Syracuse, N.Y. -- Which color uniforms will North Carolina State’s basketball team wear tonight when it plays host to Syracuse in PNC Arena?

Historically, that’s been an unnecessary question. Home college basketball teams wear white. Road teams wear dark colors.

But as Syracuse ventures out on the road again today, the inquiry seems pertinent.

In Blacksburg, Va., Virginia Tech wore pink home uniforms. In Pittsburgh, the Panthers wore bright yellow. Boston College wore grey at home. In South Bend, Notre Dame wore light gold.

Syracuse brought its orange road uniforms to all those road games. And for the Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh games, some fans cringed at the lack of contrast between uniform colors. The Virginia Tech-Syracuse game, with its pink-and-orange theme, seemed to cause the most dismay among television viewers, who reported it was difficult to discern the orange-clad players from the pink-clad players.

NCAA rules specify that home teams wear light game jerseys and game shorts and away teams wear dark game jerseys and game shorts: “This rule may be altered by mutual consent of the competing institutions as long as the color of the shirts are still contrasting (Rule 1-22.4).”

The NCAA mandates a true contrast for obvious reasons: So fans can differentiate between the two competing teams.

Teams celebrate different events throughout the basketball season, whether it be pink uniforms for breast cancer awareness or some other hue connected with a particular cause. Virginia Tech promoted a “blackout” for its home game against Louisville. It wore black uniforms for that game; Louisville dressed in its home whites. On Monday, Louisville held its own “blackout” event for Duke and wore black uniforms at home against the Blue Devils, which staged its crazy late-game comeback wearing white.

In cases where the home team decides to deviate from white, it must inform the ACC office and then make, essentially, some sort of courtesy call to the visiting team to prevent both teams from wearing the same (or similar) colors.

Here’s the ACC protocol:

UNIFORMS

Opposing team uniforms shall be of contrasting colors. The home team shall wear light game jerseys and game pants and the away team shall wear dark game jerseys and game pants. This rule may be altered by mutual consent of the competing institutions. For clarity purposes, all teams should proceed under the format that the “home” team will wear WHITE uniforms. If the home team would like to wear a color other than white, the home team should express such to the visiting team well in advance of the game date and mutually agree upon protocol for the game. Both teams should ensure that contrasting colors are presented by the competing teams. Team uniform and game jersey colors shall be defined by the color of the neutral zone. The majority of the color of the game pants shall be the color of the neutral zone.

(The “neutral zone” is essentially the primary color of the jerseys.)

Syracuse and forward Oshae Brissett wore the road Orange earlier this month in Pittsburgh. (Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com)Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com

Dan Shworles, SU’s equipment manager in charge of the basketball programs, said Virginia Tech did not inform him it would be wearing pink. He didn’t travel to Blacksburg with the team, but when he saw the colors on television, he checked his email to see whether he’d missed the memo. He hadn’t. Pete Moore said later the Hokies had contacted director of basketball operations Kip Wellman and told him and SU coach Jim Boeheim.

Shworles hadn’t heard from Pittsburgh about the yellow uniforms, either, though the color yellow, he said, falls under the category of “light" and therefore can be interpreted as an alternate home color.

“You’re supposed to tell the league office this is what we’re going to do. The league office will notify us, or we’ll get it from the visiting team so programs and the league office knows what’s going on,” Shworles said. “White’s definitely home. If you’re wearing an alternate home and the color base is light enough, then they can deem it as your home uniform. For us, we wear white and orange.”

Shworles said there have been instances over the years when home teams have informed him they would be wearing a dark alternate uniform. In those cases, he said, he’s packed Syracuse’s white uniforms. Some schools, he said, prefer dark colors as their home game uniforms.

“If you want to tell your program, the NCAA and the ACC that ‘this is our home uniform,’ you just have to notify and remind the teams to wear white on the road,” Shworles said. "It’s very easy. There’s a process you’re supposed to take."

Amy Yakola, the ACC’s Executive Associate Commissioner & Chief of External Affairs, said if a conference team wants to deviate from the usual home white (or light), it must “mutually agree” on a color scheme with the visiting team.

“I think it’s typically very collegial,” Yakola said. “A lot of our schools have a game initiative. We see it in football, we see it in basketball. We see certain things as it relates to months that are associated with a certain initiative or priority, whether it be as localized as something on their campus or breast cancer awareness month. I’m not on the ground when those conversations happen, but I know they’ve happened for a number of years."

Duke, so far, has been the only SU conference opponent to wear white at home. Officials from North Carolina State have not responded to inquiries about what color uniforms the Wolfpack will wear for tonight’s game against Syracuse.