Bowl Season 2017

Only Utah won it's bowl game out of nine Pac-12 teams. At least the uniforms all looked decent.

Pac 12 Championship Game: Dec. 1, 2017

The only newsworthy uniform item is that Stanford used a helmet with silver/gray logo/stripe instead of their normal cardinal.

Week 13: Nov. 25, 2017

Week 12: Nov 18, 2017

Some Pac12 teams were in rivalry mode and as usual, USC-UCLA was color vs. color. But up in Corvallis, ASU-OSU was dull vs dull, as both teams pulled out their best blacks and grays!

Washington used their W flag decals while Oregon went with an absolute classic, which also happened to be a retread of week 1. 

Week 11: Nov. 11, 2017

Week 10: Nov. 3, 2017

Most of the road-teams went mono-white with colored helmets. Only UCLA wore colored pants on the road. Utah went full "Black-Out" and ASU went full "Beige-Out" with its military appreciation uniform bad on desert camo.

Week 9: Oct. 28, 2017

All quiet on the western front. ASU and Utah had some specialty helmets, but nothing unusual. A good mix of school colors, except for the Oregon "Steelers."

Week 8: Oct. 21, 2017

With three north teams on bye, it was pretty quiet this week. The only remotely special uniform choice was a new Utah helmet that has some more silver stripes.

Week 7: Oct. 14, 2017

I'd make a lot of comments but I live in Sonoma County, CA, and surrounded by fire.

Stanford and ASU went mono black. Cal came out with their gold jersey for the first time and Oregon and Oregon State worse combos that would have looked at home in the 1990s.

Week 6: Oct. 7, 2017

Not much new this week, especially since the two teams that pulled out "odd" uniforms are actually retreads of uniforms worn last year. Oregon went mono-highlighter with its "lightning" yellow getup from last season. This version of the shoulder "wings" is full-on-photoshop fantasy of blurred black pattern. Utah also pulled out a uniform from yesteryear in its 1970s-inspired throwback that they also wore last homecoming. UW went mono-purple.

Week 5: Sept. 30, 2017

Another relatively quit uniform week in the Pac-12. The only out of the ordinary combinations were both mono-dark uniforms worn by Colorado and WSU who were playing the Southern California schools. WSU used its dark gray/white mono outfit (they seem to have a lighter gray for some elements). Oddly, Colorado traveled to the Rose Bowl and went "Blackout", which I assume is in response to UCLA doing a "Whiteout". Thankfully these are BFBS or GFGS games since black and gray are school color for these squads.

Week 4: Sept. 23, 2017

This week, Cal got into the alternative uniform craze with its Joe Roth 1970s throwbacks (read more here) but the rest of the Pac dressed pretty traditional.

Both Arizona schools went mono. Arizona went all blue against Utah which went red and white, so a patriotic game in Tucson. In Tempe, a "Maroon Monsoon" was in full affect  for ASU vs. Oregon.

The two teams with gray as an official color—WSU and Colorado—both wore variations on the theme.

Week 3: Sept. 16, 2017

Relatively standard week in the Pac-12 this week. Most every team used standard uniforms, with the exception of Utah which had a special helmet with Native American designs on it. Another noteworthy set was ASU which used its base maroon/gold set for the third time in a  row, but this was notable because they wore color on the road this week.  Honestly this week represented an almost perfect combo for most teams, with Oregon going back to basics, and Arizona and WSU going mono. WSU uses gray as good as any team in the Pac, since gray is an official color. And the all-white set for Arizona is one crispest combos.

Week 2: Sept. 9, 2017

Mostly quiet on the wacky uniform front in the Pac-12 EXCEPT for the whole state of Oregon which went Gray/Silver. The Ducks pulled out their special uniforms designed by childhood cancer patients. This included a reprise of the chrome winged helmet and an all white uni highlighted by neon yellow and silvery gray. The Beavers went darker gray and black.

Colorado also went gray, but gray (silver) is a school color and it paired well with a  crisp white helmet and pants.  All others were pretty standard uniforms. WazZu and Utah went mono red, while ASU had retro logo helmet and Arizona went red chrome.

Week 1: Aug. 26-Sept. 3, 2017

We had 13 Pac-12 games in the last 10 days, with Oregon State playing twice while all the rest played once.

Week 0-1, 2017

If there was a trend so far this season it is simplicity! Multiple teams officially revamped over the summer and all went for less bells and whistles and more traditional designs. That is except Arizona, which traded some oddball numbers and shoulder gradients for even odder numbers and different shoulder gradients.

