The Middle Tennessee State football program recently announced it will eliminate alternate uniforms and helmets from its closet this season, saving the Blue Raiders more than $668,000 over the next three years as they navigate college football’s new revenue-sharing era.
“How are we going to best compete against different (schools) if we’re sitting here spending money on stuff that, really, we’re only wear one time a year?” first-year general manager Dana Marquez recently told Front Office Sports. “We just went with one color, and we did a game helmet and a practice helmet.”
The Blue Raiders have scrapped their black and gray alternate uniforms, as well as their black, blue and white alternate helmets. The reduction in helmet options will save a half-million dollars, while eliminating two uniform options will save $84,000 each.
That means Middle Tennessee will now wear gray helmets in every game, pairing them with blue jerseys and white pants at home and white jerseys with blue pants on the road. The lone exception for the upcoming season is the home opener against Austin Peay, when the Blue Raiders will wear white jerseys and pants.
“Two years ago, uniforms and some of those peripheral items were important to recruits, and now they’re not,” athletic director Chris Massaro told The Daily News Journal. “We have to do a really good job of refocusing our goals and where we’re putting our money. I don’t think we were wasting it in the past, but we want more prioritization.”
Middle Tennessee has worn black alternate uniforms at least once every season since 2008, paring them with black alternate helmets from 2012-23. The Blue Raiders also had chrome helmets as an option from 2014-19 and notably wore patriotic decals for one game each since since 2017.
“We’re just not Oregon, we’re Middle Tennessee,” second-year head coach Derek Mason said. “We don’t need five uniforms, a black helmet, this (other) helmet. Nowadays, where we’ve gone at MTSU, it’s more about the things that matter.”
Photos courtesy of @MT_FB on X/Twitter.
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