Good morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday. We made it!
With the NCAA Football Season kicking off early tomorrow (with Florida State and Georgia Tech playing in Dublin, Ireland) and another half dozen or so games taking place throughout the day and evening, I had hoped to bring you an NCAAFB preview along the lines of what Paul used to do back in his ESPN/SI/Inside Hook days. You’ll also recall that for the past decade-plus, Paul took “vacation” from Uni Watch — with me handling the weekdays — but his vacation was spent mostly compiling his epic NCAA and NFL uni previews. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do a college uni preview, but I will be doing an NFL one, even if it’s not quite on the grand scale that Paul used to do.
As fate would have it, old pal Clint Richardson, who is still a daily UW reader, and who runs the absolutely AWESOME Auburn Uniform Database, has done an equally epic NCAAFB uni preview, and today he’s going to share some of it with us — and I urge each and every one of you to head over to his site to check out the full preview (links are below).
Clint published his preview on August 19th, and of course, there have been a few more unveilings since then (I’ve covered a few here on UW), so the preview is complete through the date of publication.
Clint and I collaborated on a few Auburn-related articles in the early days of Uni Watch, and I was always impressed with his professionalism and courtesy (even when his Cam Newton-led Tigers took “my” Oregon Ducks behind the woodshed to win the Natty in January of 2011). I’m pretty sure Clint did the uni-preview for Auburn on Uni Watch back then. He’s back now to work with Uni Watch once again.
Anyway, those of you who know (or remember) Clint are no doubt familiar with his efforts in creating the Auburn Uniform Database. If you’re not familiar with Clint or the AUD, I urge you to check that out!
Let me turn it over to Clint now, and when you’re through with his UW teaser/preview, head on over to the AUD and check out the full (and I mean CHOCK FULL) 2024 NCAAFB uni preview.
Here’s Clint:
2024 College Football Uniform Preview
by Clint Richardson
With the football season just around the corner, that means a new crop of uniforms that are set to hit the gridiron.
For over the last decade, I’ve compiled a list of all the uniforms, patches, logos, and field designs that I’ve been able to find into a comprehensive guide to get you and other uniform-fanatics prepared for the season. Rather than reprinting all 130+ schools here, I figured we’d hit some of the highlights with a few of my favorite items from the full list.
The Golden Bears move to the ACC (what?) this season, with the team’s jerseys and turf field reflecting the change. Cal will also be sporting new uniforms in their inaugural ACC season, mothballing the Sather Stripe design produced by Nike last year and Under Armour previously. The new uniforms evoke a throwback design, harkening to the 1970s and Joe Roth throwbacks worn for years now.
The new design features triple stripes on the jersey shoulders and pants legs. The jerseys come in white and navy (for now) while the pants are available in white, navy, and yellow options. There is also a yellow helmet to be worn as a Roth throwback, complete with stripes and the block C logo.
Oregon joins the Big 10 this season. The 30th anniversary of Oregon’s O logo coincides with a “Generation O” uniform set. Oregon released a new uniform every few weeks during the summer, beginning with a new black uniform. These combine a few eras of Ducks uniforms, including the original diamond-plate design.
The second uniform may be my favorite OU uniform, including an apple green base, yellow O helmet decals and trim across the jersey, and Puddles (!) returning to the shoulders. Next was a white colorway of the Puddles uniform, which also look incredible.
A white colorway of the black diamond-plate and wing design was leaked but has not been officially announced yet.
Purdue has officially retired Nike’s Mach Speed template, being the last of the Power 5 holdouts. The new FUSE designs feature a beautiful set of stripes on the shoulders and pants with a matching decal on the helmets. It’s a new striping pattern for the Boilermakers and it works really well. The team showed off black and white jerseys, black and gold helmets, and black, gold, and white pants.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk has never been more true than with these new red uniforms for Kansas. Red isn’t anything new for KU, but the interesting details here come on the shoulders. The pair of blue/white/blue stripes is interrupted by the school’s battle cry.
I think it’s easy to dismiss these as another weird uniform, but the shoulder text reminds me of the old-school rivalry uniforms like Iowa State and other teams wore once upon a time. I also think they could have done something unique with the pants to match the jerseys.
The Beavers have updated their uniforms for 2024, sticking with the shoulder yoke stripe motif. The new set features a “master stripe” so that the colorway is consistent across each jersey. The pants carry a matching stripe design.
This uniform comes in orange, white, black, and a dark grey “anthracite” version. The anthracite set is close to the black design but features a black outline on the numbers rather than orange.
The best news of all from Knoxville is that Tennessee has FINALLY fixed the SEC patch placement after years of an embarrassing layout.
The Volunteers have also revealed the latest edition of their Smokey Grey uniform series, and it’s a genuine banger. The entire design is based on the Tennessee state flag, with the tri-star logo on the shoulders and a thick orange, thin white stripe placed on the helmet and pants. “Tennessee” is placed on the chest, which makes this the first home uniform to wear the team name in this placement.
