[FishMan473]

I was sitting on the john this morning thumbing through a bike catalog when I saw some collegiate jerseys for sale. Some big company wants to make a profit off of printing up some jerseys with your alma mater's logo. This is lame.

You see, there are hundreds of collegiate cycling teams out there that could use your support. Few of these are school sponsored teams, most of these are grass-roots sort of efforts, riders of all ability levels that organize to ride and race together and spend their limited college student funds on traveling to neighboring schools to compete. These collegiate teams have jerseys (not the same ones you find in the catalog), and most of them will sell them to alumni or whoever is interested in order to raise funds to help them offset the cost of traveling, etc.

So please, spend your money supporting grass-roots collegiate racing, not some big jersey company who has a licensing agreement with some big university's administration.

I personally am an alumni of the Illini Bicycle Racing Club from the University of Illinois. I know they'd be happy to sell you a jersey, or socks or whatever. The National Collegiate Cycling Association has a search engine you can use to find your favorite school.

 

[Homer Simpson]

I think that they have to pay the schools to use their logos. I know the Univ of Arkansas agressively pursues any company/persons that uses their logo without permission or anything even similar to the Razorback logo or even a similar name.

It would be nice if schools around here had cycling teams, but if it's not football it ain't gonna happen.

 

[FishMan473]

I think that they have to pay the schools to use their logos.

They do have to pay the school licensing fees to use their logo, but that doesn't help the cycling club/team any. The money probably goes to the football or basketball team, which are typically already swimming in dough.

It would be nice if schools around here had cycling teams, but if it's not football it ain't gonna happen.

You'd be surprised, most of these teams are relitively (compared to football) low key. Check out that NCCA search engine and see what you find.

 

[Dwayne]

When I want to buy a Penn State jersey, I contact someone in the cycling club who can hook me up with one. That way the club gets the profit to put towards race fees and whatnot, rather than the money just going to the university in general.

 

[Homer Simpson]

Well the NCCA site has a listing for the University of Arkansas, but a trip to the UA's website shows no cycling program listed. I'm not suprised, that's a football school all the way.

All the state's surrounding us have collegiate teams listed but as of yet AR has not been infected even though we have a large cycling population and a lot of road and mtb racing in the state. But there is always hope for the future. Frank Broyles will not always head AR athletics (hahahahahahaha, yes he will as we Arkansan's truly know).

 

[Orangerider]

I was sitting on the john this morning thumbing through a bike catalog when I saw some collegiate jerseys for sale. Some big company wants to make a profit off of printing up some jerseys with your alma mater's logo. This is lame.

You see, there are hundreds of collegiate cycling teams out there that could use your support. Few of these are school sponsored teams, most of these are grass-roots sort of efforts, riders of all ability levels that organize to ride and race together and spend their limited college student funds on traveling to neighboring schools to compete. These collegiate teams have jerseys (not the same ones you find in the catalog), and most of them will sell them to alumni or whoever is interested in order to raise funds to help them offset the cost of traveling, etc.

So please, spend your money supporting grass-roots collegiate racing, not some big jersey company who has a licensing agreement with some big university's administration.

I personally am an alumni of the Illini Bicycle Racing Club from the University of Illinois. I know they'd be happy to sell you a jersey, or socks or whatever. The National Collegiate Cycling Association has a search engine you can use to find your favorite school.

I've tried several times to get a Purdue jersey, and have been unsuccessful. I was happy to see a jersey with my alma mater's logo for sale.

 

[FishMan473]

Homer, I don't think the athletic department has anything to do with whether there is a cycling team or not. As an organization, collegiate cycling teams have more in common with the chess club then the football team. They may have a club/team but no website, you can always try to contact whoever is listed on the NCCA website.

That being said, and in regard to Orangerider's comment, these teams are not often well organized. College students don't always have the experience to keep things running smoothly and they also have their education to focus on. Orangerider I'm am surprised to hear that Purdue didn't have their sh!t together well enough to get you a jersey. They were in my conference when I was in school and they were one of the better teams. But all it takes is a few savvy people to graduate leaving some dolts in charge for things to go downhill. Anyway, that's definitely a drawback, you can always keep trying, maybe they'll be better organized next year. It's probably better to request a jersey at the beginning of the school year anyway since that's when most teams order their clothing.

 

[shiggy]

These are licensed products, just like a sweatshirt, coffee mug or key chain. Have nothing do with a school cycling team. I know that the Oregon State jersey Nashbar is selling is nothing like the design worn by the OSU cycling team. Most of the Nashbar collegiate jerseys are the same basic design with the proper "official" logo and colors.

 

[crashedandburned]

I hear what you're saying and can agree w/ that. As far as I know you can only get a WVU jersey at one place, but I don't think any of that cash goes towards the team it's self. I just know that when they place an order through the LBS, the LBS orders extras and sells them. There's a waiting list for the WVU jerseys and I waited for a few months for the one I got. Who the actual proceeds went to, I don't know for sure. BUT it is a kicking jersey!

 

[mcd]

i tried to contact my alma mater's club for almost six months and never once got a reply, from phone calls, to emails etc...i bought mine from nashbar finally...

 

[Stubb]

Sometimes it's hard for collegiate bike teams to field enough jerseys for all their members, nevermind alumni/fans. My first race for our college team found me wearing a medium-sized kit at 5'11 and 210 lbs... not a pretty sight in the peloton. New uniforms came in this year, though in limited quantities, and only after much wrangling between our club, the school, and the manufacturer.

The team is lucky at our school, because we get funding out of proportion to our measly club status. We have our wretched football team to think for that.Still, we had to foot the bill for the majority of our trips this season (which begins to hurt when you're in a large conference).

Fishman, I spent a lot of time around your Illini buddies this season in the MWCCC, and they're all darn fun people, IMHO. There's a whole lotta of goodwill and camaraderie in collegiate racing.

 

[Caffeine Powered]

I know UW-Madison keeps a close eye on any unauthorized use of the UW logo or Bucky Badger. My younger brother, now with the Cartoon Network, made some award art for the student newspaper once with his version of Bucky. It was for the Daily Cardinal "Best of " awards and the ink wasn't dry when the cease & desist order came.

I've also seen the UW cycling team around town and the other teams when the they had the road championships here the other year. You're right about the differences between what is raced and what is licensed.

UW's lame Bucky...

Andrew's Bucky...

 

[the Inbred]

the logo i most often see on 'fake' UTexas jerseys is owned by the athletic department, which gives 0 money to the UT cycling team. as a matter of fact, the athletic department forced a mom and pop restaurant to close here in Austin for using a similar logo. my group, a cyling-related club at UT, was denied when we asked if we would use the logo. UT's athletic department are a bunch of seemingly greedy ****s.

 

[Penn State]

I agree the PSU Jersey's aren't anythign like those crappy mass made ones. We have rockin' stuff!

Shameless plug:
http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/bike/

 

[Bulldozer]

I got my Iowa State jersey from the cycling team. Yeah, I paid more but I know it was worth it. At the time, it was the only place to get one. A couple of months ago I saw it for sale out there but I know mine's 'authentic' and went to a good cause.