The Rules for College Football Jersey

College football players and teams can't just throw on any old jerseys and take the field. The NCAA, major college sports' rule-making body, has very specific rules for what's an acceptable jersey. One basic rule is that everybody on the same team has to wear the same jersey. From there, it gets more detailed.

  1. Contrasting Colors

    • Teams playing each other in a game must wear jerseys of contrasting colors. NCAA rules call for the visiting team to wear white jerseys and the home team to wear colored jerseys. However, the home team can wear white during a game if the visiting team has agreed in writing to allow it. Such agreement must be obtained before the season begins. The rules also allow a visiting team to wear a colored jersey instead of white, if the home team and its conference agree before the game that the colors are still contrasting--for example, the home team in navy blue jerseys and the visitors in pale yellow.

    Decoration

    • The only decorations allowed on white jerseys are numbers, player names, school names, the American flag and NCAA-approved insignias smaller than 16 square inches, such as a mascot image or a conference logo. White jerseys can also have stripes on the sleeves and bands at the collar and cuffs. Colored jerseys have fewer limitations: They cannot be of a color similar to the ball, and white is allowed only for numbers, player and school names, stripes and borders, and approved insignias.

    Construction

    • The jersey must cover the player's shoulder pads completely. Cropped and tear-away jerseys, popular in the 1970s to make runners harder to bring down, are against the rules. The jersey must be full-length and must be tucked into the player's pants. Numbers must be in a contrasting color from the body of the jersey. Players are not allowed to put tape on their jerseys--for example, to make it harder for a tackler to grab on--nor can any part of a jersey be knotted or tied.

    Numbers

    • The numbers on the front of the jersey must be at least eight inches high, and those on the back must be at least 10 inches high. The "bars" of the numbers--the individual lines that make up each numeral--must be 1.5 inches wide. And it would seem obvious, but the rule book stipulates that all the numbers on a single player's jersey must be the same number.
      Unlike the NFL, which requires that players at each position wear numbers within a certain range, the NCAA merely "strongly recommends" a numbering scheme--and only for the offense, so that officials can better determine who is an eligible receiver. The recommended numbers: offensive backs, including quarterbacks, 1-49; centers, 50-59; guards, 60-69; tackles, 70-79; and wide receivers and tight ends, 80-99.

    Penalties

    • If a team takes the field wearing jerseys that violate the contrasting-color rules, the officials are to assess that team a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the opening kickoff.
      If the team's jerseys are found to be in violation of other rules on decoration--such as insignias that are too large or not NCAA-approved--the penalty is the loss of one timeout in each half.
      If an individual player's jersey violates the rules--because it is taped, for example, or because it doesn't cover the shoulder pads--the officials can bar him from playing until he puts on a legal jersey. They will also charge his team a timeout. If the team is out of timeouts, it can be charged a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty. An exception exists for a jersey that "becomes illegal through play." If a player's jersey gets torn in the normal course of the game, there's no penalty--but he still has to change his shirt. Jerseys can't be changed on the field; the player has to go to the sidelines.