In case you didn’t realize it, the NCAAFB season officially kicks off this weekend, with four FBS games involving eight teams this Saturday (the infamous “Week 0” games).
And in another trend that refuses to die, one of the teams playing will debut wearing “Icy Whites.” That’s not me just saying it either. The Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs literally posted a video showing their opening night uniforms and have used the phrase we have come to know as “head-to-toe white.”
Dallas heat calls for some icy whites 🥶
Our Game 1 uniform is here.#PonyUpDallas pic.twitter.com/Hfjh7VYZKK
— SMU Football (@SMUFB) August 21, 2024
I guess we should get used to this — and it’s not exactly a new phenomenon. For years, home teams have been eschewing their normal color home jerseys for white ones in hot climes during the early months of the season. But (and maybe it’s just me) it seems more and more teams are doing this (including a few who play indoors or at night, where a white jersey would have no effect against a hot sun). Even some of the pro teams are breaking out new white helmets, some of which will be paired with all white uniforms at home.
But SMU, despite their video tweet mentioning “Dallas Heat” and showing background images of the City, are playing Nevada at Mackay Stadium in Reno, NV when they take on the Nevada Wolf Pack. It’s not quite false advertising, but you’d be forgiven if upon seeing that video tweet you thought the team was opening in Dallas.
So SMU has dropped the first “Icy White” uniform for 2024. It’s sure to be followed by many more.
Here are a few looks at the uniform the Mustangs will wear:
Notice the bag of ice and player sitting atop a cooler — further driving the “Icy Whites” theme home.
Also note the ACC patch — SMU is one of three new teams to join that conference this year. Cal and Stanford are the other two.
As far as a uniform goes, and disregarding the “icy white” aspect of it, this SMU look is quite nice. Sure, it’s basic — but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with basic. Two royal blue stripes adorn the helmet, sleeve caps and pants (yes, the pants have stripes!), with a red pony on the sides of the helmet. Nothing more, nothing less. Simply “SMU” on the jersey, in red in a copperplate bold font, and royal blue block numbers. The only other elements are the (new) conference patch, maker’s mark, and a small red pony logo at the base of the collar. The video shows a fleeting glimpse of the rear of the jersey, which will have the same style blue numbers as on the front, and player name in red block letters. Done and done.
We’ll probably continue to see teams breaking out the “icy white” (formerly “Stormtrooper”) look, as well as mono-black uniforms — sometimes facing off against one another for that Spy vs. Spy look.
I know the players and recruits (plus large numbers of fans) enjoy the all white (and all black) looks, even if I don’t, and the uniforms aren’t designed to appeal to me. And that’s OK. I get it. In 20 years they’ll look back (just as many of my generation have done) and wonder, “what were we thinking?” But in the moment, all white is the in-thing. So are biker shorts and untucked jerseys — a trend which will also hopefully eventually pass.
If you’re excited for the College Football season to begin, you can whet your appetite this Saturday with four FBS games (plus a few FCS ones, with times/TV — all times Eastern):
Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (in Dublin, Ireland) | 12 p.m. | ESPN
McNeese at Tarleton State | 3:30 p.m. | ESPNU
Montana State at New Mexico | 4 p.m. | FS1
North Alabama vs. Southeast Missouri State (in Montgomery, Alabama) | 7 p.m. | ESPN
Florida A&M vs. Norfolk State (in Atlanta, Georgia) | 7:30 p.m. | ABC
SMU at Nevada | 8 p.m. | CBSSN
Delaware State at Hawai’i | 11:59 p.m. | Spectrum Sports PPV
Let the games begin! I believe new Weekend Editor (and now SMUW guy) Jim Vilk will even have a “mini SMUW” this Sunday.
What are your thoughts on “Icy Whites” and teams who wear them?
Whew… a bit relief from ‘BFBS Week’. I don’t mind the branding, because I can ignore it. Since the 50s as a UW post pointed out, white has essentially been a team color for everyone. Black, not so much. And, it’s a damn good uni to boot. Well done, fellow All Coasts Conference member. Can’t wait to see those matched up against my Cal Bears.
