Few ACC Players Are Opting For The Newly Legal Higher Jersey Numbers

After the NCAA allowed college players to use numerals higher than the number five, a prankster at Michigan State asked his coach if he could wear #69.

Coach Tom Izzo told the player no. The player in question? Steven Izzo. No word on what mom Lupe had to say about her son’s cheeky request.

As far as we can tell, the move to adopt new numbers has been pretty slow, at least in the ACC.

As far as we can discern, only three players have opted to make the move. At Miami, freshman Keyshawn George, a 6-8 freshman, will wear #7.

At Pitt, 6-5 freshman Carlton Carrington will also wear #7 and 6-2 grad transfer from UNC-G Michael Hueitt will wear #8.

It doesn’t look like anyone in the Triangle is going to go for it, and no one at Wake Forest either.

We honestly thought that there were some numbers, 69 aside, that a lot of players would shoot for: 66, 77, 88 and 99 seem like sure things. That plus the fact that the higher numbers carry an echo of the NBA and we thought surely they’d be popular. But so far, they’re not.

By the way, speaking of the NBA, no one there has ever worn 69 and no one ever will: it’s banned. We dont’ think the NCAA has banned it yet - it would probably have to go to the Department of Redundancy Department and several committees first - but coaches will probably effectively ban it. The possible game changer?

The next LeBron says “I’ll come to your school...but only if I can wear #69.”