Old Dominion says Middle Tennessee didn’t consent to Monarchs wearing white at home
Old Dominion’s “white-out” game is Friday night against Middle Tennessee. Fans are encouraged to wear white to the game, which is the school’s first Conference-USA home game and first Friday night game.
However, the football team will not be wearing white jerseys.
According to Old Dominion, Middle Tennessee didn’t consent to Old Dominion’s request to wear white at home. Traditionally, teams wear colors at home and white on the road, so for a team to wear white at home, the road team must give written permission
“Our administration reached out to Middle Tennessee and their leadership,” Wilder said. “We asked Middle Tennessee permission and they denied our request.”
Wilder said that when he’s been asked by a home team to wear dark, the Monarchs have always said yes.
“My personal philosophy as a head coach is that if anyone asks us to wear dark on the road because of a promotion, I would 100 percent agree to do that to help a university promote a white-out,” he said.
“We’re all trying to attract fans to games. We’re all trying to promote a sense of community and school pride.”
A spokesperson for Middle Tennessee told the Pilot that he was unaware of a request to wear white and would contact administrators.
If Middle Tennessee denied the request, it seems like an odd choice. Did they already have the uniforms for 2014 planned out and not want to change? The school has new Nike uniforms and the Blue Raiders have worn white tops and blue tops for its first two road games this year. According to this picture, all-white is an option. Was it planned?
We have a bright idea, what if home teams get to determine the color of jerseys? Let’s abolish the colors at home rule and let home teams pick. The choices could be submitted to the NCAA offices a month before if they’re different than normal, giving the road team ample time to choose. That seems like an easy solution to tie into promotions, don’t you think?
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
