#2 in a series: America East logo usage

After a couple of days of throwing up prevented me from writing this post, I'm finally able to get back near a computer without being afraid of throwing up on it. Today, I'll continue the series I started with my last post and cover the use of conference logos on uniforms with the 9 teams of the America East conference. The America East is more streamlined than the Horizon League, but still not full conformed. 3 teams use no conference logo, while the remaining 6 use the primary logo of the conference. The AEC also is more convoluted in that there are four different uniform manufacturers for the nine teams: five teams with Nike, two with Under Armor, one with adidas, and one with New Balance. Without further ado, the team-by-team breakdowns:

Albany Great Danes

UAlbany, the defending America East champions, are one of five teams under the Nike brand in the conference. Now that the Great Danes have ditched their two-color spilt shorts they wore last season, most notably in the NCAA tournament, the Great Danes have a solid set of uniforms. They are one of three teams in the conference to not wear a conference logo on either uniform, white or purple.

Vermont Catamounts

Vermont is the one team in the America East to wear adidas uniforms, and the only school with four different uniforms. Although the Catamounts' uniforms look as if they haven't been updated in 10 years, they aren't horrific (except for a completely awful grey road alternate jersey). Vermont also does not use a conference logo on three of their uniforms. The white, yellow home alternate, and road black uniforms do not have a logo anywhere on the uniforms; however, Vermont does use the conference logo on the sleeve of their grey alternate jerseys. Yes, those are sleeved, GFGS uniforms-the worst single uniform in the conference, in my opinion.

Stony Brook Seawolves

The Seawolves of Stony Brook are in the majority as one of five teams under the Nike brand in the America East, and one of six to use the America East logo on their uniforms; however, just like Vermont, the logo doesn't appear on one uniform. The logo appears on the cream home uniforms over the left collarbone, but doesn't appear on the road red set, instead being replaced by a generalized logo used by the NCAA to represent men's basketball.

UMass Lowell River Hawks

Costello Athletic Center

UMass Lowell is the newest member of Division I, having just finished up its second transitional year. The River Hawks also play in the smallest arena in the America East, which doesn't help with recruiting; however, their jerseys are some of the best in the conference. The primary conference logo appears on the back of the jerseys on both the white and blue jerseys, basically taking the place of a nameplate.

Paul E. Tsongas Center

New Hampshire Wildcats

 New Hampshire is another of the five America East teams under the Nike brand and part of the group that does use a conference logo on their jerseys. I wasn't able to find a picture of the back of this season's white home jerseys for the Wildcats (this was the best I could find), but seeing as though the conference logo does appear on the back of the blue jerseys, I would assume that it is in the same place on the white jerseys as well.

Hartford Hawks
The Hawks play in the most interesting arena in the America East, Chase Arena, which can be seen to the left; however, their jerseys aren't nearly as interesting, with the exception of the alternate black uniforms. The Hawks' plain home and road uniforms both have the conference logo on the back, but the alternate black uniforms have no conference logo whatsoever (and are barely legible, to just add to the oddness).

Binghamton Bearcats
To me, the Bearcats have the most confused uniform identity in the America East. Binghamton has three different uniforms, white, black, and grey, from Nike, two of which use the conference logo, one which doesn't. To add to the confusion, only the black jersey has the NCAA patch for men's basketball, while neither of the other two. The white jersey is devoid of a conference patch, while both the black and grey uniforms have the conference logo on the left hip of the shorts. Adding to all of this is the simple fact that the primary color of the Binghamton color scheme is green, but the Bearcats don't have a green uniform or prominently use green on two of their jerseys.

Maine Black Bears
Getting my vote for the worst AEC uniform set is the Maine Black Bears, who, despite their name, don't use black in their color identity at all, instead opting for white, light blue, and navy blue. Throw in some horrible New Balance striping patterns that change from uniform to uniform, and these Maine uniforms earn the prize of worst in the conference. Not even the conference logo placement is standard, as the logo appears on the left hip on the white jerseys but doesn't appear on the blue jerseys.

UMBC Retrievers
To wrap up the America East, we come to the conference doormat, the UMBC Retrievers, who do have one of the nicest arenas and uniform sets in the conference, thanks to Under Armor. The Retrievers have three uniforms, white, black, and grey (although surprisingly no yellow, considering how much of it is used in their logo). All three jerseys do not have the conference logo on them, making UMBC one of just three teams in the conference to not use logos on their jerseys.


Thanks for sticking with me over such a long layover between posts, and I'll hope to have another one up within the next few days (stomach permitting).