New-look jerseys take away from on-field product

Damn it, Nike.

Now that college football is back in season, it can only mean one thing: Notre Dame will be highly overrated and choke all season long. Oh wait, I guess college football means two things — Notre Dame will have false hope, and schools will wear new and awful looking jerseys.

On Sept. 13, Nike unveiled another round of schools that will be wearing their Pro Combat Uniforms in 2011. Although it sounds exciting, it really isn't. This year, the "lucky" schools that will don a new wardrobe will be Oregon (duh), Boise State, Georgia, LSU, Army, Navy, Stanford, Michigan State and Ohio State. Each was a miss.

Thanks to Oregon pretty much wearing a new uniform every game, most college teams feel that they too need a new look. Oregon made it cool to have 80-plus uniform options and now everyone is just following suit. Thanks a lot, Oregon.

For example, look at what Maryland wore Sept. 5 when hosting Miami. They literally took the Maryland state flag and put it on a jersey. I have a hard time understanding why the team needed the publicity so bad to wear something so awful. Apparently Maryland felt that they would rather have the media talk about the jerseys instead of Randy Edsall's first win with his new team beating the U 32-24 on ESPN during primetime.

Under Armour proved why it is still second best to Nike. Lebron James put it best when he tweeted, "OH GOSH! Maryland uniforms #Ewwwwww!"

When people are agreeing with Lebron about anything, you know it's bad.

In an article in the Baltimore Business Journal the Under Armour director of college sports marketing said, "Maryland football is entering a new era this season" and the program "wants people to know that state pride is at the forefront of what it represents."

This brings me back to the biggest problem. College football season should be about the football above anything else. Scandals, crimes and cheating are running rapid in college sports and I hope I am not alone in wanting entertaining football. I watch the games for the sport, not the uniform.

Last Saturday the ESPN night game featured the rivalry match between Notre Dame and Michigan. If you are a fan of college football you saw the ending with Denard Robinson completing a 16-yard touchdown to Roy Roundtree with :02 on the clock for a 35-31 comeback win. The ending was simply amazing.

In the game, each team wore legacy uniforms that "celebrate the long-standing heritage between two of the most successful programs in college football history," Adidas director of sports licensing design Jon Yuska said to the Michigan athletic department at mgoblue.com. 

The story after the game was not how outlandish or disgusting the uniforms were but the wild ending. ESPN raved how the game was an instant classic and chills still run down my spine when I re-watch the last Michigan drive. Moments like these are why I love college sports.

They are what college football and athletic departments for universities need to get back to. Adidas took a conservative approach and it made the game more memorable. College sports need the game to speak for itself, not the jersey.

So, please do not get me wrong, I love my jerseys. In fact, probably too much. But when jerseys are more of a story than the actual game it really takes away from the beauty of college sports. But no matter what, there will always be fans who think the Zags lose just because they wore the black alternative jerseys. College sports are so much more than a jersey trending on Twitter.