LANSING -- A fan-made Photoshopped image of Michigan State's football uniforms has caused quite a stir.

The Detroit Free Press on Wednesday

, including a rendering of MSU's football threads created by a user at

, an interactive MSU forum and news website.

The image

where posters discussed MSU's new uniforms, some even taking their own shot at what the finished product will look like.

This particular idea took a self-aggrandizing approach, including Spartan Tailgate's logo on MSU's helmet.

Free Press writer Steve Schrader asked whether the uniform represented in the Photoshopped image will be donned by the Spartans during their Oct. 15 clash with archrival Michigan.

MSU's Athletic Department took little time to put that to rest.

"It's definitely not," said Associate Athletic Director John Lewandowski. "People will just have to wait for the official announcement, sometime after Labor Day."

Schrader blogged, though, that a member of the Downtown Coaches Club circulated the rendered image to a number of MSU supporters, saying it resembles the football uniforms MSU will roll out against U-M.

Spartan Tailgate forum user Hunter Stair admitted to Photoshopping the image and publishing the rendered photo on Spartan Tailgate's Red Cedar Message Board July 23. Hunter, a longtime forum user on Spartan Tailgate, said he was surprised the image was picked up by local and national media outlets.

"I wasn't surprised that it fooled anybody," Hunter said. "I have some experience making things go viral. I knew when I made it that it would probably be passed around, but i never thought it would

."

An email sent to the Downtown Coaches Club was not immediately returned.

Hunter, whose forum username on Spartan Tailgate is

, is a video editor and website content creator based in Los Angeles. The 31-year-old said he previously released three doctored versions, but it was the fourth incarnation that received attention.

"I was going a little more with what Nike was going for," Hunter said. "This was purely off rumors, but I knew there was going to be black and bronze in it. I was trying to make it look modern and limit the green and white.

"I also did a helmet design and that's where I put the logo from the Red Cedar Message Board -- and that's how I wanted to identify that it was fake."

For Trevor Barnes,

, it was deja vu all over again.

Large-scale outcry from fans against

began on Spartan Tailgate's Red Cedar Message Board when one user found the logo on an online patent and trademark registry.

Barnes said he wasn't shocked his website is at the center of another online episode. He also said he understands how some might have misconstrued a particular forum-goer's personal Photoshop as MSU's official new uniform.

"It's not surprising," he said. "I could see someone passing it along to a friend or family member, not knowing it wasn't official."

Barnes did say, though, he was surprised to see media outlets conflate fans' discussion with news, adding that duping others into buying fans' renditions as official uniforms was never a goal.

"We have 40-some pages in this thread of fans speculating what the uniforms will look like," he said. "It's just speculation, and people are having fun with it."

MSU

plans in July.

The Spartans are one of nine teams selected to wear the special uniforms during the 2011 season. Nike says it worked with each university "to bring relevant elements of the school's rich heritage into a distinguished, modern uniform design."