Capelli Uniforms

The NCAA has a committee working on creating a new "neutral" design, as I understand it. There are some folks lurking in the background who subscribe to this group who are involved with that and could offer insight if they want to, although I'd probably keep it quiet if I was involved until final decisions were made.

Here is what I think I understood from some discussions I had.
1. There is going to be a new design created and put in the rule book that will not be proprietary to any of the unique manufacturers.
2. Once that design is published, any uniform maker will be able to sell this design... if that's true, you can bet OSI and Capelli will be in the game along with a few "generic" providers.
3. It is unclear how this would impact the ECSR or other similar policies. The ECSR may still try to maintain a contract with Capelli, but I have questions on whether ECSR will be allowed to use its emblem crest, but at the same time, the NISOA badge may not be "neutral" either.
4. If ECSR as an example tried to continue a contract with Capelli to have their refs only wear Capelli even if the uniform is standard across brands, it's not clear to me whether that will be allowed under the rules, and even if it is, that certainly flies in the face of the spirit of the thing.

There are still lots of questions.

 

Let’s just find new and different ways to screw our ever dwindling number of referees even more than we already have. Thanks

 

ECSR will be done as having their own official uniforms. The whole reason the rule was put in place was because the assignors at ECSR got greedy and wanted more money on top of their ridiculously bloated salaries to assign college soccer. So they forced referees to get new uniforms.

If you were a traveling college referee and you had an SEC game on Friday followed by an ACC or Big 12 (ECSR) game on Sunday, you would have to bring 6/7 different uniforms along with different socks too for your weekend trip.

It became ridiculous and the NCAA realized they had to step in.

Now why they don't decide to make the current NISOA uniform the official uniform of NCAA soccer (since 99% of all college referees already have those uniforms), I have no idea. My guess is because the ECSR assignors are on the committee that will vet and approve the new uniform. Talk about Orwellian irony.

The whole reason we had to instill this rule in the first place and come up with an official uniform is because of the ECSR assignors. So let's put them on the committee that will be in charge of picking the new rule. That's something you would see in a banana republic or kleptocracy like Montenegro or Russia.

 

The current OSI "NISOA" uniform is NOT an official NCAA uniform. NCAA is trying to avoid giving one organization (NISOA, ECSR, others) an official role in setting uniform policy. As you know NISOA is not directly affiliated with NCAA. Also, NCAA has to be careful to appear to sanction one uniform style over another, probably to avoid being sued by a uniform manufacturer (Capelli, OSI) or other organization. Dubious though such a lawsuit might be, the NCAA certainly doesn't want MORE litigation, even frivolous, over THIS.

They are going to come up with a uniform standard, just like US Soccer does, and then allow all the manufacturers to make it, but I think it's unlikely that they will just defer back to ones that are already there, probably for a lot of reasons. (Won't show favoritism to one group over another, makes the manufacturers happy that they get to sell a whole new batch of uniforms).

I'm speculating now, so it will be interesting to see what actually happens in the end. As long as we don't go to Zebra stripes, I'll be OK.

 

When you do club level games with folks with faded black shorts that look white and refuse to buy new ones, it's not a bad idea to have a design change every 7 years to make people get rid of their grungy clothes.

 

We have at least one ref who wears old shirts all the time. He adds to the look by refusing to tuck it in. I think it’s become a point of pride for him. He works a fair number of games because he is always available.

 

I'm guessing that there will be some p!$$ing contests about what the eventual uniform will look like. As someone who 1) always looks at the business side of things and 2) tries to look at all sides, this is what I'd do if I were the NCAA to try to make as many people happy (or at least as not as hacked off) as possible.

• Make the dark color a dark gray like the Savi CONCACAF uniforms. If you go with black, then we college referees can just wear our current Capelli or Official Sport shorts (I wear shorts without the USSF, NISOA, and ECSR logos so I can wear them for all games). By going away from navy, you also steer somewhat clear of Capelli already using navy for PRO uniforms.
• Three or four colors - dark gray, pink, light blue, and yellow (if you go with four colors). I'm guessing there will be 4 or 5 colors to keep the apparel providers somewhat happy.

All told, I'm good with the NCAA taking this over. The idea of having to wear a NISOA uniform on a Saturday and an ECSR uniform on Sunday for college soccer isn't overly appealing. I know it's self-interest, but at some point everyone has to look at your "employees" (the referees) and think, "Maybe we'll get more referees if we lower the costs of entry."

