Will Syracuse don its most hated rival’s colors?
Even at a time when teams routinely forgo traditional school colors in favor of alternate jerseys that attract recruits and sell merchandise, there are some rules that should never be broken.
Kentucky would never wear red. Michigan would never don scarlet. And Duke wouldn't be caught dead in a lighter shade of blue.
That's why many Syracuse fans were livid Thursday when a report surfaced suggesting the Orange may be considering donning the colors of their fiercest rival. According to ESPN.com uniform expert Paul Lukas, Syracuse may be the latest prominent college hoops program to adopt a gray alternate jersey, the same color traditionally worn by longtime Big East foe Georgetown.
A Syracuse spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the report and Nike did not respond immediately to an email requesting comment, but there's no reason to believe the report isn't true.
As I wrote earlier this week, numerous top programs have adopted gray alternate jerseys in the past 12 months, including Texas, Kansas State, Purdue, Oregon and Oklahoma State. Furthermore, Syracuse said last year it plans to deemphasize blue as an accent color in favor of other options.
It might be wise for Syracuse to find another option besides gray since its fans are already predisposed to hate that color even before seeing the jerseys. Eighty-six percent of readers on the popular Syracuse-themed blog "Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician" voted that they either didn't like the idea (19 percent) or wanted to punch someone in the face (67 percent).
We'll find out in the next few weeks whether public sentiment is enough to stave off the gray jersey movement at Syracuse.
Other fan bases have resisted gray jerseys for aesthetic reasons. Syracuse fans have an even stronger argument.
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