Black is the new tacky

It happened again last night. I turned on the TV to catch a few minutes of the Louisville-Miami football game, and the Louisville Cardinals showed up in black uniforms, looking like the 1960s Viet Cong guerrillas in their black "pajamas," only with padding and huge bodies.

Black uniforms — and helmets, too — are the latest affectation in college sports. It's difficult to tune in to a college game any given weekend without seeing at least one team cloaked in black. It's not because all those schools have changed their school colors; it's because they think they're more intimidating in black fabric. This is the deductive reasoning of college graduates?

My UNC Tar Heels came out in black uniforms with black helmets last year — I've forgotten which game it was. I thought they looked silly and tacky. But they were just following the trend. Tried-and-true blue and white were no longer good enough for them. They had to add black. Ugly!

The Duke University basketball team has come out in black uniforms frequently the past few years, and the N.C. State team has tried the same scare tactic.

Someone ought to tell these coaches and athletic gear companies (e.g., Nike) that black uniforms and helmets don't make a team more intimidating; it makes them look silly. Leave the black uniforms to colleges that have formally adopted black as a color, such as Wake Forest. They can have the franchise on black uniforms. Blue, white, red, green, purple, lavender, whatever, should be good enough for everyone else.