College Football 2014 Season

[JaxNoles]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Being uniform "normal" is now "abnormal". I remember when Washington State had 2 different helmets and how crazy and extreme everybody thought it was. My oh my, how far we have come. A program's brand is now week to weekl.

[redlegs420]

Just realized a majority of the higher profile Under Armour schools all had a special/one-off jersey yesterday

Texas Tech - Throwbacks

Maryland - BoB Jersey

ND - Shamrock Series

Northwestern - No Game

Navy - regular jerseys

Toledo - regular

USF - new helmets

Also, Boston College...9/11 hero tribute.

[JPDesign]

Reportedly OU ditched the alternates this week because the paint on the white helmets didn't match. I feel like white shouldn't be that difficult to get right.

[wonderbread]

Reportedly OU ditched the alternates this week because the paint on the white helmets didn't match. I feel like white shouldn't be that difficult to get right.

It's cream not white

[Clintau24]

Speaking of white/cream helmets, Kentucky and Cincinnati's matte white helmets looked cream to me. Didn't match their white tops (and bottoms for that) to my eyes.

[LetsGoPeay]

Speaking of white/cream helmets, Kentucky and Cincinnati's matte white helmets looked cream to me. Didn't match their white tops (and bottoms for that) to my eyes.

I'm no expert but I'd guess it has something to do with the matte paint absorbing more of the yellow light from the stadium lights rather than reflecting it like a glossy paint would.

[Jdmorris1124]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Good thing at second glace you could read the on screen score box and see who's playing.

Come on guys it's not THAT bad out there. You can tell without stressing too hard who is who. It's not like Minnesota comes out dressed in Maze and Blue or Oregon is wearing Orange and White.

We should rename the thread to 'college football 2014 season COMPLAINTS'

[guest23]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Good thing at second glace you could read the on screen score box and see who's playing.

Come on guys it's not THAT bad out there. You can tell without stressing too hard who is who. It's not like Minnesota comes out dressed in Maze and Blue or Oregon is wearing Orange and White.

We should rename the thread to 'college football 2014 season COMPLAINTS'

You're missing the point. You used to be able to very easily identify most cfb teams simply by color sequencing and striping. Example: Syracuse/UVA/Illinois all used the same navy/orange combo but they all had enough variation between color emphasis and primary uniforms that you easily discern what team was playing. Now all 3 programs are doing the endless mix/match they are all basically indistinguishable from a practical standpoint. I'm in favor of having multiple looks but I also think that schools should adopt a primary look and go with it the majority of the time then pick one alt look to emphasize each season. The current random combinations that are being thrown out completely lack cohesion and reflect poorly on the overall uniform designs themselves. Case in point: Oregon Black/green/gray looked horrible on saturday. They have a great uniform design but their choices of colors absolutely destroys the appeal.

[aawagner011]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Good thing at second glace you could read the on screen score box and see who's playing.

Come on guys it's not THAT bad out there. You can tell without stressing too hard who is who. It's not like Minnesota comes out dressed in Maze and Blue or Oregon is wearing Orange and White.

We should rename the thread to 'college football 2014 season COMPLAINTS'

He has a valid complaint.

When Maryland looks like this, I second guess myself.

Notre Dame, ditto.

Arkansas in gray?

Arizona State in this?

Green and gold Baylor wearing solid black.

Miami OH in the electric bowling ball look.

Virginia Tech going digital orange camo, or team catalog gray, or Home Depot stone tiling...

All identity is lost in college football these days. There is little to no brand equity when the look changes continuously. At least Oregon is consistent week to week and has a cohesive identity. However, these schools that throw in one-off and team catalog blackout sets in addition to deciding which of their five helmets plus eight differently finished facemasks and stripe applications totally dilute their brand. It's garbage.

[PSUcelticsWON95]

I'd leave Oregon out of this. With them, I think their identity is the fact that they change it up, and I feel it's easy to identify them. With the others? Some of them have been one-time deals. I really don't have a problem with it in that case. Now, completely hypothetically, let's say Arizona State decided to wear their gray jersey every home game, then I'd definitely have a problem with it. But I think sometimes teams sometimes receive too much hate for changing it up. The only one I'd mainly be confused about would be Maryland's Star Spangled Banner uniform. It's a great uniform, it just didn't say Maryland at all.

