Does it matter if you're black or white?

In light of USC's basketball uniform experimentation, I thought this recent Newsweek article was pretty interesting:

The Raiders alternated between mostly black and mostly white uniforms, depending on whether they were playing at home or away. Knowing that appearance affects people's mood and outlook, psychologists wondered whether uniform color influenced the Raiders' aggressiveness. Using data from the 1970s and 1980s, they found that the team racked up way more penalty yards—a measure of aggression—when they wore black than when they wore white, for infractions both minor (encroachment) and major (roughing the kicker). The pattern held even when the scientists took into account different conditions and styles of play at home and away.

The Trojan committed 16 fouls while wearing black against UCLA. Wearing white in their next two games, they averaged 12.5 (17 against Oregon and eight against Oregon State). All three contests were played at home. USC has averaged 15.4 fouls in Pac-10 play.

It also seems amusing that the NCAA moved to block visiting teams from wearing their home uniforms in football (see: USC-UCLA), but there's no problem with USC basketball or Oregon football trying endless combinations of home uniforms.

Photo courtesy of Jaime Rodriguez (a.k.a. Valley Trojan). You can see more of his work from the Oregon State game on SCPlaybook.com.

Comments

[gerrrg]

maybe they should wear white unis with tommy trojan making the V for peace.