Some big-time college football programs have all of their uniforms provided through lucrative contracts with apparel companies. Whether it’s their standard home and road jerseys or alternates and throwbacks, they don’t pay a dime.
Other schools aren’t as fortunate, though.
In fact, many smaller programs have to order through a catalog and pay for each new uniform they receive. That’s why you’ll occasionally see mismatched home and road designs as the school funds the new uniforms over the course of a few years.
Virginia Tech, meanwhile, sits somewhere in the middle.
The Hokies are in the midst of an eight-year deal with Nike originally signed in 2007 and extended in 2014, which includes roughly $2 million in cash and apparel to be spread out among their 22 varsity sports each year. It’s considered one of the worst contracts – at least from the school’s perspective – among all Power 5 programs.
That said, Virginia Tech’s football program receives the biggest chunk of that payout. But it apparently wasn’t enough to fund a fourth jersey alongside the Hokies’ maroon home, white road and orange alternate jerseys.
According to a report from The Roanoke Times, Virginia Tech was charged $16,140.02 for the 1999 throwbacks it wore in last month’s loss to Syracuse. And that was only the jerseys, as the Hokies used their standard maroon helmets (sans stripes) and regular white pants to complete the ensemble.
In total, Virginia Tech ordered 140 custom jerseys in seven different sizes, including medium, medium tall, large tall, XL tall, XXL tall, XXXL tall and XXXXL tall. They were all on the Vapor Pro template, the catalog version of Nike’s Vapor Untouchable template, which the Hokies use for their home, road and alternate jerseys.
That was the biggest indicator that they were ordered through the catalog rather than provided by Nike.
Virginia Tech doesn’t plan to make the jersey a part of its regular uniform rotation but could pick a game or two in the future to wear them again. That would probably be wise given the associated costs.
Photos courtesy of @HokiesFB on Twitter.
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