sagegrouse
08-14-2010, 12:10 AM
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
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