Word has come down that Alabama will not allow Tennessee to wear their orange home jerseys this weekend, despite the fact that both the SEC and NCAA agreed to allow it without any imposing any penalties (if you'll recall, USC elected to forfeit a time out in order to wear their home jerseys at UCLA last year). No reason was given for the decision, though Rocky Top Talk thinks it's because we're no fun. The ADs don't seem too upset about it, though:
"Mike (Hamilton) and I had a good conversation this morning," Alabama athletics director Mal Moore said of Tennessee's athletics director, "and I told him that it is our desire to maintain the custom of the visiting team wearing their visiting jerseys.
"We'll continue to wear our white jerseys when we visit Knoxville next year."
Anyway, on the one hand I personally am a little disappointed. Seeing the Crimson and White of Alabama literally clash with the puke Orange of Tennessee would be fun. On the other hand, who cares? It's not like a jersey's color magically empowers the player wearing it to run faster, leap higher, and tackle harder. Just ask Georgia (zing!). And besides, as kleph so succinctly put it in a g-chat, "this is a football game, not a &*%$ing fashion show." I know there are certainly folks around here that are upset at the university for denying what used to be a tradition, so vent away if you will, but remember this: Had we agreed to the deal, we ran the risk of the all-Orange unis befouling our stadium.