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Sports

Maryland Football Uniforms—What Next?

There's more interest in what the Terps are wearing than what they're doing.

There have been a lot of questions as the Maryland football team prepared for always-tough West Virginia to come to town Saturday.

But the questions were somewhat different from years past.

Sports writers, players and fans weren’t talking as much about the scintillating performance of quarterback Danny O’Brien in the opening against Miami or how he looks more like a big-time quarterback with every throw.

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They weren’t discussing how much of a weapon running back Davin Meggett certainly appears to be, something that could give the Terps a big lift.

There also wasn’t too much talk about how big that opening game win over Miami could be for this season.

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The big question I kept hearing and reading was: "What will their uniforms look like?"

And there were more: "Will they wear the same crazy ones as the opening game—the uniforms that drew national attention? Or will they wear something just as wild?"

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Uniforms?

Uniforms?

Why?

For some reason, seem to interest the public more than the players and the game itself. I barely heard a word about whether the Terps can play well again on offense or defense against No. 18 West Virginia.

Why?

Dave Sheinin of The Washington Post wrote a great feature story this week about the fact that uniforms have become popular in college football in a crazy way during the last few years.

He says they’re actually a recruiting tool now and another kind of free advertising for the school. You can bet that any recruit interested in coming to Maryland will ask if he’ll get to wear what they wore versus Miami.

That’s the world we live in now. Uniforms are now a clever marketing tool that can be used in so many ways. Nike started it with the  bfootball program, others are picking up on it, and Under Armour, the Baltimore company that handles Maryland, will be laughing all the way to the bank on this one.

So why are so many people so interested in the uniforms?

I think it’s because football is a sport that never showed much variety with uniforms. Home teams always wear dark; visitors light. It’s always been that way. It’s never changed. The NFL is jokingly referred to as the “No Fun League” by many of its players for its tense and tight ways.

But even though this is college, it’s different. Love them or hate them, the colorful uniforms are interesting to look at no matter which school is wearing whatever they’re wearing. They add something to the experience of watching a game in person or on TV. It adds some spice, and that can’t be denied.

Oh, and by the way, Sheinin noted in his story that Maryland coach Randy Edsall gave out the answer that everyone was so breathlessly waiting for.

What would they wear this week? This comes from the Post's story, and it's Edsall tweeting a picture of the uniforms for Saturday.

They’ll be wearing all black.

Talk amongst yourselves. 

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