Why is the Color Blue Destiny in NCAA Hoops?

[sagegrouse]

Almost all teams whose dominant color is blue have been NCAA champions in basketball.

There are only eight teams I can find from the 74 schools in the major athletic conferences whose colors are exclusively blue. And while that itself poses a question, the fact is that they are typically college basketball powers. (Our classification allows blue with neutral tones like white or gray but not with other colors.) Six are NCAA basketball champions: Duke (four and #4 in wins), UNC (five and #2 in wins), Kentucky (seven and #1 in wins), UConn (two), Villanova (one), and Georgetown (one). The outliers are Penn State and Seton Hall, and the latter played in a tight NCAA final in 1989.

What the heck does this mean? I don’t know, but there’s more. One could easily add the very blue Kansas Jayhawks (three NCAA crowns) to the list, despite the fact that crimson is one of its colors, but little used until recently. If you do, then the top four colleges in terms of basketball wins are covered: Kentucky, UNC, Kansas and Duke.

And then there is UCLA (11 championships), whose colors are “true blue” and gold. Gold seems to be more of an accent color with the Bruins, although we have seen them play in gold unis. Adding these two, you have 34 of the 72 NCAA basketball champions wearing blue.

But what about Michigan (maize and blue), Cal (Yale blue and California gold), Arizona (blue and red), Florida (blue and orange), Marquette (blue and gold), and UTEP (blue and orange)? Adding these schools yields 41 of the 72 championships.

The question remains: Why is blue the color of NCAA hoops champions?

sagegrouse

[ElSid]

Gonna go with the fact that blue is awesome as a color in general and shows up in more team uniforms than other colors. Likely that more teams have blue in their color combos in some form. Haven't researched extensively.

Folks have positive connotations with blue, generally. It's considered modern and futuristic. In the movie contact, which isn't a cinematic masterpiece, necessarily, when Jodie Foster comes out of her congressional hearings, all the protesters / supporters have blue signs. There's a prevalence of blue throughout that movie. I remember researching that at the time and reading a lot of studies showing that people associate blue with the future, with progress...which explained a lot of the set design and what not. Thought that was cool.

Colors are great. Blue being associated with the future makes total sense to me...people wake up and see a blue sky and imagine what is to come, what's beyond the horizon. People see green and they feel more at peace, subconsciously, because...green is good. As the predominant color in almost all ecosystems, of course we grow up loving that color. That makes sense. too.

Anyway...

Winners win for vastly more important reasons than colors. However, the marketing / branding / psychological aspect of colors in everything is a very interesting topic.

FOR INSTANCE, pink is known to placate a human. Hayden Fry, of Iowa Football Legendhood, ordered the visiting team locker room painted pink. Hayden also loved to do the hokie pokie dance following victories...which solidifies his place among histories greatest minds.

Restaurants with red interior design themes turn over customers more quickly.

Also, quite sure that blue wins as favorite color among the general population.

Which all says nothing about actual basketball playing, but may say a lot about basketball recruiting and possibly even...officiating? Who knows!

[DU82]

Looking at the updated list of top teams, I didn't realize that Kansas has pulled within one of Carolina. Kentucky is currently 19 and 20 ahead of those two schools. So, we need for Kansas to quickly pass Carolina next season, so that when the NCAA disavows any knowledge of the 2009-2010 Kentucky season, Kansas will be the new number one instead of the evil ones.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Almost all teams whose dominant color is blue have been NCAA champions in basketball.

There are only eight teams I can find from the 74 schools in the major athletic conferences whose colors are exclusively blue. And while that itself poses a question, the fact is that they are typically college basketball powers. (Our classification allows blue with neutral tones like white or gray but not with other colors.) Six are NCAA basketball champions: Duke (four and #4 in wins), UNC (five and #2 in wins), Kentucky (seven and #1 in wins), UConn (two), Villanova (one), and Georgetown (one). The outliers are Penn State and Seton Hall, and the latter played in a tight NCAA final in 1989.

What the heck does this mean? I don’t know, but there’s more. One could easily add the very blue Kansas Jayhawks (three NCAA crowns) to the list, despite the fact that crimson is one of its colors, but little used until recently. If you do, then the top four colleges in terms of basketball wins are covered: Kentucky, UNC, Kansas and Duke.

And then there is UCLA (11 championships), whose colors are “true blue” and gold. Gold seems to be more of an accent color with the Bruins, although we have seen them play in gold unis. Adding these two, you have 34 of the 72 NCAA basketball champions wearing blue.

But what about Michigan (maize and blue), Cal (Yale blue and California gold), Arizona (blue and red), Florida (blue and orange), Marquette (blue and gold), and UTEP (blue and orange)? Adding these schools yields 41 of the 72 championships.

The question remains: Why is blue the color of NCAA hoops champions?

sagegrouse

Somehow this discussion makes me think back to the undergraduate art history course I had many years ago as well as some similar courses taken over the years.

What we think of as a royal blue has been associated with royalty and those held in high esteem for many years..... go back to the art created following the Middle Ages, most of which was primarily religious in nature. The color reserved for the clothing worn by the Virgin Mary was a lapis blue, perhaps the most expensive color available at the time.

Associating dark blues with whatever we prize goes back many, many years.