 

College soccer referees are not 'employees' of the NCAA or the schools. The NCAA does not recognize NISOA as having any role in officiating soccer. Assignors are hired by conferences (or schools) and the assignor can use anyone as a referee that they want to use. With the money that particularly D1 colleges pay for officials, I don't think the cost of shirts is going to be a barrier. If it is, the assignor can just get someone else to do the games. And if an assignor is getting a kickback from the shirt supplier, there really isn't anything to stop that. "It's Chinatown, Jake."

 

I agree with that principle. However, I think the hope of the NCAA rule was to get a consistent uniform on ALL games. I suppose the theory is this in the long run would reduce costs for officials. But... I am cynical enough to envision a world where an assigning group could require their crest on a jersey and could license that particular emblem to only one manufacturer. So, I foresee the possibility of a world where we may have to buy multiple versions of the same design shirt just to comply with what the assignors want.

 

US Soccer be like:

 

I've been a fan of the orange shirts since getting the new school shirts. I also like the Capelli orange in MLS games.

 

I also like the orange. I'd use that instead of pink if that's the direction people wanted to take. I was thinking of colors that neither NISOA/OSI nor ECSR/Capelli currently use. But since both organizations use orange, that would also work.

Even though this shouldn't seem like there would be a lot of politics involved, I'm sure there will be.

To @Law5 's point - I know we aren't "employees". I just used that term as shorthand. As to the point about barriers to entry, I do get that. I just think it's not right to go down that road. I get everyone has self-interest and wants to maximize their own "take" on things, but it seems like this would be an area where in a shortage of officials people would look and say, "You know what? Let's take a little bit of the burden off of these officials." But I know that's the idealistic and altruistic view of the situation.

 

Does any other college sport require multiple uniforms as soccer does?

 

Cheerleading

 

I think Baseball/Softball has black and blue. But... I don't think it's a big deal if they match the players like soccer.

 

Soccer is probably the biggest "pay to play' sport in America, I guess we shouldn't be surprised when that carries over to the officiating as well.

But see, the football referees don't run into these issues. They buy one zebra stripe shirt and they are good for every level of every game they do from pop warner to NFL. They don't have to worry about about money grab redesigns every few years or balancing which leagues require which jerseys.

 

If you hear it from the people with the actual stats... Baseball, LAX, and Ice Hockey are probably worse pay-to-play sports TBH.

The Uniform is not the same in Pop-Warner as it is in the NCAA which is also different from the NFL. Now, yes, those officials only need to have 1 uniform in those respective leagues... although I think in College they have to have shirts with their conference emblem as well as non-affiliated ones. (That's still better than having to own 5 different colors in two different styles).

So a college football ref has to own maybe 4 shirts instead of 16 or whatever.

And yet, the zebra stripes are ugly. If we want to go back to single uniform style, we could just do black like the old days, or one of these neon yellow/orange options that sports like Field Hockey use which are uncommon for teams, then just have the college rule ban teams from wearing that one color.

 

I was in a college webinar a few weeks ago led by the secretary-editor of the NCAA rulebook. He stated that the whole idea for the new uniforms was to have a consistent look for all college soccer. He stated that soccer is the only NCAA sport where officials have different uniforms for different conferences or levels. The idea is that in the long run, this will actually save officials money because they will only have to buy one set of uniforms for college soccer.

 

In a perfect world, that makes sense. But all these different assignors are looking for a way to make their games or their league look better, and stand out, and don’t forget a way to make a few extra dollars. I’ll believe it when I see it.

 

I did my first college game of the season today. Not having seen a 2022-2023 NCAA rule book yet, I searched for the rule changes. Low and behold, 5.2.1 Referee Uniform. "Establish a uniform required to be worn by all referees by 2023" .

 

Except beginning in 2023, there will only be one uniform for NCAA.

 

My question is how is using/wearing the new uniform going to be enforced? Are assignors going to be held responsible by the NCAA? What if crews decide to still wear what they want, no more games? The NCAA really only gets involved come tournament time, so is it just going to be a new uniform to buy for the NCAA tournament?

 

Agreed that is the intent. We'll see how much the spirit of the rule is followed versus the letter of what is written... money makes people read the fine print a little closer.