Throwback unies in college football don't work for me
I caught many of the games on TV today for the first full-blown weekend of college football, the greatest sport in the land. I love this time of year, but I was rather bummed to see a couple of uniform changes by some traditional powerhouses:
- Pittsburgh - replaced the panther graphic on the helmet with "Pitt" and likewise swapped out the city's full name with "Panthers" on the jersey front. Maybe this was some art student's project, but I like the style Larry Fitzgerald rocked in his two glorious years. This was, I assume, to promote a new look than old school; in which contrary case I would have hoped they'd donned the Dan Marino or Tony Dorsett regalia. I'm sure this had no bearing on the school's 42-21 droning by ND...
- Texas - barring anything shocking, I've got Texas winning it all this year (or at least easily walking through the Big XII). But their "new/old" helmets with the player's number _above_ the traditional longhorn graphic didn't do it for me. It works for Alabama, but not for Mack Brown's guys. (And what's with removing the names from the back of the jerseys? Are we the Yankees now?)
- Wisconsin - my favorite conference, the Big 10, wasn't represented too well with 'Sconsin taking on Bowling Green in monstrous old tyme helmets with numbers on either side and a giant "W" across the front. Yikes. I'm hoping to see a bunch of Badger games this season, to catch a last glimpse of the great Barry Alvarez before he dons his AD cap permanently. But NOT if they'll be in those horrendous hats.
In short, ultimately it's all about how the men who take the field perform, not the garb in which they do it. But image does count for something and in college we're taught that presentation is a big part of being successful, so I hope this was more of a "let's pay homage to our forefathers for our season opener" thing and not some permanent change. Geez, for the Badgers, I hope it's not. Take a page from the NFL - if the one year they did the throwback theme had really worked out, they would have kept it.
And a discussion of this nature wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Oregon Ducks. With those God-awful safety patrol getups they debuted a few seasons ago, they've got nowhere to go but up. It seems all the fashionistas were in the same graduating class as Joey Harrington.