Boston University (What If?)

One of my favorite uniform sites is Steven Grant Design, which features a treasure trove of ice hockey concepts, plus blank templates for those who wish to make and submit their own jersey designs. (Someday, I should unleash my Hockey East concepts!) Grant recently did a series of "What If" concepts for defect NHL teams like the Minnesota North Stars had they stayed put, while capturing the NHL's (often hilarious) fashion trends over the last 30 years. What does this have to do with football? Well I naturally began thinking about applying Grant's concept to defunct college football programs, which leads to this post.

What follows is a fictional timeline of what Boston University's uniforms might have looked like had the school decided to spare the program in 1997. You can check out the final-year unis here. I hope to eventually add Vermont and Northeastern. 

2000: The Terriers do some minor changes, making the sleeve logo match the official one (the '97 version had a more homemade look) and adding a tiny "BOSTON" wordmark. Russell replaces Wilson as the uniform supplier.

2005: Nike replaces Wilson, but few changes are made other than the "BU" replacing the uniform number on the helmets. (If you so a search for BU basketball and hockey, you'll see BU's uniforms across the board are pretty conservative.) The Terriers also sport a 1950s throwback uniform in honor of legendary football and baseball star Harry Agganis, who died 50 years earlier.

(I just realized I've never done the Agganis-era uniform for this site. I'll have to change that eventually.)

2008: The piping craze overtakes college football by this point, and BU is no exception, although the Terriers try to keep it classy. (Penn had a similar pattern around this time.) By this time, the red pants are gone, and the CAA patch replaces that of its predecessor, the Atlantic 10.

2014: Piping becomes as passe as it was trendy just a few years earlier, and BU ditches the weird stripes in favor of contrasting sleeve panels, a la New Hampshire. The Terriers also join the trend of placing a logo on one side of the helmet and a uniform number on the other. And speaking of trends, BU unveils a special breast cancer awareness uniform, along with a pink-tinged helmet.

Also note the addition of the Patriot League logo; the real-life Terriers joined the PL in 2013, and it's a safe bet they would have joined in football, too.

2015: Nothing changes except for the addition on an all-black alternate. The reaction from fans and alumni is swift and severe, and the unis are worn for only game before they are discarded and sold off at a spring cleaning sale a few years later.

2019: By this time, Under Armour is making the Terriers' uniforms, as it does for their other sports in real life. The contrasting panels are replaced by shoulder stripes, which makes the unis resemble Cornell's from about a decade earlier. An alternate helmet has a slightly oversized Terrier head. and a 1969 throwback uniform honors the 150th anniversary of college football and the 50th anniversary of BU's Pasadena Bowl team.

2021: Most of the designs, including the popular throwback, are still around, but a new alternate uniform replicates the BU hockey design, right down to the pants and socks. Which goes to show that even if football had stayed on Commonwealth Avenue, hockey likely would remain the top dog.