One of the biggest additions to (almost) all the uniforms this season was the SEC's new Graduate patch. The SEC Grad patch was an initiative from the league office and commissioner Greg Sankey to put an emphasis on academics. The Arkansas football team was the first to try this out with a test run at the beginning of the football season. Come October, all the conference teams were sporting the new look for their athletes that have already earned a degree. Unfortunately for volleyball and soccer, these patches came out towards the end of their seasons, so none of their athletes were able to wear it if they qualified to do so. The remaining sports each had at least one graduate on the team sporting the new patch. Below you can find a collection of SEC Graduate patches for each sport.

Auburn SEC Graduate Patches

Baseball


Basketball

A year that started out promising ended with disappointment for the Auburn Men's Basketball team. Although the team finished with a winning record for the first time since the 2008-09 season, it was hard to not wonder "what if?" A lot of talent, little chemistry, and a few key injuries derailed the promising season for the Tigers.

Last year we saw Auburn transition over to a new throwback-inspired uniform design. This year, they were tweaked a little and updated to the newest Under Armour template. Many of the tweaks were considered improvements - such as the full collar stripes - while some were downgrades - the AU logo on the shorts moving over and interrupting the side stripes. I personally believe that pairing the new jerseys with last year's shorts would be the ideal look for Auburn Basketball.

Auburn Basketball will be wearing new uniforms and the new Under Armour template this season. Here's a side-by-side look at all the details: pic.twitter.com/VXOpfUNa6w

— Clint Richardson® (@Clintau24) October 30, 2016

The new shorts were a little confusing for some, like Ronnie Johnson, who wore them backwards for a half against Boston College.

Auburn's Ronnie Johnson wore his shorts backwards in first half vs Boston College. Fixed them for the second half (major h/t @jonwaldenshow) pic.twitter.com/uTQFtoDZaS

— Clint Richardson® (@Clintau24) December 13, 2016

In addition to the updated uniforms, Auburn broke out a new set of alternates. These new unis featured Auburn's infamous Northwestern Stripes that Under Armour continues to apply to as many places as possible. The biggest aspect of these alts is the chestmark - this would be the first time ever that Auburn basketball had worn the university's nickname front and center on a uniform. The "Tigers" alternates debuted in the conference opener against Georgia, which resulted in a loss for Auburn.

The Tigers played the season on a brand new court design. Gone was the previous orange-dominate court and in was a blue-based, blue-surrounded court. This is the first design change of the Auburn Arena.

Dakota Sumpter

Football

It seems like the theme for many of the Auburn sports this year was "what if?" And it all started with football. The 8-5 season was marred by the rotating quarterback position, especially in the opening game against eventual national champion Clemson.

Todd Van Emst

Before the season started, many Auburn players were spotted wearing the Riddell SpeedFlex helmet, one of the new helmets designed to help limit impact and concussions. The 2017 A-Day game also saw another new helmet - the Vicis Zero1 - being worn by Will Hastings.
The Tigers were expected to wear treDCALs this season, a new addition to thigh pads that add a silhouette of a logo or number, but they never saw the football field.

There wasn't much new uniform-wise from the football season, other than a new compression sleeve design that was worn by a few players.

There were a few noteworthy sightings at this year's A-Day game. You can see a collection of tweets regarding these sightings here.

Soccer

A year after a historic and emotion-filled season, the Auburn Soccer team came back and bettered the last year. After reaching the program's first Sweet 16 and finishing the season ranked #12, the best ever, Auburn reached their first Elite 8 this past season, and was ranked #8 in the final polls. The Tigers racked up 17 wins in their 2017 season, breaking the previous program record.

The Auburn Soccer team was another program to debuted new uniforms this year, with these being tweaks from the previous season. The Northwestern Stripe sash is tweaked to better reflect the true dimensions of the striping. The odd shapes under the arm and on the shorts are now gone, creating a much cleaner look.

Softball

After reaching the final game of the Women's College World Series last year, the goal for the Auburn Softball team was to win it all. With losing so much talent the year before, reaching the final series was going to be a challenge in itself. Unfortunately, and through more than their fair share of turmoil through the season, the Auburn Softball year was cut short after losing in the Super Regional round.

Softball received a whole new line of uniforms last year, so there wasn't much expected in that realm this season. Even with no new uniforms, there were still some changes for the season. Auburn sported new batting helmets from game one against Oklahoma in Mexico. These new helmets featured a matte blue shell, orange highlights, and an orange facemask. The Tigers would change over to a blue facemask around the time conference play started.

Wade Rackley

Not all was well with the new helmets though. On March 2, against Liberty, the legendary Kasey Cooper was sporting the batting helmet from the year before. She would return to the orange-detailed new helmet the following day.

Once post season play began, the Tigers were given another new batting helmet. The second helmet of the year was a glossy white lid, with blue highlights and a chrome-like AU logo on front. They looked better with some uniform combinations than others.

Dakota Sumpter

Although there were no new jerseys or pants for the Tigers, Auburn did add a few new uniform combinations to the history book. Against LSU, Auburn paired the white tops with grey pants and white socks. They would later do the same but with blue socks against Ole Miss. The white jerseys were part of four different combinations, with the two mentioned, the typical white/white/blue look, and a new white/white/white look that debuted against Missouri in mid April. The orange jerseys were also part of four pairs, with two brand new looks - orange/blue/white worn against LSU in the SEC Tournament, and orange/white/white against Cal in Regional play.

The orange/white/white uniforms were part of a last minute change for the Tigers. Due to NCAA rules, teams must contrast in post season play, with the home team wearing light colored uniforms and the road team dark. Cal won the loser's bracket game to face Auburn immediately after. The Tigers were originally wearing all white and had to change to meet the rules.

Volleyball

I admit to not being a big volleyball fan, not understanding a lot about the sport, and not having paid much attention to Auburn's program in the past. But this year saw a new uniform style debut, and of course I was all over it.

Dakota Sumpter

The volleyball team sported new jerseys that featured the Northwestern Stripes across the sleeves at the elbow. The weird part is that the stripes didn't meet on the back side of the arm.

The Tigers showcased a blue and orange version of these new jerseys. Auburn had a pair of shorts that matched the tops with the stripes - as seen on the team's intro video - but they never wore them.

The volleyball team would finish the season 15-16 and missed out on post-season play.

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In Auburn Uniform Database news, this past season was another good one for the site. Even with the slower news regarding Auburn uniforms, the content that was available helped continue to grow the site and my personal Twitter account. The website surpassed 400,000 lifetime views just before the calendar switched over to 2017. Last October, my Twitter account passed 4,000 followers as well. Individual article views have been the highest they've been in the history of the site.

The 2016-17 athletic season was a rollercoaster for Auburn Athletics. Great talent and expectations, losing streaks and bubbles busting. This past season was another success for this site, and I genuinely thank you all for your continued support.

Here's to hoping for a better overall season of Auburn Athletics and more continued success for the Auburn Uniform Database.

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