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The first week of the 2011 college football season featured discussion of upsets, nail-biters and ... fashion? This Saturday, Michigan and Notre Dame will face off in a highly-anticipated, early season matchup. Despite the potential implications the game will have on the teams' success going forward, a portion of the media blitz this week focused on what the teams will be wearing.
Now surely two storied teams like Michigan and Notre Dame wouldn't be seduced by the uniform madness overtaking college football, right? Wrong! Both teams will take the field in retro uniforms for Michigan Stadium's first night game. Keep in mind that we are talking about two teams that tout tradition over most everything else.
At least Michigan and Notre Dame aren't completely deviating from their standard uniform look. The major changes include the stripes on the shoulder pads (yellow stripes for Michigan and green for Notre Dame) and the 'M' featured on the front of Michigan's jerseys with the jersey number in the upper left corner.
Michigan will leave their famed "winged" helmets mostly unchanged, the only change being the number of the player displayed on the helmet. The Notre Dame helmets will sport a shamrock logo. Both changes will be the first time the teams have gone with this look since the early 1960s.
It seems fitting that this uniform shift is happening in conjunction with one of the biggest changes for historical Michigan Stadium: the first ever night game. Renovations at the stadium included the addition of lights and now night games are possible.
You might have mistaken it for fashion week with all the new uniforms that teams unveiled this past weekend. Of course Oregon showed up in a new uniform combination — that didn't surprise anybody. The real surprise came when we saw the uniforms that some other teams decided to roll with.
Boise State is known for their wacky blue turf and their unusual all-blue uniforms. So when they debuted a solid white uniform look, in the opener against Georgia, not many were shocked or confused.
College football fans truly realized the depth of the uniform insanity when fairly traditional programs Georgia and Maryland took the field. Georgia showcased their new all-red uniforms with metallic silver and red helmets. It was a jarring change but Maryland took the cake. Their new uniforms represented the crest of Maryland ... from their helmets to their cleats.
