Column: Elite Jerseys Could Excite

Last week, Nike unveiled brand new basketball uniforms for nine of the schools sponsored by the company. The latest jersey innovation is being called the "Nike Hyper Elite Platinum" uniform. That's right, Nike is now styling their college athletes in platinum. While this is a bit strange for a school like Syracuse, who has to wear the color of its hated rival Georgetown, since the platinum really just looks gray, the players at every other school involved expressed a ton of excitement about the innovative jerseys, which are ultra-light and look awesome.

There was another unveiling this week. The Boston College football team announced its 16-man recruiting class yesterday, which ranked 11th in the conference, only finishing ahead of Duke. While stars associated with recruits and the overall rank of the class are never an exact representation of future success for a program, it definitely doesn't hurt to bring in a bunch of highly-touted players. Head coach Frank Spaziani and his staff didn't manage to do that this year, missing out on a lot of local talent and receiving a few decommitments after a poor season, but this modest, at best, class may not entirely be the fault of the coaching staff. Some of the blame might belong to Under Armour and whoever is in charge of the BC uniforms.

Now, I know that uniforms don't make or break the decisions of a recruit. Oregon has found success recruiting the past 10 years not just because of the uniform innovations going on out in Eugene, but mainly because of all the money Nike is pumping into the University's facilities and the entire athletic program. This doesn't change the fact that recruits get excited about jerseys, and BC's are nothing to get excited about.

Both football and basketball wear incredibly bland uniforms, whose sole function seems to be communicating to viewers and the opposing team that they are in fact looking at a BC athletic team. One of the main reasons the uniforms at Oregon are so exciting is because the flash and style of the jerseys matches the dynamic energy of the Oregon offense. Under Armour could use that same mentality to develop new uniforms for BC football and basketball.

The only school with a higher profile than BC that Under Armour sponsors is Auburn, and Cam Newton's alma mater plays in essentially the same uniforms BC does, except with their blue and orange instead of our maroon and gold. If Under Armour really wanted to make a push to threaten Nike in the college sports world, it could start catering their uniforms to specific programs like Nike does with Oregon.

Historically, the Eagles' football team is known for its power. Unlike Oregon, which thrives off of speed and agility, BC has had its most success by playing hard-nosed, grind-it-out football. BC's best pro players, like those who will play in the Super Bowl on Sunday, were all tough players who fought hard on the field with little flash. There is a way to make uniforms that reflect this toughness and power without being incredibly plain. I'm not a designer, and I honestly don't have any ideas for exactly how they should look, but I know that it could work. Being able to market your identity through eye-capturing jerseys would definitely bring a boost to recruiting. When the BC coaching staff is sitting in the house of a high profile defensive end that is considering some of the nation's most elite schools, being able to pitch to him that he will be wearing a uniform that matches the power of his own play could be a welcome selling point.

The exact opposite approach could be used for the men's basketball team, which has even worse uniforms than the football team. Head coach Steve Donahue runs an exciting, up-tempo motion offense similar to the one being run on the football fields in Eugene. Instead of promoting power and toughness, the basketball uniforms could have the flashy, light aspect that the latest Nike uniforms capitalize on. This would help cement a team identity, and it could also help with a fan base in desperate need of rejuvenation.

First and foremost, proven winning and great coaching bring the best players to campus. That is a proven fact in college sports.

But it would be nice to have a safety net for the times when the wins aren't coming.