Rutgers bills itself as the "State University of New Jersey." It's right there at the top of its website and everything.
However, the lay person can be forgiven for not knowing Rutgers is the State University of New Jersey, or even in New Jersey at all, because the school calls itself Rutgers and not, you know, the State University of New Jersey.
People like to say the athletics department is the front porch of the university. If that's true, the helmet decal is the front step of that front porch. Football games are many people's introduction to a given university, and the helmet decal is the first way to identify which schools are competing.
In that sense, Rutgers has done its entire university a favor with these alternate uniforms.
That's part of a new blackout uniform that will take the field Oct. 6 versus Illinois.
This is an example of an alternate uniform that should become the primary uniform.