The Big Ten conference is home to some of college football’s most blue blood programs, how do those teams uniforms rank against some of the newcomers?
The Big Ten conference is home to some of the most traditional blue blood programs in all of college football, and with blue blood programs full of tradition and prestige, comes classic uniforms, including Penn State Football’s blue and white.
The old school, basic blues of Penn State Football, the winged helmets of Michigan, and the Buckeyes’ Scarlet and Grey are timeless classics. Nebraska and Iowa are known for their traditional color ways and helmets as well.
We have seen some of the newcomers to the Big Ten, like Maryland and Rutgers, try and do it a bit differently, with flashy chrome helmets and numerous alternate threads, following the Oregon model of wearing different uniforms each week.
The offseason is a great time to take a look at all things college football when we are all daydreaming of crisp, fall Saturday afternoons.
Let’s rank the Big Ten teams uniform sets from worst to first.
14. Illinois
Illinois has gone through multiple uniform changes over the years and got rid of the awful Nike piping from the earlier 2000’s and have gone to a basic concept, which normally is a good thing, but something is still missing.
The orange lid with just a block “I” in blue with no outline is mostly boring, bring back the Juice Williams era helmets with Illinois written out. The lack of outlining kills the jerseys as well, because the numbers don’t pop, although blue and orange are aesthetically pleasing.
Illinois has gone to a grey alternate which I actually like a lot, and it seems random because grey is not a color way of the Illini, however it is different. They could work some of that orange into these though and make them pop a little more.
These uniforms don’t have a lot to hate, but leave a lot to be desired.