COLUMN
Fans either love them or hate them but if the NCAA adopts a newly proposed rule they may become history.
The “peapods”, the nickname fans have given to Marshall’s all-green uniform combination would be illegal under a new rule being considered by the NCAA that would require teams to have jerseys or pants that contrast with the playing surface. Yes, that would include Marshall as well as teams such as Tulane, Colorado State and others who wear green, although those aren’t the apparent targets of the rule.
Boise State, famous for wearing the solid blue uniforms at home on its blue artificial turf, seems to be in the NCAA’s cross-hairs Last season, the Mountain West Conference banned the combination but reversed the prohibition for the upcoming season as part of the deal to keep the Broncos in the league and out of the Big East. Now the NCAA rules committee has sneaked in the provision that would ban the Broncos all-blue’s while Marshall’s “peapods” would be collateral damage.
According to Marshall football guru Woody Woodrum, the all-green uniforms made their debut in 1998 for “big” home games and were used in conference championship contest and bowl games.
In 2010, head coach Mark Snyder went one step further adding the green helmet into the mix. Doc Holliday resisted the monochromatic look until this past year when the “peapods” made a not-so triumphant return against Ohio University.
For Herd fans, there’s no middle ground. They either love the look or would like to see it go the way of the Marshall “pork chop” logo. If the NCAA adopts the new uniform requirements those fans may just get their wish.
Of course the alternative would be to install a different color turf and keep the all-green look.
I wonder what a black field would look like at Edwards Stadium?