Cal, on the road was very nice looking in its blue and white, with some new striping elements that will define them this season.

Even Oregon went for a repeat (basically) of a fan-loved apple green/lemon yellow ensemble. The jersey is from the game where they imitated the mascot and the pants and helmet are pretty much the same as many last year. But week two will provide the Ducks with a  childhood cancer fundraiser uniform that brings out the dreaded white, silver, highlighter that almost never provides a win on the big stage!?

The Beavers doubled down on the mono-uniforms in two games. Pretty much no change from last year.

Stanford, is well, Stanford. Nothing to see here. Same for UW.

WSU got rid of most odd piping, stripes, and doodads and was nice in scarlet and gray!

Arizona, even with funky new font, looked really good in its white helmets and pants.

ASU, Colorado and USC seemed to pull out the best from last year.

UCLA simplified and made its signature blue cleaner and the numbers and shoulder loop less futuristic.

Utah, like Cal, is showcasing a new "stripe" and got rid of the mountains on the sleeves.

What will 2017-18 be like?

The Oregonian reported today that the Ducks are going to be more traditional next fall:

"We're going to try to stick to more traditional colors this year," Kenny Farr, UO's football equipment administrator, said last week after a spring football practice. "Trying to kind of simplify a few things but still keep it modern and keep it looking really good."

See the full Andrew Greif article here:
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2017/04/oregon_ducks_football_uniforms.html

Bowl season 2016-17

Being that the teams that made it to a bowl were mostly the traditional ones, the uniform combos were not as alternative as in past years. No Oregon or ASU meant that the only team to give us anything remotely interesting was Utah with it mono-red look and subtly red-on-red helmet. This was similar to week 2, but the helmet was a new variation.  All other teams reused a combo from some time during the year. WSU redid week 7, but I'm not completely sure which shade of gray they used since they have several!

Looking back at 2016-17

The Pac-12 ended its season with USC in the Rose Bowl, but this past season saw some new faces in the spotlight and some established teams on the fade.

With Oregon's fall from the top of the Pac-12, came a change in the veracity of its uniform reveals. At the beginning of the season, when its record was still respectable, it had several specialty and alternate uniforms. But as losses mounted, the uniforms began to calm and each week brought much more normal and sedate choices.

The stalwart traditionalists stayed the same: UW, USC, and Stanford pretty much stuck with home and away sets. UCLA—a uniform maven last year—also regressed like Oregon to a more normal rotation. Cal felt boring, but when I tallied their sets, it came to seven separate combos!

People love to lambast Oregon for its uniforms, but the mountain schools have taken over that mantle! Arizona made great use of normal colors mixed and matched, with one real nice alternate USS Arizona uniform. ASU went off the rails with all kinds of wacky helmets and color schemes this year.

But, the winner for number of combos is Utah. They only went with one throwback uniform and several special helmets, but made varied use of their red, white and black, with three mono-color schemes as well.

WSU and Colorado (the win cinderella's this year) pretty much stuck to several colors that they mixed and matched to nice affect.

"Pink-tober" and "GI-Joe-vember" were almost—thankfully—absent!

Here's my tally of regular season uniform combos* (12 games)

*not counting different helmet decals (looking at you Oregon!) if that was only difference. Not counting bowls or championship since all teams did not play in one.

Fashion mavens (how many variations can you have?):

• Utah: 12 (one throwback and one handprinted helmet)
• Oregon State: 11 (12 if you count the Men of Roses being slightly different than Civil War)
• Arizona State: 11 (Oh so close to all different. Gold/crimson/gold got reused with sparky decal)
• Arizona: 11 (three different mono-colored sets and repeated red/red/white once)
• Oregon: 10 (11 if you count a different decal. Shocking that Oregon reused two sets this year!)
• Colorado: 10 (Reused their classic gold/black/gold 3 times)

Mix & match (a few pants, jerseys and hats add up quick):

• Washington State: 7 (They repeated 5 combos twice, and made appropriate use of several shades of gray)
• Cal: 7 (with a rare gold jersey and gray-out, they had more combos of blue, gold and white than met the eye)

Stalwart traditionalists (home and road, what else do you need?):

• UCLA: 3 (home, road and they did got navy-out once)
• Stanford: 3 (home, road and they did got black-out once)
• Washington: 3 (home, road and they did got black-out once)
• USC: 2