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The Alabama football program has taken another step in the gameday experience arms race, releasing a video on its Twitter account August 16. This season the Crimson Tide will use newly installed LED lights in an attempt to bathe Bryant-Denny Stadium in crimson. Check out the post below. 🔴⚪️ LIGHT ⚪️🔴 ⚪️🔴 ’EM 🔴⚪️ 🔴⚪️ UP! ⚪️🔴 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/QhDOTA35A7 — Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) August 16, 2019 First take, it is cool looking, without a doubt. It sets their stadium apart with something new and flashy. These upgrades seem to be a part of the $600 million athletic facilities plan the school announced last year, set to span the next decade. This is yet another show of the facilities/gameday experience arms race that has really gotten big the last few years. It started with the Mal Moore athletic complex, which raised the stakes for other schools to invest millions of dollars into building football operations buildings. Now, many of ...

There are many aspects to major college athletics. Funding, academic oversight, facilities and athletic success are the primary things athletic directors watch. But in the last few years, branding has become equally important. Branding encompasses funding, but it also dips into facilities and athletic success. Winning programs typically have the most money, the best facilities and win on the field consistently. Alabama would not be "Alabama" without the multiple SEC and national titles. Clemson would not be "Clemson" without its recent success, nor its facilities. Both of those programs are arguably 1a and 1b in the college landscape entering the 2019 season. Protecting a brand involves trademarks. Trademarks on the school logo, catch phrases and color scheme are all things smart athletic departments lock up ownership on. But recently, one school took things a step further. It was found Ohio State submitted a trademark application for the word 'The...

Michigan State unveiled new alternate uniforms for the 2019 football season, drawing criticism. Photo courtesy Colton Pouncy Football uniforms are a sense of pride for a fan base. The right color combination, the precise line work and design. For some such as Alabama and Oklahoma, simplicity is key while for others, eye-catching is the name of the game. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, the uniform of your college program can be a sense of pride. But when a program takes a chance and maybe gets a little too confident in their ideas, you can get wardrobe train wrecks that draw the ire and sarcasm all-to-well-known on social media and the internet as a whole. Michigan State is finding that out, after images were released of an alternate uniform the Spartans plan to wear at some point in the 2019 season. Needless to say, it is a little more, bold, than what the typically more conservative uniform is, as seen below. On a positive, the numbers are big, so you can...