I know why we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never win a national championship; actually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a theory really, but a working one, and the great thing about a theory is that is can neither be proved or disproved.<\/p>\n
I have defined it as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Never Win a National Title Because We Do Not Wear Traditional Uniforms Theory,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but laymen commonly refer to it as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Style Over Substance Theory.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The principle behind the theory is really quite simple: With few exceptions, only teams that sport a traditional uniform over time will ever win a national title. In the last thirty years, twenty teams have won at least a share of the national title:<\/p>\n
Alabama \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1992, 1979, 1978 (split)
\nBrigham Young \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1984
\nClemson \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1981
\nColorado \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1990 (split)
\nFlorida \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1996
\nFlorida State \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1999, 1993
\nGeorgia \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1980
\nGeorgia Tech \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1990 (split)
\nLSU \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 2003 (split)
\nMiami \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 2001, 1991 (split), 1989, 1987, 1983
\nMichigan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1997 (split)
\nNebraska \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1997 (split), 1995, 1994
\nNotre Dame \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1988, 1977
\nOhio State \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 2002
\nOklahoma \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 2000, 1985, 1975
\nPenn State \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1986, 1982
\nPittsburgh \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1976
\nSouthern Cal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 2004, 2003, 1978 (split)
\nTennessee \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1998
\nWashington \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1991 (split)<\/p>\n
The underlying commonality between each of these teams is that they each wore what could be classified as a traditional style uniform when they won the national title. And by traditional I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plain,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as is the case with Penn State, Notre Dame, or Alabama, but rather \u00e2\u20ac\u0153time-honored,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as with Southern Cal, Oklahoma, or Florida State.<\/p>\n
With the exception of Brigham Young, who let Nike butcher one of the most stylistic uniforms in college football, and perhaps Washington, which has switched between gold and purple helmets over time, very little has changed with the aforementioned teams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 uniform designs.<\/p>\n
Minor design changes were made to Miami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uniforms \u00e2\u20ac\u201c green pants, green jerseys, weird patterns \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but most of this has come only during their most recent span of success. They won four national titles with the basic orange jerseys on white pants, as well as the well-recognized \u00e2\u20ac\u0153U\u00e2\u20ac\u009d logo on the helmet.<\/p>\n
Clemson has made slight changes over the years, throwing in some purple jersey\/pants combos, but the Tiger paw and a basic orange-on-white design has remained the staple of their uniform. Florida State has flirted with garnet and white pants, but only on rare occasions.<\/p>\n
Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida, Florida State, and Colorado have all tested different striping patterns on their pants for short times, but otherwise my research has shown that there have been almost no changes made to any of the other teams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 uniforms over time.<\/p>\n
My research has led me to postulate that these schools rely on substance rather than style, which must be quite the conundrum to certain coaches and fans that believe that the only way to build a winning program and land top recruits is to show an aptitude for trendy styles. The underlying theme among the national champions of the past thirty years is that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bend to the marketing whims of Nike and Adidas every other year to keep national exposure on their program; they rely, oddly enough, simply on winning.<\/p>\n
On the whole, these programs consistently maximize the talents of their players and win consistently based upon superior coaching and hard-nosed, disciplined, and error-free football. What kind of ridiculous strategy is that?<\/p>\n
The common theme among so many college football pundits and fans is that recruits can only be landed through flashy offensive schemes, blaring intros, and trendy uniform designs. And yet, over the past thirty years, this philosophy just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t add up. Teams like Southern Cal, Nebraska, Michigan, and Ohio State continue to win consistently without any of the flair or pizzazz.<\/p>\n
State should cut out the fireworks and big screen intros, put on white helmets \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with red block \u00e2\u20ac\u0153S,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of course \u00e2\u20ac\u201c red jerseys, white pants, and go out there and hold onto the ball \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not the receiver \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and act more like Barry Sanders than Terrell Owens, and simply play football. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll define our own traditional style and get our winning ways started.<\/p>\n
But I guess it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the old chicken or egg argument: we have to land top recruits to win and we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t land top recruits with bland football. I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy it; winning takes care of itself, no matter how bland it is.<\/p>\n
Until then, my theory holds true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know why we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never win a national championship; actually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a theory really, but a working one, and the great thing about a theory is that is can neither be proved or disproved. I have defined it as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Never Win a National Title Because We Do Not Wear Traditional Uniforms Theory,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d … Continue reading Lucas’ Uniform Theory of Winning<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}