C-USA Stories: Who will wear white?
The freaking Blue (keep that color in mind) Raiders are at it again.
Old Dominion, in preparation of their first ever Conference USA home game, have been promoting tomorrow nights bout with MTBR as a “white out” (we WKU fans are familiar with this, as we have one about once a year), and the Monarchs will play in front of a sellout of 20,118 fans who will all be wearing white and wanting to see their team move to 2-0 in conference play. But there’s one problem. Middle Tennessee doesn’t want to wear white.
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By NCAA rules, the home team is required to wear dark jerseys unless a visiting team agrees in writing to flip flop the colors, which, in the words of ODU head coach Bobby Wilder, didn’t happen.
"Our administration reached out to Middle Tennessee and their leadership. We asked Middle Tennessee permission, and they denied our request."
MTBR’s media relations director Mark Owens claimed he, and his school, were unaware of the request (but, personally, I don’t believe it). However, ODU isn’t rolling over entirely to NCAA rules, as coach Wilder says the Monarchs will be wearing white pants tomorrow night.
This isn’t the first time the Blue Raiders have had a quarrel over jerseys.
In the 2011 Sun Belt Volleyball tournament championship, it was WKU against MTSU, and a mishap with the Lady Topper uniforms made it impossible for WKU to wear anything but black, which is what the Blue Raiders wanted to wear that match. So, long story short, both teams wear black, and the rest, as they say, is history. (WKU the championship.)
Like I needed another reason to pull for ODU tomorrow, this is just an outrageous case of 1.) ego and 2.) a new member getting washed over by a team that has been in the conference before (although, I remind all MTBR fans, you’ve only been C-USA for one year. You’re not above anyone).
So, what do you think about this connundrum? Am I making too much out of this, or do you think the MTBR’s are being their usual despicable selves? Let us know below in a comment or on twitter @WaveTheRedTowel.