TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - Georgia and Maryland opened the season with radically different uniforms.

When will Alabama go that route?

Never, as long as Nick Saban is the Crimson Tide's coach.

The subject of uniforms came up in Saban's news conference following Wednesday's practice. It gave him a chance to reiterate feelings that he expressed last season before Alabama made minimal changes when it wore special Nike Pro Combat uniforms for its home game against Mississippi State.

"I think what we wear is a lot bigger than me, and a lot bigger than anyone," Saban said. "It's what everybody's expectation is of what they want to see when Alabama plays football and what they're used to seeing."

Saban's feelings clearly are strong.

"I don't think the coach should change uniforms," he said. "I don't think the coach should change the color of the helmets. I just don't believe that. Now that doesn't mean that's wrong when somebody does that or they think they should do it or whatever."

A year ago, Saban called himself a traditionalist. He used the same word Wednesday.

"I think there's a brand, there's an expectation of what people expect to see when Alabama plays football," he said. "That's all over the country. That's a brand that has sort of been developed for how many years? You know, definitely since Coach (Paul) Bryant's been here. And all the years past that. So just for some marketing whim? I'm not really into that."

Though Saban acknowledged that making uniform changes ultimately isn't his decision at Alabama, it's hard to imagine someone going against his wishes.

"One thing that you do when you do have a sponsor - like Nike, who does a great job for us and we love them, so I'm not saying that in a bad way - is they will make an additional package of stuff for you if you do that," Saban said. "Like special gloves, and I don't even know what else goes with it. And the players really like that.

"So the reason I agreed to the small changes that we had last year, which people couldn't even hardly notice, was so that we would be able to get the other package of thing to sell and for our players to have and all that other stuff. So it was a compromise on my part even to do that."

Saban was asked if Oregon, which has a tight relationship with Nike, gets an unfair advantage in recruiting because it has so many different uniforms. Would he like to see a rule limiting the number of uniforms per team?

"I don't know," Saban said. "When you line up and play, I'm not sure what your uniform really has anything to do with how you play. I don't think they have any advantage over anybody else. They have their program. They do what they do. I don't have any comment one way or the other."