[guest23]

I'd leave Oregon out of this. With them, I think their identity is the fact that they change it up, and I feel it's easy to identify them. With the others? Some of them have been one-time deals. I really don't have a problem with it in that case. Now, completely hypothetically, let's say Arizona State decided to wear their gray jersey every home game, then I'd definitely have a problem with it. But I think sometimes teams sometimes receive too much hate for changing it up. The only one I'd mainly be confused about would be Maryland's Star Spangled Banner uniform. It's a great uniform, it just didn't say Maryland at all.

I think the way nike designs top tier euro football kits is the absolute best of both worlds...they change the primary kit annually and are very liberal with change/alt designs yet the designs are mostly cohesive with the overall identity of the club...college football is just random now and oregon falls victim to the randomness about 50% of the time....for instance their faux raiders set a couple seasons ago looked great design wise even though lacking in school colors but last week's set was a mess.

[Webfooter]

Except with Oregon, they have certain design elements that are readily identifiable (helmet wings, shoulder wings) that are pretty consistent throughout their uniform set. It's not like they have a bunch of one-off elements that share no commonality with one another, unlike what a lot of other schools are doing with their uniforms. When it comes to uniforms, people still look to Oregon as the standard bearer for new uniforms, even if they don't seem to be as crazy or edgy as they used to be since everyone has copied in one way or another the manner in which uniforms are unveiled and designed.

[KJHillis]

I don't post often, but I can't hold it in anymore.

All of these uniform changes suck.

I'm glad some of you agree with me.

Obviously, sustainability is not a priority when designing a uniform these days; it's mind-boggling people get paid to create these things.

Alright, carry on.

[guest23]

Except with Oregon, they have certain design elements that are readily identifiable (helmet wings, shoulder wings) that are pretty consistent throughout their uniform set. It's not like they have a bunch of one-off elements that share no commonality with one another, unlike what a lot of other schools are doing with their uniforms. When it comes to uniforms, people still look to Oregon as the standard bearer for new uniforms, even if they don't seem to be as crazy or edgy as they used to be since everyone has copied in one way or another the manner in which uniforms are unveiled and designed.

When they randomly mix colors like black/dark and light green/gray/silver/yellow without any sense of color pairing and balance it kills the design aesthetic. Some of their combos are amazing whilst some are pure ugly. The feather & wing is an excellent design in the abstract but the execution at times is seriously lacking.

[colinturner95]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Good thing at second glace you could read the on screen score box and see who's playing.

Come on guys it's not THAT bad out there. You can tell without stressing too hard who is who. It's not like Minnesota comes out dressed in Maze and Blue or Oregon is wearing Orange and White.

We should rename the thread to 'college football 2014 season COMPLAINTS'

He has a valid complaint.

When Maryland looks like this, I second guess myself.

Notre Dame, ditto.

Arkansas in gray?

Arizona State in this?

Green and gold Baylor wearing solid black.

Miami OH in the electric bowling ball look.

Virginia Tech going digital orange camo, or team catalog gray, or Home Depot stone tiling...

All identity is lost in college football these days. There is little to no brand equity when the look changes continuously. At least Oregon is consistent week to week and has a cohesive identity. However, these schools that throw in one-off and team catalog blackout sets in addition to deciding which of their five helmets plus eight differently finished facemasks and stripe applications totally dilute their brand. It's garbage.

I'd say that out of all of these, Notre Dame looks the most like themselves.

[Webfooter]

Except with Oregon, they have certain design elements that are readily identifiable (helmet wings, shoulder wings) that are pretty consistent throughout their uniform set. It's not like they have a bunch of one-off elements that share no commonality with one another, unlike what a lot of other schools are doing with their uniforms. When it comes to uniforms, people still look to Oregon as the standard bearer for new uniforms, even if they don't seem to be as crazy or edgy as they used to be since everyone has copied in one way or another the manner in which uniforms are unveiled and designed.

