This week, Alabama and Tennessee announced that both schools will wear their home uniforms when they face off this season. Following the news, Trojans Wire’s Matt Zemek argued that double-home uniforms should become the standard going forward in college football.

Of course, this is something that USC and UCLA have been doing in the Crosstown Showdown for decades. And while I respect Matt’s opinion, personally, I strongly believe that both teams wearing their home uniforms for every game would be a terrible idea.

The unique history of USC-UCLA

The uniform matchup in USC-UCLA is not random. It is an homage to the era when the Trojans and Bruins shared the Coliseum, making it truly a home game for both teams.

Even today, when the rivalry is played at the Rose Bowl (which is actually closer to USC’s campus than UCLA’s) in even years, it is hardly a typical road game for the Trojans. Thousands of USC students, fans, members of the band, etc. make the short trip up to Pasadena with the goal of painting the stadium Cardinal. The same is true for UCLA when the game is played at the Coliseum in odd years.

It would dilute something special

Both schools wearing their home uniforms is an awesome tradition that makes the USC-UCLA rivalry unique. Now, imagine if the Trojans entered this year’s Crosstown Showdown having already worn their home jerseys on the road several times on the season. All of a sudden, the iconic uniform matchup would feel a lot less special, and more like just another game.

More is not always better

A great parallel for this is with College Football Playoff expansion. The people who are saying “more color-on-color uniform matchups—they are fun!” are the same people who are saying “more playoff games—football is fun!” What they are not telling you, however, is that in both cases, adding more such games would dilute the value of the ones that we already have.

I love USC’s road uniforms

Maybe this is a hot take, but I love USC’s road white uniforms. I associate them with the Trojans going into some of the most hostile environments in the country and stunning the home crowds.

The Bush Push at Notre Dame in 2005. Matt Barkley’s game-winning drive at Ohio State in 2009. The upset of Oregon in 2011. All of those games were played with USC wearing its white uniforms that sent the clear message of “we are in enemy territory”.

The Trojans wearing their Cardinal uniforms on the road would feel weird. And I absolutely do not want to see the Irish, Ducks, or any visiting team other than UCLA wearing their home uniforms in the Coliseum.

Learning from the NFL

Finally, it should be noted that the NFL tried this in the 2010s with its “Color Rush” campaign. Naturally, the league ran into issues, most notably a Bills-Jets game where color blind fans could not tell the two teams apart and a Buccaneers-Rams matchup that became known as the “ketchup and mustard game”.

In conclusion

USC-UCLA is a unique rivalry in sports. With such a special rivalry comes a special uniform matchup. To have that for every game would take away from the iconic tradition of the Crosstown Showdown.

College football has enough problems already. Uniforms are not one of them. The leaders (or lack thereof) of this sport need to worry about dealing with issues that actually need to be addressed rather than trying to fix something that does not need fixing.

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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: More color-on-color uniform matchups would make USC-UCLA less special