Impact of College Uniforms Topic of Recent Research Project
A professor and students in Samford University's Howard College of Arts & Sciences recently concluded a study about the motivational impact of modern uniforms in college football called The College Football Uniform Study (CFUS).
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Stokes said the goal of the study was to investigate whether external factors such as modern uniforms effect outcomes of games and to understand the trends in the outcomes. They also conducted a twitter-based study to measure the top 100 recruits' interest in the alternate uniforms study.
Using the data, Stokes and the students discovered that when SEC teams use alternate uniforms they have about a 6-point disadvantage compared with when they wear traditional uniforms. But non-SEC Top 25 teams have about a field goal advantage in the alternates.
Very interesting stuff. Goes to show that there are psychological benefits towards wearing special uniforms during the season.
Comments
I knew we should never have worn those damn foghorn legwork uniforms...
Hard to believe that there's a 9 point difference from inside the $EC to outside. Wow. Interesting stuff.
Why do I think there are factors other than the uniforms here?
Could other factors also influence the results, such as the possibility that SEC teams are overrated?
I have to agree with you. Special uniforms are often worn for big OOC games, which is often when you see the overrated SEC team get upset pretty big. They are not worn very often either, so few games could make a large swing. Small sample size with a few outliers can really skew numbers.
Aslo not apples to apples - look at the sample they took:
Bad statistics.
At this point, I have no idea what our standard uniforms are, much less "alternate"
Seems if you have a strong brand symbol, abandoning it can hurt you in the intimidation department. If your brand isn't so strong then maybe it becomes a motivator ? Was kind of skeptical when first reading this as one oddball season could skew statistics quite a bit, but may explain why Nick Sabin never allows Alabama to wear special uniforms ... he's no dummy.
I've heard teams that wear red win at a higher rate than their opponents.
OH! YOU WOULD!
So let me get this straight....SEC team in special unis -6, all others +3, for instance, an ACC team. So if UT & VT both wear alternate unis, we get a 9 point bump? Bring on the alternates!
We'd need to ranked, first... but yeah
So all those games we lost in alternates, we were actually three points worse?
So does Oregon get that advantage every game?
I would personally find it hard to play for a team with rapidly changing uniform colors such as Oregon or MD.
So much happens in peripheral vision.
It would get hard to react to an unfamiliar colors without having to consider if this was your color every game.
I'm not sure I buy that argument. It only makes sense to me if the scout team is wearing "regular" opponent uniforms during practices against the starters and they've become accustomed to seeing that. It seems to me that the brain is processing "my" colors versus "other" colors, rather than maroon vs. white.
Unless of course, you're suggesting that Nike will be unveiling some new high-tech Oregon unis this year that will change colors every play. Now that would be disconcerting.
Those Pro Combat uniforms were so great.
look good, feel good, play good
The grammar police would like a word...
Actually now that I think about it, "play good" could be correct in certain circumstances. For instance, "every Thanksgiving, UVa plays good and Tech plays evil."
hey, grammar police me to town. I've done my fair share of grammar policing
Same idea as this...