There’s a saying in sports: “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” With the uniforms being worn by some NCAA teams these days, you can’t tell the players even with a scorecard. The problem is so prevalent that Ira Thor, sports information director at Division III New Jersey City University, created a slideshow presentation that has been circulated nationally. The presentation includes photo galleries of difficult-to-read jerseys in 10 NCAA sports from all divisions.
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“It’s been a growing concern over the last 10 years or so, just the number of different types of uniforms we see across all sports,” said Ty Halpin, NCAA associate director for playing rules and officiating. “In many ways it’s been a good growth because manufacturers and our campuses are being creative in finding different ways to bring some interest to the games.
“But we’ve kind of come to that dividing line where things may have gone too far in some respects and are now creating a competitive issue. The coaches understand it’s a pretty big competitive impact. If you can’t see the numbers clearly in football, it impacts how you coach the team, how you scout the opponent, how you plan for a lot of things.”
Some schools wear these confusing jerseys for marketing purposes and to jazz up fan and player interest. Some wear them because they got put on accidentally while unaware of the NCAA’s rules. And some schools simply want an advantage competitively.
“We’ve had coaches tell SIDs in a couple instances that’s exactly why they do it, so they can’t get scouted,” Thor said. “It’s an edge. Everybody wants to be Bill Belichick, I guess.”
That obviously leads to an advantage for some teams which the jersey maker didn’t plan for. Halpin said the NCAA has made a more concerted effort in recent months to meet with manufacturer designers — not just the executives overseeing specific college brands, as NCAA officials typically do — to explain the importance of being able to better read the numbers.
Despite the study, it is hard to believe we will see a stoppage of creative and eye popping jerseys for some schools. At the end of the day they are recruiting 17 and 18 year old young men who are drawn to things like that and can careless about if the number on the jersey shows clear on film.
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