The University of Miami debuted its new football duds for the 2015 season Saturday night in an event designed to capture the essence of The U. swagger. The Adidas-made Miami uniforms were unveiled at Club LIV at Fountainbleau Hotel, with a performance from Pusha T. HurricaneSports.com has more.

Gear unveils are pretty standard stuff — the new Miami uniforms weren’t the only Adidas threads debuted Saturday. UMass showed off its updates for what should be a breakout season for the Minutemen. No black to be found.

@PhilHecken @UniWatch Not big on the stripes but otherwise not upset. The all maroon is great pic.twitter.com/RVcRi90OXC

— Not Brennan Williams (@UMassLad) July 18, 2015

Likewise, of the Miami uniforms, Adidas stayed away from the funky gray the Hurricanes wore as part of their Nike ensemble a year ago.

The value of flashy uniforms is overstated anymore; any impact unique looks has on recruits probably starts and ends with Oregon. However, there’s a sort of symbolism in the Miami uniforms. The Hurricanes enter a pivotal season, particularly for head coach Al Golden. This is Year 5 and he needs a breakthrough to shake off the doldrums in which Miami football has languished for more than a decade.

A fresh look for a fresh start — or, if you count yourself among the throng of Adidas haters, another step away from what made The U, The U.

UAB Football Lands First Player Post-Shutdown

John Talty, AL.com

UAB football took a baby step back from the abyss of college football Saturday, with head coach Bill Clark adding Memphis transfer Tyler Jones. Jones is the first addition to the Blazers roster since the university athletic department announced the closure of the program at the 2014 season’s end.

It’s a small milestone with huge implications. Clark’s gotten one player to buy into the vision of essentially building a program from scratch; it’s the first punch inside the coffin as UAB football tries to pull off a Beatrix Kiddo.

BTN Fuels Record Revenue to Big Ten Athletic Departments

Mike Carmin, Lafayette Journal-Courier

The rosy outlook for Big Ten football goes beyond Ohio State’s College Football Playoff title, which now resides in the conference. The growing success of the Big Ten Network is spreading throughout the conference, evident in Big Ten West last-place finisher Purdue pulling in $32 million in revenue, per the Lafayette Journal-Courier.

Here’s yet another area in which the Big Ten surprisingly beat out the SEC, as that $32 million payday actually edged the $31.2 million SEC schools earned in the past year, and the conference’s many boisterous honks crowed over in May.

Texas AD Steve Patterson Responds to Mounting Criticism

Chuck Carlton, The Dallas Morning News

Scout.com reporter Chip Brown published a detailed and damning report last month on the pressure Texas athletic director Steve Patterson is facing. In the weeks since, a steady stream of negative murmurings have precipitated around Patterson — enough so that Friday, the AD fired off:

“Some people may like what we’re doing and some people may not,” Patterson told a group of reporters Friday. “But somebody has to make tough decisions day in and day out to try to stay focused on what’s most important to us.”

Ah, the ol’ “tough decisions.” It’s a cliché as frequently invoked by administrators (where in sports or politics) as “take it one day at a time” is by athletes and coaches. It’s just as meaningless, too.

Backlash to Patterson mirrors the attitudes that led to Dave Brandon’s ouster at Michigan earlier this year. The oversight of college athletics programs has major corporations is starting to feel like a failed experiment.

Pioneer Football League Hands Jacksonville University Stiff Penalties

Justin Barney, Jacksonville.com

Jacksonville University won nine games in 2014, the program’s high since going 10-1 in 2010, and claimed a share of the Pioneer Football League championship. Unlike in 2010, that was enough for an automatic bid into the FCS Playoffs — or at least, it would have been, had the Dolphins not self-imposed a postseason ban while investigating allegations of improper financial aid benefits extended to football players.

See, the Pioneer Football League is a non-scholarship league with unique guidelines on admitting football players. In discovering those guidelines were violated, the PFL handed down another year of postseason ban, but numerous other sanctions that include the closure of JU’s junior varsity program and the elimination of 34 roster spots.

Justin Barney reports the infractions date back to the aforementioned 2010 win season, and that neither head coach Kerwin Bell, nor any members of his staff, were involved.