In early October, Florida Gators basketball released a sneak peak at the team’s slightly-redesigned home uniforms ahead of the 2014-15 season. The team’s blue away uniforms were worn during Florida’s media day later in the month (see pictures below), but the biggest change to the entire uniform set could be the Gators going with black alternates instead of the orange that has been worn for the last few years.



First, let’s look at what has changed to the standard uniforms.

Florida is still using the general Nike Hyper Elite style – with gator scales and the two National Championship trophies displayed slightly more prominently down on the full back of the jerseys – that originally debuted ahead of the 2011-12 season.

What is different for 2014-15 is the styling along the sides of the uniform and bottom of the shorts. Rather than a couple of thin lines going down the sides, there is now a thick stripe with a wavy line, which appears to be an homage to the uniforms worn by the Gators during their back-to-back title runs in 2005-06 and 2006-07. The collar is also now a solid color, whereas the previous version used a two-tone collar with a different color triangle at the front.

Most notably, however, is the more prominent use of the color black in the away version of the uniform. And that lends to this, a black all-but-official alternate uniform that is currently for sale in the OnlyGators.com Store (25% off until 4 p.m. – use code 25911 ) and Florida’s official online sportshop.

The items are listed as a “replica master jersey” and “replica on-court basketball shorts,” which are how Nike has listed official replicas of almost every 2014-15 college basketball jersey and shorts combination being worn by teams across the country. In other words, they do not appear to be for-sale-only products but rather a replicas of what the Gators will be wearing on the court this season.

Update: Though a Florida spokesman refused to provide a more specific or direct answer, when asked about whether the Gators would wear black alternates, we received the following reply: “We have blue and white uniforms.”

Additionally, a black version of the prior Nike Hyper Elite uniform was released to the public for sale but not an official uniform option for the Gators. However, it also did not carry the same Nike naming designations as the official uniforms sold those seasons.

Here are the black “replica master jersey” and “replica on-court basketball shorts:”

The black alternate was quite popular with Florida fans in the mid-2000s, but it was eliminated by the school a while back and orange was added as an alternate ahead of the 2011-12 season.

Florida, it should be noted, is 14-12 all-time when wearing black uniforms; the Gators are also 6-5 all-time in orange.