When they randomly mix colors like black/dark and light green/gray/silver/yellow without any sense of color pairing and balance it kills the design aesthetic. Some of their combos are amazing whilst some are pure ugly. The feather & wing is an excellent design in the abstract but the execution at times is seriously lacking.

And you're arguing over color combinations and execution when the original discussion was about whether Oregon had an identifiable brand. While you don't like a few color combinations (like I don't), that doesn't mean their brand is gone since they still have a wing design element on the jerseys, wings and chrome on the helmets, and the Oregon O on the back of the helmets to identify themselves.

[oddball]

I enjoyed Maryland's uniforms this weekend and even Notre Dame's. I like most of Oregon's, except for the awful grey pants. It'd be nice to have consistency. I'd love for the NCAA to put out a rule that there can be only one alternate uniform, that would make the alternates cool again, because it would be a little bit of difference.

[JayMac]

I enjoyed Maryland's uniforms this weekend and even Notre Dame's. I like most of Oregon's, except for the awful grey pants. It'd be nice to have consistency. I'd love for the NCAA to put out a rule that there can be only one alternate uniform, that would make the alternates cool again, because it would be a little bit of difference.

As much as I would love a 1 alternate uniform rule, the NCAA has no control over anything anymore.

[djam2410]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Good thing at second glace you could read the on screen score box and see who's playing.

Come on guys it's not THAT bad out there. You can tell without stressing too hard who is who. It's not like Minnesota comes out dressed in Maze and Blue or Oregon is wearing Orange and White.

We should rename the thread to 'college football 2014 season COMPLAINTS'

He has a valid complaint.

When Maryland looks like this, I second guess myself.

Notre Dame, ditto.

Arkansas in gray?

Arizona State in this?

Green and gold Baylor wearing solid black.

Miami OH in the electric bowling ball look.

Virginia Tech going digital orange camo, or team catalog gray, or Home Depot stone tiling...

All identity is lost in college football these days. There is little to no brand equity when the look changes continuously. At least Oregon is consistent week to week and has a cohesive identity. However, these schools that throw in one-off and team catalog blackout sets in addition to deciding which of their five helmets plus eight differently finished facemasks and stripe applications totally dilute their brand. It's garbage.

At least the LOGOS , besides Maryland, are recognizable. Baylor was completely irrelevant before RG3, so i would actually associate black with them now, even though their previous set was very nice looking although plain. Notre Dame at least has the interlocking logo there. As for the alternate jersey colors, I guess there is nothing that can be really said about that. As long as Cal doesn't walk out onto the field in Stanford Red, I don't care what they wear as long as the Cal logo stays on the helmet .

[mafiaman]

This is just an observation over the first few weeks of the season. I follow college football and would be considering a fan of it, but flipping channels trying to see what games were on, 3/4 of the time I had no idea who was playing at first glance. All these uniforms dilute the brand, and for anyone who says that Oregon's brand hasn't been diluted, it has. Oregon's knack for changing, a few years ago, was the talk of the college football world as they screamed "look at us". Now, they are just one of a hundred different programs that pulls out a new uniform combination each week. Oregon's brand was to be different and edgey, and now they are normal and their brand is common and no one pays attention to what they do.

Good thing at second glace you could read the on screen score box and see who's playing.

Come on guys it's not THAT bad out there. You can tell without stressing too hard who is who. It's not like Minnesota comes out dressed in Maze and Blue or Oregon is wearing Orange and White.

We should rename the thread to 'college football 2014 season COMPLAINTS'

He has a valid complaint.

When Maryland looks like this, I second guess myself.

Notre Dame, ditto.

Arkansas in gray?

Arizona State in this?

Green and gold Baylor wearing solid black.

Miami OH in the electric bowling ball look.

Virginia Tech going digital orange camo, or team catalog gray, or Home Depot stone tiling...

All identity is lost in college football these days. There is little to no brand equity when the look changes continuously. At least Oregon is consistent week to week and has a cohesive identity. However, these schools that throw in one-off and team catalog blackout sets in addition to deciding which of their five helmets plus eight differently finished facemasks and stripe applications totally dilute their brand. It's garbage.

I'd say that out of all of these, Notre Dame looks the most like themselves.

That's funny...I thought they looked like Pitt.