Before their fight songs ring throughout the stadiums and they storm the fields, nine of the top college football programs in the country will lace their cleats and buckle their chin straps while donning uniquely designed, highly advanced Nike uniforms for at least one game during the upcoming 2011-12 season.

Of course, we’re still not entirely sure why Nike is turning this into such a big event. It seems like a whole lot of hoo-hah for only one game, and unless fans have the opportunity to buy their own version of these exclusive uniforms and gear, it’s hard to imagine many of them caring what their favorite teams are wearing as long as they win.

Still, the players themselves have to be pretty excited, as the Nike Pro Combat uniforms not only integrate the latest in performance innovation and design, but have been created using elements from each school’s rich history to capture their unique character. Long story short, it’s going to improve their overall game and make them look really cool doing it.

The teams selected for the honor of donning these one-of-a-kind uniforms include the United States Military Academy, Boise State University, University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, the United States Naval Academy, Ohio State University, University of Oregon, and Stanford University.

The uniforms will hit the field on opening day of the 2011-12 college football season and throughout the year during some of the fiercest rivalries in the NCAA, with match-ups like Oregon vs. LSU on September 3rd, Michigan State vs. Michigan on October 15th, Ohio State vs. Wisconsin on October 29th, Stanford vs. Notre Dame on November 27th, and the annual service academy matchup between two of the nation’s most prestigious football programs – Army vs. Navy – on December 10th.

Any time we get a chance to bang the drum for this English duo/sextet (two official members, six touring members), we take it. Following their releases on this side of the pond can be a bit of a challenge; their (fab) 2009 album See the Light was available as a download on Amazon for about five minutes, and to the best of our knowledge, never saw an official US release on CD. The band’s “new” album, It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish, is a Franken-album, compiling the best songs from See the Light and 2006′s Narcissus Road plus two new songs. And even that album has gone through release date hell, getting bumped from early October to late November. Oh well, better late than never, as far as we’re concerned.

To promote the long-overdue US release of their music – you’ve heard these guys already, though; that’s them playing in the background of that Nike “human chain” ad – the band wisely decided to recut the video for “See the Light,” where director Tony Kate (“American History X”) shoots Sienna Miller in a hospital gown losing her mind. The problem with the original clip is that it included audio of Sienna’s ramblings, sending the song to the background. And you don’t put this song in the background. One of those slow-burning, two-chord monsters, “See the Light” grows and grows until it explodes. In a world where all people focus on is negativity and mistakes – we are officially sick to death of reading the word ‘fail’ on the internet – it’s nice to see a band look at the positive. We see the light, fellas.

The Hours – “See The Light” 2010 Edit from Adeline Records on Vimeo.