New black helmets this season for the Lions. The center stripe is a gold Titans-like double stripe and the sides feature the primary lion head logo. Additionally, a beautiful white helmet with black and gold script Lions is set to debut this year.
After spending thirty years playing at the Division II level, the Mercyhurst Lakers have jumped up to FCS and are joining the Northeast Conference. The team will also sport a new grey set of uniforms this year, complete with a clover on the shoulder stripes.
The best turf field award hands-down goes to the Edinboro Fighting Scots who have added a tartan pattern to the endzones. It goes perfectly well with their beautiful tartan helmets too!
(I love putting together this piece each year to discover schools I’ve never heard of like Edinboro and falling in love with their aesthetic.)
The Gorillas (yes, really) have revealed their new look for the season opener against Ferris State. Black jerseys feature crimson numbers with gold outlines and triple stripes on the shoulders. They are paired with white helmets and pants. The helmets feature a full-body gorilla silhouette.
Harambe would be proud.
(Note: the AUD article does not include any uniforms released after originally being published on August 19th.)
Thanks, Clint! Nice preview — and I can almost guarantee that not only did most of our readers (myself included) not know some of those schools have new uniforms, I’d bet some of us never even heard of some of those teams! Great job with this — now everyone, go check out the rest of the 130+ schools whose unis for 2024 Clint has previewed!
I don’t follow college football at all, but I know the conference alignment makes little sense from the outside. However, I can’t wrap my head around Cal being in the Atlantic Conference.
How does that work from a travel perspective? Wouldn’t that be a nightmare/extremely expensive?
Anyway, nice work Clint!
FWIW, remember that Hawai’i and Louisiana Tech were in the same conference (WAC) for eleven years – imagine the amount of time and money it took schlepping over a hundred players, coaches and staff and all of their gear from Honolulu to Ruston, LA.
I thought the same thing and a friend of mine and alumn from Hawaii pointed out that it’s 2500 miles from Hawaii just to California; let alone any other team they play in their conference. So I could come to terms with the distance. But I still can’t wrap my mind around seeing them play North Carolina etc every season.
Turned off by the excesses of NIL and the transfer portal, as well as all the promiscuous conference-hopping, I think I will just become a fan of the Ivy League and a few local DIII schools.
I suppose I’ll still watch the big boys some, but I don’t think I’ll care anymore.
Maybe the ACC can rebrand as the All Coasts Conference…or Another Coast Conference
Boiler Up!
Agreed that these look great — much better than most (all?) of the various permutations they’ve put out there the past few years.
May be catching their game against Oregon; hope the Ducks wear their retro look.
GTGFTU – Bengals vs Patriots ,September 18, 1994
It’s the only time the Bengals have worn the “BENGALS” helmet since the 1980 season.
Welp… I’ve given it the old college try, and after about 15 years of religiously visiting this site everyday, I’m going to have move on. Just not the same.
As a fellow religious visitor (though not for as long), I’m curious as to why you would say this.
This isn’t an airport. You don’t need to announce your departure.
Thanks for including a few small schools. It is always nice to be turned on to Davids among the Goliaths of varsity football.
Always enjoy getting the AUD to team up with Phil and Uni-Watch. Thanks for having me on today and the kind words, Phil! I appreciate it!
I noticed that Michigan was not listed in the AUD article, but the Wolverines don’t really tend to make any significant changes, usually. The blue pants from the last couple of years are the most radical thing they’ve done since the one-offs they did back under Adidas in the Brady Hoke years.
The blue and white pants just don’t work, I’m surprised a *Michigan man* let it happen
Yeah, I prefer the maize pants myself. Harbaugh, for some reason, liked the white-on-white look from the 70s. The blue pants are kinda okay with the white jerseys, but the full blueberry look is far and away my least favorite.
Someone once told me something along the lines of “the ‘best’ version of baseball is the one you grew up watching.”
Harbaugh grew up watching UM wearing white/white on the road. So, he brought it back in 2015.
Oregon’s green uniforms with Puddles should be their standard.
Also, I’m pleased with Phil’s Uni Watch, the train keeps on rolling
Wish teams could get their golds to at least come a little closer to matching from helmet to uniforms.
Absolutely outstanding job, Clint!
My favorite new uni this season is Cal. Man that is a beauty.
Biggest upgrade goes to Texas Tech – still not perfect, but a million times better than what they previously wore.
Also I’ve been meaning to mention that Phil is killing it at the helm of UW and it hasn’t missed a beat.
Thanks Patrick!
Lindenwood Lions…this whole thing is officially off the rails
I gotta say, I’ll miss Cal’s previous unis. These new ones are a downgrade, IMO.
Good to see some less known schools. That Mercyhurst player pic is nice, the water must have been icecold.