Eastern Kentucky is blocking Western Kentucky from wearing white uniforms during their college football game on Saturday. It is an extremely petty move from the visiting FCS program that will spoil the home team’s scheduled whiteout game.
The Colonels simply don’t care!
WKU will host EKU in Bowling Green on Saturday for the “Battle of the Bluegrass.” The Hilltoppers announced prior to the season that it was going to ask their fans to wear white in the stands. They were also planning to wear all-white uniforms, at home, in correspondence with the theme.
Their cross-state rivals had other plans.
Per NCAA rules, both teams must agree to a uniform switch. The home team typically wears a color. The away team typically wears white. Should they want to flip the script, both sides must consent.
Eastern Kentucky refused to wear its home uniforms on the road โ on purpose.
We announced our football game themes and promotions for the 2024 season on July 10 with Saturday’s home opener theme a “white out.” Every season, we wear white helmets, uniforms and pants for our annual white out game.
However, EKU informed us on Tuesday of this week that they would be exercising their right as the visiting team to wear white uniforms, thus forcing us to wear red jerseys on Saturday […]
We were hoping EKU would agree to allow us to wear white on Saturday, as many other opponents have in past years. We still encourage our fans to show up, be loud and wear white.
โ Western Kentucky football
As if the tension between the two teams could not get any funnier, Western Kentucky had its statement ready to go as soon as its opponent announced its uniform. No time was wasted.
The Colonels posted their threads at 12:48 p.m. ET.
The Hilltoppers responded with their statement at 12:49 p.m. Exactly one minute later.
This is exactly what makes college football great. An FCS program is actively choosing to refuse an FBS school’s request to wear its standard away uniforms at home to spoil a whiteout. That is top-tier hater behavior.
To make the whole thing even better, these two teams have not played since 2017. It’s not like there is a recent history of beef between the two sides. This is a decision that has everything to do with this season and only this season. Eastern Kentucky is actively choosing to anger Western Kentucky just to be a nuisance. Unfortunately, the pettiness only gives the Hilltoppers extra motivation to beat a team they should destroy. Good luck, Colonels!