The Ball State Cardinals have introduced a new pair of uniforms (well, just the jerseys so far, but obviously they’ll have pants to match) for the 2024-25 Men’s Basketball season.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Ball State hoops game, unless it was in the NCAA tournament. They compete in the MAC, and aren’t exactly a powerhouse, so it’s not like there are too many times they’re on TV. But earlier this week, the team briefly showed off two new jerseys that they’ll wear this upcoming season. One is gray and the second is black.
BLACK
Here’s a look at the front of the new black jersey:
And a partial view of the rear, where you can see the number font is in the same style as the font on the front of the jersey. It appears to be similar a “Tuscan” (or Western) font, similar to that worn by the Wyoming Cowboys, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets).
The black jersey features the words “BALL STATE” in red letters, outlined in white. The front and rear jersey numbers are also in red with white outlines. A thick solid red stripe adorns the sleeve and collar.
GRAY
Here’s the front of the gray jersey:
And another partial view of the rear, this time focusing on the Ball State Cardinal logo, located beneath the collar. Both jerseys are NNOB.
This style is different from the new black jersey. It features “Ball State” in red script, rendered in red with a white outline. Number font is more of a university block, and it too is red with a white outline. Sleeves and collar feature a red/white/red stripe.
According to Ball State Daily
The players are happy about the change and highly praise the new look. Sophomore Mason Jones loves the refresh and feels it adds a little extra something when on display.
“I love the font,” said Jones. “I feel like if you don’t have some swag to you, I don’t think you’re going to feel as good about your game. So this is definitely some awesome stuff.”
For redshirt senior Mickey Pearson Jr. he shares his excitement about which set he was drawn to more.
“I love them,” said Pearson Jr. “I like the gray ones especially. I first saw them online last night or a couple of nights ago. So yeah, I like the gray ones a lot.”
The team’s Head Coach, Michael Lewis, adds, “I think it’s a pretty sharp look. Just play hard. Play hard and compete. Give ourselves the best chance to win.”
The team will debut the new road uniforms at Georgia State on November 4th. The home uniforms will debut on November 8th, when the Cardinals play host to Franklin College.
I haven’t been able to ascertain whether the new uniforms will replace the outgoing ones, or be used in addition to the new ones. Based on the Ball State Daily article, it seems like this will replace the old unis, though I’m not 100% sure.
Here is a look at the 2023-24 uniforms, followed by the new ones, for comparison. You’ll note the new light gray jersey features the same “Ball State” script as seen on the previous red jersey.
I’m not a big fan of the script “Ball State” but I do like the new font on the black jersey. Obviously, we’ll need to see the full uniforms on the court to render a full assessment, but initial impressions here are these are more than adequate, if unspectacular.
Your thoughts?
I prefer consistency in the uniform script and number, but by themselves, the uniforms don’t look bad.
This look is underwhelming. The gray is so light, they should have just made it white. I expect to see more teams move to a standard block and singular template. Kind of how all the football teams everywhere went northwestern sleeves and blank pants.
These remind me of Fresno State unis
Font seems a little high up on these, and the numbers seem small (same with the previous set). Seems like it might benefit from some arching.
While extremely simple, I dig these. The solid trim on the black and the red/white/red on the light grey are much better looks than the zero trim white uni with the wannabe Marquette panelling and the arbitrary black shoulder/neck horizontal stripes on the old red uni.
This looks like a standard bball uni, which is great. No distraction, just nice lettering and simple trim. Classy.
How can they have a script jersey not match the script logo from mason jars? And that grey jersey looks a lot like Ohio State.
Parts of this are nice but this looks like the result of a lot of focus groups all trying to be heard. BFBS, GFGS, script wordmark, unique font – but none of the elements are carried across the entire uniform.
That Cardinal logo could use a bit of a tidy
Nice uniforms, I really like the retro Cardinal on the back.