Now the Oregon State has joined the rival Ducks in having utterly hideous uniforms, it's worth asking: just who does
have the most hideous uniforms in a league that is filled with all too many of them? And who actually has good ones? (not too many, as it turns out).
Find out in this year's review of the uniforms you'll be seeing on the field this year, and join me in praying that some of these
schools find a little sense and stop doing such a horrendous job of it all. For the sake of sanity, each school was limited
to at most three uniforms; otherwise the bad end of the list would be even longer.
Truly Hideous - You should be ashamed when your school wears this
#25: Cal - Yellow Home
Your eyes inevitably hurt after seeing the sea of yellow on this one. To make it even worse, there's precisely zero white anywhere.
#24: Oregon - Yellow Home
This is avert your eyes bad. Neon-ish yellow really hurts, and having green go against it doesn't much help.
#23: Oregon State - Orange Home
Not only is the general design awful, but it's orange. Come on.
Pretty Bad - Lobby for a redesign
#22: Oregon State - Away
This is a pretty bad uniform. The upper design doesn't work at all, and it's actually highlighting the orange. To make it worse,
I actually liked their roadies from last year.
#21: Arizona - Red Home
The "bib" is a terrible design idea, and the mishmash of pinkish red to white with just a small bit of blue here and there just makes it a mess.
#20: Stanford - Away
It's white, white, baby. White helmets, white jerseys, white pants (with three straight, small stripes instead of, say, one big red stripe with black trim). This is NOT a good idea.
#19: Washington State - Funky Home
I don't even know what to call this thing. Large "COUGAR" letters are nice, but the shoulder thing doesn't work at all, and
the home helmet looks a lot better gray than red.
#18: Oregon - Green Home
This isn't a total disaster, but it's still not good. The black "flecks" design isn't nearly as horrible as some people think,
but huge yellow numbers are a big detriment.
Mediocre - In this league, it could be worse
#17: Arizona State - Away
Having an old school roadie is nice, but the yellow pants are a no-no. Plus,
lettering shouldn't be so long, in such a small font, and with trim to boot. How about "ASU" in bigger letters instead?
#16: Oregon State - Black Home
The general design still stinks, but black is a good dominant color, and orange actually works as a highlight on it. It would look
much better if the orange were elsewhere, though.
#15: Arizona State - Home
This is just way too busy for a home uniform, and the lettering issue is even more of a problem here than their away colors.
To make it worse, there's virtually zero white anywhere. Still, the maroon on yellow is a decent contrast, so it's overall not bad.
#14: Oregon - Away
It's way too white, but it's still miles better than the mess of their home uniforms.
#13: Arizona - Away
The bib is the main issue here, but this mix of the three colors isn't too bad.
#12: Stanford - Home
For a home uniform, white helmets aren't a problem, and the jerseys are fine. But the pants are still a really bad idea. They combine busy (lots of stuff) without actually looking interesting.
#11: USC - Away
The general design is good, but yellow pants on a white shirt doesn't work well.
#10: Washington State - Normal Home
The color scheme of red and gray works pretty well, but the uniform design could use some tweaking. White on white number trim is a mistake, the school name is practically invisible, and the pants don't work.
#9: Washington - Away
Dull, dull, dull. There's nothing interesting in the shirts, and the pants are monochrome. But it's a lot better than most of the road uniforms you'll see in this league.
#8: Washington State - Away
The color scheme is fine, but it's too dull for a good road uniform. There's nothing at the shoulders or the sides, the school name is invisible.
Good - They're not ugly!
#7: UCLA - Away
It's a good design, and I like that they've chosen the light blue rather than the navy they used to have. Still, there's only
so much you can do with these three colors on a road uniform, where white is the dominant color.
#6: Cal - Blue Home
This is a solid uniform. The one issue is that there's too much yellow and too little white. Switch the two around and it
would look appreciably better.
#5: Arizona - Blue Home
The bib is still a big issue, but the dominant navy color takes away attention from it. Plus, it minimizes the pinkish red,
which is definitely the right choice.
#4: USC - Home
There's not white anywhere, and the yellow pants aren't great, but the shoulders are nice, and there are bonus points for
having a unique look that isn't unique in a bad way like a lot of others out there.
#3: Washington - Home
Here the dullness isn't a big of an issue, since home uniforms don't need to be as busy to look good. There's nothing outstanding
about this, but there's nothing bad either. Yes, that's all it takes to get to #3.
Very Good - The few, the proud
#2: Cal - Away
This is a really nice uniform. It's busy, which is good for a white uniform, and there's a lot of navy to balance out the
white.
#1: UCLA - Home
This is generally considered one of the nicest uniforms in college football, and for good reason. Normally having no white is bad,
but with two light colors it actually works pretty well.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me at cfn_ms@hotmail.com.
