Uniform backlash loses sight of program’s state

Are we still talking about the Terrapins football team's uniforms? Really?

Yes, we are. It seems almost everyone is. Still. And that's the point.

It's been two-plus days since the Terps defeated Miami wearing uniforms emblazoned with the state flag. Sure, the topic isn't trending on Twitter worldwide as it was Monday night, but it's still a major topic of discussion in the media.

Whether you like the uniforms is beside the point. Last year, the Terps could barely get attention on their own campus. Now, they're in the national spotlight. "Good Morning America," CNN, NPR — you name it, the Terps' crazy unis have probably been discussed there.

Everyone has an opinion. Quarterback Danny O'Brien said the team loved them, that "creating that buzz is what's great about college football." Paul Lukas, ESPN's uniform aficionado and uni-watch.com founder, wrote Tuesday that "a very foolish school and a very foolish company showed just how desperate for attention they are."

He's partially right: The Terps are desperate for attention. As a basketball school in a basketball conference, and as a run-of-the-mill program in the shadow of the Redskins, Ravens and even Virginia Tech locally, winning isn't always enough to grab attention. Nine wins weren't enough last year, and another trip to the Military Bowl probably won't be enough this year.

Randy Edsall and the athletics department can talk all they want about a new era for the program, but it won't matter until fans feel like things actually are starting to change. It sounds silly, but dramatically unique uniforms can do that.

And while the unorthodox threads Oregon wears seem entirely like Nike experiments, the uniforms the Terps donned Monday night screamed one thing above all: Maryland.

The uniforms instantly became a point of pride for the team and the school it represents. On national television, millions of eyes were trained on a flag that is synonymous with the state of Maryland and its flagship university.

As the Terps ran out of the tunnel Monday night wearing their special jerseys, people weren't thinking about Under Armour. They were thinking about Maryland.

You can say that it's simple, shameless attention seeking. But anyone who has paid attention to this university's athletics department in recent years has seen the state flag and its colors highlighted more and more. It's been painted in Byrd Stadium's end zones and featured on uniform patches. Then, on Monday night, it was plastered on a helmet in prime time.

Save the corporate complaining. College football is a professional league masquerading as an amateur competition as is, and outfitters' money-grabbing intentions are obvious and inevitable. But Monday night was much more about the program than the product.

So while Under Armour's stock value has hardly moved since the uniforms debuted, the same can't be said of the Terps. Their wild getup got the attention of fans, recruits and college football fans around the country.

Now, they just better do something while people are watching.

schneider@umdbk.com