A little rant about uniforms

College football only started yesterday and I've already got something to rant about.  Is this a sign of another unnecessarily long season?  I hope not.

Last night, UNC played--rather, tried to play--against South Carolina in the ACC/SEC opener.  I'd seen a few leaks about UNC's new uniforms around the Twittersphere, and was hopeful that Larry Fedora had better taste than the mess Butch Davis (shudder) had the Heels wear.  This morning, pictures of VT's uniforms for the Alabama game started circulating Twitter.

My reaction to both uniforms was basically this...

I was not impressed, by either.  At all.

First, let us take a look at these uniforms I'm talking about.  Here's UNC's set, courtesy of Nike:

And VT's, sported by the fantastic James Gayle, also by Nike:

So basically...um, what?  Why is this necessary?  I mean, I guess the fact that VT's aren't ALL ORANGE EVERYTHING is a step up from last year, but gray is not and never has been one of our colors.  Gray makes us look like a bunch of elephants out there.  Or rhinos, take your pick.  Also, shiny pants with a non-shiny jersey?  I'm sorry, no.  Either all shiny or no shiny, preferably no shiny.

Side note: no, I'm not a fan of our gray basketball uniforms, for largely the same reason (except the gray VPI ones we wore a time or two a couple years ago, those were cool).  Granted, those aren't quite as bad as gray football uniforms, but I still don't like them.

I guess I'm just not a fan of gray uniforms in general, no matter the team.  Remember those awful things UNC wore for Senior Night in 2012?

Yep, I hated those, too.

Okay, enough about gray, and now switching to UNC's mess...I don't mind the overall style and design of these, or of the VT uniforms, for that matter.  My issues lie in color choices, and the numbers for the UNC set are kind of weird.  Yes, I know that's weird to be picky about, but I am.  These look like Nike was trying to be futuristic or something.  I much prefer the more traditional "block"-style numbers we've been using forever.  And really, why do we have a black set?  Black is not and has never been one of UNC's colors.  Neither has navy blue.  Butch Davis brought that in, and anything and everything Butch Davis brought to UNC needs to go, including navy uniforms.  UNC's colors are Carolina Blue and white.  No black.  No navy.  Get rid of the black set and mix & match with the blue and white, and it'll be fine.

Also, those shiny chrome helmets should never be seen again.

As for VT, the sentiment is similar.  Gray is not one of our colors; we are maroon and orange, and we are quite proud of those colors.  Can we please bring back ALL MAROON EVERYTHING?  Or at least maroon jerseys with white pants?  I'd be okay with that.  I'm a fan of tradition, and I'd like to see us stick to that more, rather than bringing out multiple new or "special" jerseys several times each year, or, God forbid, ALL ORANGE EVERYTHING.  I'd be okay with one special uniform each year, but more than that is unnecessary.  That money could go toward other avenues.  What those avenues could be, I'll leave that up for discussion.  But please, we don't need all these fancy uniforms every year.  

Remember this?  Not the game itself, but the uniforms...

I liked those and that combo: predominantly maroon, white pants, orange accents.  Shoulder stripes were meh, but overall, I was a fan.  Those would be cool to see again, and more often.

Don't make me make this face more than I have to this season:

...at least as far as uniforms are concerned.