The Pac-12 got invited to six bowls and played in five of them, with UCLA cancelling the Holiday Bowl just before gametime due to Covid precautions, and WSU having to sweat out an opponent change when Miami pulled out of the Sun Bowl.
OSU wore its normal blackout set, while Utah went whiteout throwback with an added rose to its Rose Bowl helmet. The Rose also had a very subtle "22" on the sticker. ASU went all gold with the color changing helmets.
The Pac-12 Championship was a dark affair under the lights in Las Vegas. Utah went for mono-black with white helmets and Oregon countered with its darkest non-black Nightmare Green helmet and pants paired with its Eggshell jersey. A "star" theme seemed to be in play with some galaxy/LSD inspired cleats (which normally do not get any mention on this site) that seemed to work with the speckles on the jersey.
In a makeup game, Cal wore its Roth-inspired throwbacks which look great.
Rivalry Week part 2. The former "Civil War" was a bright color-vs-color matchup, but the others kept to normal road sets with Arizona and WSU going full stormtrooper. Utah used a 22 Forever decal on the helmet and Washington went with gold chrome helmet. ASU was a faux-back with Sparky on helmet, current jerseys and older pants. Arizona used its Military Appreciation white jersey again this season.
This weekend was rivalry weekend part 1—just The Big Game Cal vs. Stanford and the annual color-on-color USC vs. UCLA. This week also brought us some new special uniforms. Oregon State threw back to the 2001 Fiesta Bowl victory against Notre Dame, with its all black with retro logos and styling. Utah did its Military Appreciation with a tribute to the USS Salt Lake City, a decorated World War II battleship. It features a mono battleship gray outfit with another edition of their now-famous hand-painted helmets. Learn more here.
The second weekend of military appreciation/Veterans Day. Arizona had the most overt homage with their new "Dress Whites" set. The helmet and pants appear normal, but the jersey had a subtle digital camo applied to red numbers and blue shoulders. It matched up nicely with the all-red Utes. Oregon State also trotted out its flag logo decals on the helmets. With Beavers in all-black and Stanford in their usual all-white, it was quite the contrast! Cal and USC were postponed due to Covid protocols.
The first or second weekend in November used to be the time when most teams recognized Veterans Day with military touches. But the last couple years have seen a wane in that tradition. But ASU is one that still does, and this week's combo was a Pat Tilman special. All gold (yellow!) with some maroon/yellow digital camo and PT emblems. Paired with USC, there was a lot of that deep yellow! Oregon used a yellow/white/white combo that appears to have (surprisingly) never used in the modern Nike era of Duck uniforms. Six teams went mono-jersey/pants, but besides ASU, they all went for different helmet!
T'is Halloween weekend, and many of the Pac-12 are going dark—not they need an excuse these days! Even the stalwart traditionalists like Stanford went for their alternate blackout uniform, which is not a new thing but usually only worn once a season. The other mono-black was Utah. ASU paired its color shifting maroon/gold helmet with black stickers and its heather-black uniform. Oregon went Bumblebee with black and yellow. Even Cal, which never uses black did its best with mono-dark blue. It's too bad that the two teams that wear black a lot (OSU and CU) were on the road.
A lackluster colorway this week with a fair amount of white and black and two of the teams that usually wear gold (UW and CU) did not. Half the Pac went with mostly-mono look. WSU was all-crimson, and OSW went all-black. Oregon made headlines with their "eggshell" combo and Arizona went all blue for the first time this season.
While last week seemed heavy on white and red jerseys, this week is heavy on white and black jerseys. October usually always brings out more BFBS, and Oregon did this for its Friday "light's out" game. And 3/4 of the teams that have black/gray in their official closet pulled them out. WSU went with their light gray and anthracite and Utah went with a rare (but used once in Oct/Nov each year) black jersey with semi-special helmet.
Four teams off this week, but some interesting uniforms for two teams. ASU was celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with mono "Maroon Monsoon" and their gold/maroon color-shifting helmet with a stripe using Mayan graphics and endzones that say "Los Diablos." Utah was pulling out their annual throwbacks, but this time on the road at USC. Arizona was wearing blue at home for the first time, while calling for fans to "Whiteout" which is odd since the Wildcats have only worn white at their two home games this season.
In my many years doing the Pac-12 tracker and Duck tracker, I deal with school colors each week. One of the reasons I love uniforms and college football is the amount of identity we all feel for "our team" and its iconography which is most personified by color!
The Pac-12—like all conferences—has a wide palette of colors represented, but leans heavily on the three primary colors of yellow, red, and blue.
Most of the Pac-12 use two official colors. Stanford is the only school to only use one color (Cardinal Red) plus white, while Utah, to some extent, leans heavily on just its red and less black. Colorado uses three colors in black, gold and silver
Note: All these color swatches come directly from each university's branding or communications website, and represent the "official" academic color scheme for each school and often not the final uniform colors.
This category is a bit hard to pin down since some university's use gold/yellow interchangably.
Most of the Pac schools that use red are all VERY similar shades!
Not much to say here. Three different shades of blue.
While pundits often bemoan the use of black and gray by schools that don't have it as an official color, the Pac actually has a third of its members who can truthfully use it.
Secondary ColorsThese colors singularly personify their Northwest schools:
A quiet week for most of the Pac-12 uniforms. But Stanford did come out with a special uniform! A rare site for a team that has been one of the most consistent uni-teams in the conference the last decade. This special uniform pays homage to the 1970-71 Jim Plunkett Heisman team and is just a minor tweak of their current kit. It has a gray facemask which looks real sharp on the standard white helmet. And add a retro block-S that pretty much replicates the 50-year old version. And the final touches are white trim on the sleeves, TV numbers and wide pant stripe.
This week saw the beginning of Pac-12 play, which meant that half the teams were road-teams (unlike the first few weeks of home game vs. non-conference teams). On the flipside, Stanford wore their red jerseys for their first home game of the season!
The most notable outfits this week included Utah's old-standby throwback uniform for homecoming that they trot out every year. The newest combo came from the current Pac-12 fashionistas ASU Sun Devils. They unveiled a beautiful retro-inspired "Vally Heat" set that uses a lot of saturated gold, yellow and Sparky on the helmet. IMHO it's one of ASU's best looks. Oregon unveiled an uncommon combo of black and green with a new black helmet. Arizona went mono-white.
Week three brings out some more mono looks, with Oregon, Stanford and WSU going full mono, and ASU doing all dark gray/black jersey/pants. Speaking of the Sun Devils, they have been the most fashion-concious so far, with three different special helmets. Stanford, UCLA and Colorado all have worn the same outfit for 3 games straight. Another oddity is Arizona wearing white at home the last 2 weeks!
Happy Labor Day weekend. The Pac-12 is finally back in action with spectators and full stadiums. But it was a brutal weekend for most of the Pac, especially the North which had 5/6 of its teams lose (two on the road back east), and the only winner—Oregon—barely escaped. UCLA seems to be the early darling of the South with two wins already and one against a ranked LSU.
Since most teams were home against supposed cupcakes (cough, cough UW) it was a colorful weekend. Half the league wore yellow or gold pants and only three teams wore road jerseys. No team except Stanford went full-mono.
Not many changes in the offseason: UCLA cleaned up its multiple tones of gold; Arizona is going back to a simpler "throwback" template; and Oregon fiddled with patterns on its shoulders. No other major changes this season!
