The 2024-25 college football season kicks off on Saturday with a modest four-game slate, headlined by the Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Florida State and Georgia Tech (12 p.m. ET on ESPN).
With that, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of every uniform, logo and field change that has taken place across the country this offseason, which we’ve broken down by conference and will share daily over the next week and a half.
But before we get started – appropriately – with the Atlantic Coast Conference, we must note a few changes that impact college football as a whole, none more important than the move to a 12-team College Football Playoff.
The first round will take place on campus, while the quarterfinals will be held at the Fiesta, Peach, Rose and Sugar bowls. The semifinals are also at New Year’s Six Bowl sites (Orange and Cotton), while the season concludes with the national championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20.
This is notable from a uniform perspective in that a team playing for the national title could wear three different bowl patches on the same jersey – assuming they’re the higher- or lower-seeded team in each game they play. That’s up from two patches since a four-team playoff was implemented in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, there are new sponsors two bowl games, including the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop and the StaffDNA Cure Bowl, while Bahamas, Birmingham, Boca Raton, Camellia, Detroit, Hawai’i, Myrtle Beach and Texas bowls are currently without title sponsors.
Elsewhere, the NCAA now allows schools to display corporate logos on football fields and commercial sponsor advertisements on uniforms. Tennessee is the only Football Bowl Subdivision program to announce a stadium partnership thus far, while others – like Ohio State – have discussed (but not acted upon) selling advertisement space on its jerseys.
The NCAA also approved two new rule changes this offseason relating to uniforms, including the use of wireless communication between coaches and one player on the field who will now be identified by a green dot on the back of their helmets, just like the NFL.
The other is regarding the look of a players’ uniform, specifically the length of their pants, which will now see stricter enforcement for any violations of this rule. Teams will be flagged and warned for the first violation and charged a timeout for any subsequent violation.
Now, let’s take a look at the team-by-team changes across the ACC…
California
The Golden Bears unveiled new uniforms in July that are inspired by their Joe Roth-era throwback design but are rendered in their current color scheme. They also updated the turf at California Memorial Stadium as part of their move to the ACC.
Florida State
The Seminoles have added a turquoise jersey to their uniform rotation, debuting them as a non-contact jersey during their annual spring game in April. This follows the basketball team’s lead of wearing turquoise uniforms as part of Nike’s N7 program, which has brought awareness to various issues impacting Native American communities.
Louisville
The Cardinals recently unveiled a new red alternate jersey that features a gold wordmark and numbers as part of adidas’ new Premier Strategy line. It’s unclear when they’ll be worn or what helmet and pants combination they’ll be paired with, however.
Miami (Fla.)
The Hurricanes are among a handful of teams that have moved to adidas’ newest (unnamed) template, which features a zipper-like seam down the front and back of the jersey – oddly reminiscent of Nike’s Mach Speed template. With this change, they also returned to a block number font after using Dade Bold for the last three seasons.
Miami also revealed new all-black uniforms in July that feature two orange stripes on the helmets, jerseys and pants, perforated orange numbers and a minuscule amount of green, which is restricted only to the Split “U” logo on the base of the collar and both sides of the helmets.
North Carolina
The Tar Heels have worn 1990s throwback uniforms in at least one game every season since 2020, and it appears – based on a leak at a Chapel Hill t-shirt store – they’ll get a road version this fall.
SMU and Stanford
Both the Mustangs and Cardinal have updated their respective uniforms and field designs to include the ACC logo after officially joining the conference in July.
Syracuse
The Orange have switched to Nike’s Vapor F.U.S.E. template while retaining their design that was unveiled ahead of the 2019 season.
Virginia
The Cavaliers have also moved to the Vapor F.U.S.E. template, though they tweaked their overall design in the process by removing the negative space in their striping pattern. This change is reflected on their helmets, sleeves and pants stripes.
Virginia Tech
The Hokies unveiled new uniforms in July that are reminiscent of the Michael Vick era, with a simplified design that features white or maroon numbers with orange trim on the front and back, as well as orange numbers with maroon and white trim on the sleeves.
But rather than be an exact copy of the 1999 throwback uniforms the team wore during the 2021 season, the new uniforms also include Virginia Tech’s current font with a sublimated Hokie Stone pattern.
Wake Forest
The Demon Deacons have made a minor change to their uniforms with an update to the Vapor F.U.S.E. template, swapping the Deacon head logo at the base of the collar for their walking Deacon logo that was unveiled in 2019.
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