to not have a white uniform at all, wearing its ugly mustard yellow both home and away.

[footballfiji]

or, sometimes the visiting team requests to wear a light colored uniforms. Case in point, UT-Martin, who asked Tommy Tuberville if the Skyhawks could wear their Orange jerseys against Auburn this past weekend:

UT-Martin's Home Uniforms are just Auburn's old Russell Unis:

UTM:

Auburn:

[footballfiji]

I also notice this a lot more with HBCUs. Cases in Point:

Tuskegee vs Miles (Tuskegee is the home team):

Tuskegee vs Albany State (Albany state is wearing Gray away uniforms)

Tuskegee vs Alabama State (2007):

[Mingjai]

I thought the rule was the home team can only wear white when the opposing team approves and agrees to wear dark colors. When the two teams are in the same conference, that's no big deal, because the conference bylaws by which each team agrees to abide can stipulate that team must agree to wear dark when playing at a certain team, which we'll call LSU. However, when the game is out of conference, if the teams forgot to stipulate a white-at-home clause in the contract, it's possible that the visiting team will opt to force the home team to wear colors, say purple. I think this happened a few years back with the Bayou Bengals, but I may be wrong.

[pscampbe]

I thought the rule was the home team can only wear white when the opposing team approves and agrees to wear dark colors. When the two teams are in the same conference, that's no big deal, because the conference bylaws by which each team agrees to abide can stipulate that team must agree to wear dark when playing at a certain team, which we'll call LSU. However, when the game is out of conference, if the teams forgot to stipulate a white-at-home clause in the contract, it's possible that the visiting team will opt to force the home team to wear colors, say purple. I think this happened a few years back with the Bayou Bengals, but I may be wrong.

All of that is correct, and LSU actually began the whole process. From sometime in the early 1980's until 1995, NCAA rules stated that the home team must wear dark colors, and the road team must wear white. Then in 1995, LSU coach Gerry Dinardo petitioned the NCAA to change the rule so they could wear white at home (as per tradition). The NCAA changed the rule, but with the stipulation that the road team must agree to the change. Auburn was the first team to allow LSU to do this (see the 1995 "Bring Back the Magic" game, or as Auburn fans call it, "The Whistle" game). In those first couple of years, Vanderbilt was the only team to reject LSU's request (a way of getting back at Dinardo, no doubt).

Steve Spurrier wasn't particularly amused, however, and would often put little digs in like "well, I think the home team should wear colors, but that's OK, we'll let them wear white as long as they'll let us wear white next year." Spurrier did just that and put Florida in white at home one year after allowing LSU to wear white. Dinardo responded by putting LSU in gold jerseys. This went back and forth for a couple of years. Sometime around 1997 or '98, Spurrier made it known that he was going to reject LSU's request to wear white for their upcoming home game against the Gators. This was due, he said, to the treatment the Gators received after LSU upset them in Baton Rouge two years earlier. This led then SEC commissioner Roy Kramer to step in. He ordered Spurrier to allow LSU's request, and stated that, within the SEC, the road team must allow the home team to wear white if they choose to.

As for LSU, when Nick Saban arrived, he dressed LSU in purple for certain non-conference home games, a tradition that continues today if I'm not mistaken. LSU has also worn purple at Mississippi St. in recent years (Sylvester Croom dresses MSU in white at home for early season games where heat is a factor), Alabama has worn Crimson at South Carolina, and Auburn has worn white at home twice in the last two years.

[lbr218]

Georgia Tech (beginning this year, with their new unis) seems to only wear white. I don't think they've worn gold all year, home or away. I just looked through the photo galleries and didn't see the gold either.

[Red Wolf]

I think I heard of one time when Nebraska and Penn State both wore their colored jerseys in a game against each other. I've also seen a few teams wearing gold on the road (UAPB wore gold at New Mexico State who wear maroon for instance)

[Discrim]

Georgia Tech (beginning this year, with their new unis) seems to only wear white. I don't think they've worn gold all year, home or away. I just looked through the photo galleries and didn't see the gold either.

yeh, with the uniform overhaul GT went back to white at home. the new unis have navy jerseys instead of gold, which evidently haven't been worn yet.

[fuzzy510]

Weren't Rick Neuheisel and Pete Carroll going to petition the NCAA to allow UCLA and USC to wear their respective home uniforms when the teams play this year?

[Botiger]

or, sometimes the visiting team requests to wear a light colored uniforms. Case in point, UT-Martin, who asked Tommy Tuberville if the Skyhawks could wear their Orange jerseys against Auburn this past weekend:

UT-Martin's Home Uniforms are just Auburn's old Russell Unis:

UTM:

Auburn:

Wouldn't these orange jerseys make a nice alt for Auburn?

[Thad]

I-AA Chattanooga appears to not have a white uniform at all, wearing its ugly mustard yellow both home and away.

They actually do have a blue uniform, that they wear at home, but they tend to like that ugly mustard color.

[cheo25]

As for LSU, when Nick Saban arrived, he dressed LSU in purple for certain non-conference home games, a tradition that continues today if I'm not mistaken. LSU has also worn purple at Mississippi St. in recent years (Sylvester Croom dresses MSU in white at home for early season games where heat is a factor), Alabama has worn Crimson at South Carolina, and Auburn has worn white at home twice in the last two years.

You're correct in that LSU still occasionally wears purple at home for non-conference games. They wore purple for two homes games this season -- Tulane (Nov. 1) and Troy (this past Saturday).

Saban's rule was every non-conference home game after the home opener, though Oregon State denied the request in 2004 and LSU wore purple (4 p.m. kickoff for a Sept. 4 game in Louisiana). Saban's angle it was a way to honor the good LSU teams of the 1980s.

In the five years Gerry DiNardo was LSU head coach from 1995-99, the Tigers wore yellow in the handful of occasions it was supposed to wear a colored jersey. They also broke out the white helmet/yellow jersey/white pants combo on their own for the 1997 Independence Bowl, and Notre Dame wore their navy blue jerseys.

Under Miles, LSU usually wears white for the home opener but they've also worn white for early-season non-conference home games. I'm guessing that's for heat reasons.