There is perhaps no sport in which style plays a bigger role than college football. As a sport with more than 130 teams, winning all your games isn’t always enough to win a championship. It’s all about marketing, perception, and yes, style.
In college football, style can be just as important as substance, and that has led to an incredibly diverse range of looks on the field for just about every team. So we decided to pore over countless special/one-off/alternate uniforms to choose the best of the best.
Some of our picks might be polarizing, even controversial, but as with any fashion choice, alternate uniforms are all about taking risks. Sometimes it works and sometimes it’s the Maryland uniform.
SMU 2019 "Dallas" uniform
SMU was pretty transparent about the fact that this uniform was an attempt to rebrand the program as “Dallas’ team” and even though this “throwback” look isn’t actually throwing back to anything that ever existed, the ’70s aesthetic is flawless.
Tulane baby blues
Tulane has thrown us a lot of new uniform looks and combinations in recent years, so it’s hard to choose just one — but we’re going with this look with the baby blue helmets sporting the Green Wave logo.
Oregon 2016 duck uniforms
We could have chosen any of about two dozen different Oregon uniforms for this list, ranging from understated to ultra-futuristic. Oregon has been a runway model of a football program for Nike over the decades, showing off a wide range of different looks, but never have the Ducks pulled off a uniform more unique and surprising than their “duck uniforms” back in 2016. Designed to look like their famous Oregon Duck mascot, it’s a bold choice that looks great and is just plain fun, something we rarely see in sports or fashion.
Pitt 2010 steel uniform
Let me take you back to the ancient past of 2010. High-tech inspired fonts and digital-inspired patterns and lines were all the rage and had a huge influence on Nike’s new range of alternate uniforms released that year to help promote their Pro Combat line of performance apparel and gear. For Pitt’s matchup against West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, the Panthers wore a Nike Pro Combat uniform with a totally unique design inspired by Pittsburgh’s history as a city built on the steel industry. Does this uniform look like it came straight from 2010? Sure, but it’s a fun relic of the era.
Navy 2013 vs. Army
It was tough to choose just one uniform each for both Navy and Army but I decided to try and limit myself because otherwise they might dominate this entire list. The service academies never come up short when it comes to alternate uniforms every year and my personal favorite Navy look comes from 2013, a meticulously detailed uniform with chromatic gold trim.
Army 2019 vs. Navy
Like Navy, Army has shown up in the uniform department every year for the Army-Navy game and it’s tough to pick just one. I’m going with their 2019 uniforms paying tribute to the 1st Cavalry Division.
Colorado State 2017 "Colorado Pride"
Inspired by the Colorado state flag, these uniforms first worn back in 2017 have made a couple of return appearances thanks to an overwhelmingly positive response from the fanbase. It’s one of those rare instances when an alternate uniform looks absolutely nothing like the team’s traditional uniforms or colors but still somehow taps into the pride of the fanbase.
Florida 2019 throwbacks
Florida has experimented with a few different throwback looks in recent years and honestly, they all look pretty great. We’re going with this look from the Gators’ 2019 game against Auburn. The understated F logo pops even more on the white helmets, a truly classic look for Florida harkening back to the days of Heisman-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier.
Ole Miss powder blues
Ole Miss has kept this alternate color in rotation for several years as a throwback tribute that seems to unite fans of all ages. The “powder blue” really makes Ole Miss stand out and just seems to hit the eye differently than their more traditional looking standard unis.
Notre Dame 2017 Knute Rockne tribute
Notre Dame has taken big swings with alternate uniforms over the years with some hits and some misses. My personal favorite was their special tribute to Fighting Irish legend Knute Rockne back in 2017, featuring helmets designed to look like old-school leather and with Rockne’s famous speech printed on the shoulders of the jersey.
Purdue 2019 moon-landing uniform
Several of the uniforms on this list were created as special tributes and perhaps none are as special as what Purdue did back in 2019. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Purdue alum Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to set foot on the moon, Purdue wore these special uniforms featuring a chrome helmet strip imprinted with Armstrong’s boot prints he left on the surface. If you’re going to use your uniform to flex about one of your school’s famous alumni, it doesn’t get much cooler than this.
TCU 2010 "tactical frog"
We mentioned the 2010 Nike Pro Combat line of alternate uniforms earlier and this is another installment in that line. The uniform looks like something out of an early-2000s sci-fi movie and features weird details like a reptilian skin print and red lines on the helmet representing the horned frog’s most famous defensive tactic: shooting streams of blood out of its eyes.
