The college football season isn't quite in the books yet, but one thing is for certain: 2011 was a year of high fashion crimes and misdemeanors.

While sartorial stalwarts like Alabama and Penn State maintained the looks they've kept for generations, a growing number of programs from Maryland to Oregon decided it was time to tweak the time-honored taboos of uniform fashion. They did this by suiting up in wild shoe-company-designed uniforms that smelled, to many fans, like naked ploys for attention.

To...