As much as people complain about our uniforms...

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Harvard Red and Yale Blue are no longer the official colors of the university. We are now SMU Red and SMU Blue:

http://www.smu.edu/DevelopmentExternalAffairs/PublicAffairs/IntegratedMarketing/Branding/Colors

[CenTXpony]

Well I am abut twice your age and I like them. They are not crazy imo. Nike did a lot with those Halloween colors and boring designs they had. I like the copper on the helmets too. You have to have talent to get the 10 win season. That helps get the talent.

I don't recall ever reading a quote from a recruit saying he picked a school because the uniforms looked "cool"...........

The unis help while not being a main factor they do help. You do hear kids talk about cool looking jerseys regarding recruiting. To ignore that would not be very smart. The coaches know this because they are closer to the situation that we are. I think Mike Riley knows what he is doing more than than the people on this board who disagree with him.

I don't necessarily disagree but I see teams like Alabama, LSU, Texas, and others who've had the same uniforms for decades it seems pull in top talent year after year. I believe quality facilities is one of the most resourceful recruiting tools outside of coach to recruit interaction. Don't disagree with your theory on uniforms though however on a personal note I prefer traditional uniforms. Hell I'm fine with pink Jerseys though if it means were winning.

[mrydel]

Hate to keep referencing Arkansas but that is all I have here. They just opened their new facilities last week and took a group of recruits on a tour. Whereas they had been low in commit count, after the tour they got 6 committments within 22 minutes. Coach B said it was the biggest recruitng coup in his career. They had no such result when they introduced the "snazzy" anthracite uniforms that were supposed to be recruit wooers.

[lwjr]

As stated in the article the crazy color schemes are a way to draw a potential recruits attention to a school that does not have a winning tradition such as a Texas or Alabama. Who was familiar with Oregon? Chip Kelly started the winning but on a national basis recruits started to take notice when Phil Knight and Nike jumped in.

[CenTXpony]

As stated in the article the crazy color schemes are a way to draw a potential recruits attention to a school that does not have a winning tradition such as a Texas or Alabama. Who was familiar with Oregon? Chip Kelly started the winning but on a national basis recruits started to take notice when Phil Knight and Nike jumped in.

Oregon also has some of the best facilities to offer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_umtAnyCfQE

Not disagreeing with you though because I do believe they were the trend setter for the whacky uniform recruiting tactic but their relationship with Phil Knight is one that no other university has therefore they benefit from it more than others unless other schools want to throw out a ridiculous amount of $$$ for uniforms.

[PK]

oops, i meant *harvard red and *yale blue

...and don't you forget it.

[PK]

Harvard Red and Yale Blue are no longer the official colors of the university. We are now SMU Red and SMU Blue:

http://www.smu.edu/DevelopmentExternalAffairs/PublicAffairs/IntegratedMarketing/Branding/Colors

A Bit of History
The University’s first president, Robert S. Hyer, selected Harvard Crimson and Yale Blue as the school colors to symbolize SMU’s high standards. The colors are much darker than the red and blue used today, which we call SMU Red and SMU Blue.

Not only were they darker, but much classier than the new "SMU Red" and "SMU Blue". Not to mention, the new colors symbolize nothing. Who are these people making these decisions? Obviously no connection to SMU other than a pay check.

[Stallion]

Fact A-
Oregon has "bad [deleted] neat-o uniforms"

Fact B
Oregon is a Top 10 team

A+B does not equal Oregon is winning because of jacked up uniforms

More likely Oregon is winning because of the infusion of huge boatloads of money from nike founder. As mentioned above for the most part-the overwhelming majority of top programs in the country were built off a traditional, classic uniform that still is the predominant inspiration in their present uniform. Name the consensus Top 10 or even Top 20 programs over the last decade. I bet it would be quite easy to prove that jack-up uniforms actually are more likely worn by bad programs.

[East Coast Mustang]

Fact A-
Oregon has "bad [deleted] neat-o uniforms"

Fact B
Oregon is a Top 10 team

A+B does not equal Oregon is winning because of jacked up uniforms

More likely Oregon is winning because of the infusion of huge boatloads of money from nike founder. As mentioned above for the most part-the overwhelming majority of top programs in the country were built off a traditional, classic uniform that still is the predominant inspiration in their present uniform. Name the consensus Top 10 or even Top 20 programs over the last decade. I bet it would be quite easy to prove that jack-up uniforms actually are more likely worn by bad programs.

I don't disagree. My whole point is that we have an opportunity to do something cool and be noticed in a good way with our uniforms, and we're not doing that now. Our current Nike jerseys SUCK and are completely devoid of any originality.

We can do cool stuff with the uniforms without compromising the SMU tradition- throwbacks, blue alternate helmets, blue jerseys, we could also do something cool and patriotic for the weekend of Veteran's Day- maybe the American flag in the pony on the helmet?

[Rayburn]

Back in the 1950s SMU was mixing and matching uniforms. Under Meek they wore white helmets with red jerseys at home and red hats with white jerseys on the road. Under Woody they sometimes wore blue jerseys and sometimes red:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbo-EZtpYgM[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cCFVX0nUG4[/youtube]

[SMU2007]

Harvard Red and Yale Blue are no longer the official colors of the university. We are now SMU Red and SMU Blue:

http://www.smu.edu/DevelopmentExternalAffairs/PublicAffairs/IntegratedMarketing/Branding/Colors

So glad they made the change. It is embarrassing (relatively) to have your "school colors" named after two other institutions. They aren't your colors. They are those other schools'.

On the other issue, there's no doubt that Oregon's success is not solely based on what they wear on the field. I do think, however, that it has drawn them extra attention and press, which raises awareness of the program leading to some boost in recruiting. You can debate how much of a boost that actually results in, but there's no question that there is an x% increase in Oregon's public profile because of their unis. I also agree with stallion however that is they had sucked all these years, no one would care about what they wore on the field. It has to be a combo.

[stc9]

Phil Knight did at Oregon what his company does best: Branding. They got eyes on the program and built the infrastructure to maintain and grow. I have no problem with any uniform combination we trot out on a Saturday afternoon. I will like some more than others. If it gets eyes on the product and increases name recognition then that will work in our favor. Something the uniform traditionalists know better than most is that we have had 25+ years of awful, awful products and the stigma of being the biggest cheaters in the NCAA. At the first Hawaii Bowl we were a feel good story - finally coming back from death. Since then we have put mediocre teams out on the field (great improvement over the teams from the 25 years), but nothing to compare to our memories of the glory years (which lead to death). If putting a couple of wacky uniform combinations out on the field creates interest in 15 or 16 year old kids who could turn into high caliber players then that is what we should do. This shouldn't be the only tool the school uses, but it should be used.

[MustangStealth]

Looks very familiar...



Yep. That's it.

[Bergermeister]

Those didn't last long.......