Notre Dame Unveils 2011 Edition of The Shirt

So what do you think?

My first impression is that I think it looks really sharp and has to be one of the best Shirts in recent memory.

First, judging by that picture the blue is a nice color, not too dark or too light either. I haven't seen it in person yet or any video or live pictures from the unveiling, but I get the feeling it will be a little bit of a darker blue in person than is shown here.

Nevertheless, I like the old English font and the balance of blue and gold. Also, notice how the shamrock matches what looks to be Samardzija and Grimes celebrating a touchdown in the green uniforms. Nice touch there.

I'm not crazy about the Four Horesmen on the front just because it's something that is almost too easy to put there, but I do like that the shirt is quite understated and not too busy.

So place your orders fans, and remember it is all for a good cause!

Elsewhere, Nike has made some noise over the past few days unveiling uniform sets at Washington State and Arizona State respectively.

First up the Cougars from Pullman:

You can't really blame Washington State for trying to get some hype out of their uniforms because they have been generally dull for years, but they were one of the first teams in football to wear two separate helmets which I thought was always pretty neat.

Overall, just another bad re-branding by Nike. It's nice that they didn't get too cute with the design, but they are literally incapable of putting something together the right way.

For example, what's up with the shoulder stripes? Why can't Nike just give these teams nice full stripes, instead of these quirky ones that appear like a butcher's knife that didn't fit the jersey?

The home and away set look fine for the Cougars, but that gray set is atrocious and a clear 2.0 version of what Ohio State trotted out last year. It seems gray is the new black and there's already news that Oklahoma State is about to become the "Oregon of the Midwest" introducing a million uniform combinations, including...the use of gray.

To make matters worse, Nike went ahead and combined gray and black as the super dominant colors for Washington State's third uniform. Major failure there guys.

And what's up with that gray helmet...really? It looks like it was supposed to be used as a template only and for color to be added to it later, but someone at Nike just walked away and it was left that way. Enough with this lighter blue on blue, lighter black on black, and lighter gray on gray!

And one of my biggest pet peeves...why the tiny lettering on the front? Does anything look less intimidating? If you're school name doesn't fit in large lettering, don't put it on there.

Now on to Arizona State:

There was a lot of attention paid to this one, and a lot of mixed results.

You'll notice that this is basically the same design as Washington State, except the Sun Devils don't have TV numbers on their sleeves. I wouldn't say the "ASU" on the sleeves look terrible, but the more I look at the more silly it appears.

Like Wazzu their home and away sets aren't too bad mostly because they stayed close to their traditional colors and design.

I wouldn't say I hate the new trident logo on the helmet (and I will defend Sparky and their old helmets too), but I just think it looks amateurish, doesn't feel like a college helmet, and is going to feel dated in about four or five years.

Plus, unless you're looking at it from a few feet away, which no one ever will be, it looks like a family genealogy tree. You know it does.

Of course some people are going to love the all Black for Black's Sake uniforms...hasn't this trend died yet? Oh, yeah that's right...it's slowly being replaced by gray!

The big thing that pops out at me are the shoulder stripes (again) looking goofy and weird. They're supposed to look like a spike or something from a trident, but I'm pretty sure Nike just wanted to put their swoosh logo on the jerseys.

In other news Penn State has announced that they will be removing the collar and sleeve striping from their uniforms and going back to their pre-1987 look.

The Nittany Lions, already known for their simple uniforms, will now unquestionably wear the most traditional uniform in college football.

Good move?

I guess, although they are really going to be pushing the limits of a traditional look with looking too bland. I actually liked the big wide collar striping, particularly on the home uniform, and thought it added just enough touch to keep Penn State’s uniform from looking like a tee-shirt.

That's all for now, enjoy the spring game tomorrow and don't forget to buy the 2011 version of The Shirt!