I love the simplicity of white uniforms with one color for the team name and another for the number.
Yes.
And I’m relieved… from the headline I was expecting a another boring stripeless alt. This is their standard white uni, I believe, and it’s almost Colts-level in it’s goodness.
Well done, Horsey Heads.
SMU has been wearing all white since their 1980’s heyday. So, no matter how they brand it this is a standard look for them and a very solid uniform.
I like the “Icy Whites” much better than the “BFBS” uniforms. SMU’s Icy Whites look pretty sharp. Of course I would be biased, being born and raised and still living in the Dallas area.
Simple, beautiful uniforms. But it would be a lot more palatable if SMU hadn’t promoted these as “icy white,” and simply said, “Folks, we’ve got some slick new white unis we want to debut for our first game of the year.”
Phil, I’m not on X (Twitter) and know next to nothing about it. We frequently discuss on this site hype videos for new uni releases, but we never discuss how much those videos are viewed. As an example, do we know how many different people have viewed that SMU video? I’m curious to know if their video, and videos like theirs, only end up being watched by a few hundred individuals. And if Uni Watchers make up a large portion of the percentage.
Hard to know on twitter. It says 28K – but that does not mean the 28K watched it. Last year I had one that logged 667, 000 impressions but that was just because how the twitter algorithms branch out. Out of 667,000 so-called views, only 3.6k liked it, 111 bookmarked it, and 378 retweeted it. I know this doesn’t answer your question – but you can see how twitter sort of inflates the impressions.
BTW, this was a tweet about how SMU band marched at half time in 2000 at TCU and dropped rye grass seed once they were in the SMU M formation – the following February the M sprouted on the field.
It’s just an away uniform. Them calling it icy white and doing the promo pics with a bag of ice and an ice chest is so gimmicky and vomit inducing.
Look, the hype around all-white uniforms is so boring.
In 1972, the AFC East’s five teams ALL wore all-white uniforms on the road, with the Dolphins doing it at home.
All white isn’t new and it’s not noteworthy.
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I mean, this is just pretty standard for SMU since they typically wear a white helmet and white pants as part of their normal uniform.
The best way to get rid of the nonsense terms describing all white uniforms is to stop repeating them.
This is their standard away uniform. They have been wearing all whites for some time now. The key here is they used the Dallas whites (striping) but put SMU (instead of Dallas) on the jersey and took off the D on the helmet. Alarming – I hope this is not their go to white uni. To lose all the beautiful SMU striping would be disappointing.
Came here to say exactly this.
One of the best uniform photo sets of late instead of a hype video! Plus, it’s nearly the same as what they wear half the season. Guess they wanted to get on the “train”.
“Dallas Heat”
– Game is at Nevada
– High temp in Reno will be 68
– Game is at night after sunset.
I’m not going to bash this one, since traditionally SMU has worn all white on the road for decades. I can live with this one. And, the stripes help to make it a nice looking set. Granted, there is normally a little more red thrown in there.
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What makes a uniform “icy” white? Doesn’t SMU wear all-white all the time? Auburn should come out and announce they are wearing icy, frosty, chilly white uniforms this year and then attach a picture of their normal road duds.
Yes, but even the Texas Longhorns tweet out some icy shit every once in a while. The social guys are probably 17 and just trying to be cool.
Dude’s sitting on a cooler and has a bag of ice in hand. Gotta keep the boys chilly ;-)
And an Igloo cooler at that. No YETI for a TX team?
Ignoring the tired and worn-out brandspeak, these are some really nice-looking uniforms. The stripes are perfect, the numbers and letters are clear, and it’s a great use of blue and red as accent.
If you’re going to go all-white, this is how you do it.
Good uniform. Simple and appealing, no icy spicy marketing speak needed. The ice cooler pics are funny, though.