Don't know about the NCAA but the NFL did copyright their uniforms so they could not be used in commercials by companies.

Other leagues use 2" so it was not the NCAA.

I certainly don't think these shirts will be coming to Illinois anytime soon. Heck, they won't even mandate the logo embroidered over the patch.

And the basketball shirts... yeah, no thanks.

Nebraska has a deal with cliff keen...their shirt 21/4 in. They strongly hint that next season they may be mandated...our crew went to order new shirts...back orderred until October...guess we will live with 1in stripes.

Our football advisory board is allegedly in favor of changing to 2". NC decided not to mandate a change statewide but is allowing each region to decide on their own.

Admitting I was wrong initially on the whole black pant switch, I don't see the need to widen the stripes. I still believe a lot of this is supplier driven to enhance revenue.

I'm sure it won't be long before the "Big H" strikes a deal with Raleigh to force the use of the wider stripes statewide.


As for the rumor that the NFHS would force the uniform change, I find that hard to believe. The 2014-15 Officials Manual still lists knickers as the official pants for football officials, with the black pants being permitted by "state association adoption". If the NFHS still hasn't made the black pants mandatory, even after the majority of states have, I'd be surprised that they would make wider stripes mandatory any time soon. But I could certainly be wrong.

Even if the NF said that black pants were apart of the uniform, states do not have to follow what is in the mechanics book. It is long been understood that NF mechanics book and statements about officials are mostly "recommendations" and the states can come up with any policy or requirement they want outside of the NF. And that is why states have decided what can be worn by their officials and nothing happens to the state organization. This is not like rules change or application that a state ignores or changes.

Peace

Although having proven to be universally popular and extremely practical, there are always unintended consequences to change, and like it, or not, the change to black pants makes it noticably more difficult to quickly find field officials, especially on the sidelines in front of team box areas.

As always, better more pronounced, consistent and deliberate signalling will help reduce any problems and assist timing accuracy.

Just as urprisingly, the use of the wider striped shirts further helps to negate the problem, of picking out the game officials on a crowded sideline, somewhat.

Just as an observation for someone's consideration, after watching a Canadian Football Game on TV, the wing officials patrolling those crowded sidelines wearing white hats seemed a lot easier, and quicker, to locate.

Easy now...You're treading in dangerous water....this gets out to the wrong people and we'll all be wearing neon colors like some of the soccer guys before long.

I really could care less overall on what to wear at the HS level, however....the knickers and socks look was brutal. The pants not only look much MUCH better (in my opinion) they're a lot more comfy...and my wife says black is "slimming."

Its actually a trademark on the design. The 2" stripes, once used by the NFL and sold on shirts for years isn't so trademarked. However, CFO, I believe, has asked the state associations not to adopt the 2" stripes as used in college. The South Carolina, Alabama, and soon to be Texas shirts have gone off the 2" design with a 1 3/4 to 2 1/4" stripe and other designs, including patches and flags, that differentiate themselves from the college shirts. However, they pretty much all look a hell of a lot better than the 1", especially against the black pants.

The new shirt is optional next year in Texas, but I'm fairly sure that's all anyone will be wearing after this year.

This is not only false, but if you uttered even the hint of this to a supplier, he'd probably bust your chops.

Do you know how many suppliers have knickers they can't give away? Texas suppliers will soon have a similar problem with not only the 1" striped shirts, but the 1" stripes that have sublimated (word?? sp??) logos on them that will not be used after 2015 AT ALL. You see where I'm going here? Suppliers do not care what we wear but have to manage their inventory to the extent that they want to know what to buy. They don't want to be stuck with gear they can't sell, but also want to have what they need when they get an order. That can be an extremely difficult course to manage.

The change is shirts is NOT at the bequest of the supplier. Guys need to quit asserting that.

I was told at a conference a few weeks ago that Honig's has over 25,000 pairs of knickers sitting in their warehouse - the source was pretty good too.

Maybe they can cut them and hem them to make shorts and dye them black...

Dick Honig himself (at his clinic) joked that he could give us all a really good deal on knickers.

Heard from a very reliable source Illinois will NOT be changing shirts in the near future