Some Need To Wear White After Labor Day

I’m in a mood to start some stuff.

College football has a lot of great traditions, and some pretty dumb ones.

The NCAA’s Rule 1-4, Article 3 basically says the home team wears dark jerseys, the visitors white.

“However,” the rulebook reads, "the home team may wear white jerseys if the teams have agreed in writing before the season.”

What?

This is where I start ticking people off. For various reasons, some I-A teams need to have white home jerseys. Regardless of how the visitors, or the fan base feels about it.

Here’s a list.

Troy, Northern Illinois, Ball State, Utah State, Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, UNLV, Louisville, Miami (Fla.), Ole Miss, Auburn, Tennessee and Penn State and Illinois need to wear white, because the “home” jerseys are ugly.

Air Force Utah, Cincinnati, Virginia, N.C. State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin should wear white because, while the dark jersey is not ugly, the white is still a vast improvement.

Georgia Tech and LSU usually wear white at home, and they are right.

 Miami U., Syracuse, and Stanford – yeah, I know they’re named after colors. Ultimatum: get better looking darks or wear white at home. And fans in Lincoln should still shout “go Big Red” even if the Cornhuskers look better in white. Jeff Smith was in red when he never got that two-pointer in the 1984 Orange Bowl.

Kansas State and New Mexico State should wear the visitors’ “home” jersey.

By the way Akron has the best looking dark jersey, and Wisconsin rules the white-laundry roost.

Obviously, the USC-UCLA game should have both sides in traditional dark jerseys.

Alternate jerseys should be used in bowls only. For next year’s rose bowl, for example, Michigan (or the Big Tem representative) should have first choice because Ohio State won this year) If Michigan picks blue, then USC could choose either cardinal or white.

First choice should go to the team from the host conference, or from the conference that produced the previous game’s winner.

Example II: The 2010 Independence Bowl. How about Georgia in those Sweet black jerseys and Utah in either red or white?

I’m ready, all you traditionalists. Tell me why I’m wrong. And “because we’ve always done it this way” is not an acceptable response.