Not deleting emails saved Vanderbilt from four timeouts on Thursday night against Temple.
The Commodores wore special jerseys with the words "Anchor Down" (the team slogan) on the back instead of the players names. The letters of the names were in black on the black jerseys and it was a slogan, which is prohibited by NCAA rules. Before the 2014 season, the NCAA instituted a rule that the numbers on players' jerseys must be a contrasting color from the jersey and just recently, South Florida's efforts to put "The Team" on the back of its jerseys was rebuffed.
The numbers on Vanderbilt's jerseys were gold. They were good to go. The contrasting color rule specifically mentions the numbers on a jersey and not the lettering.
There was some apparent confusion among referee Ken Williamson and his officiating crew and Vanderbilt was penalized a timeout in the first half for the slogan on the back. The penalty for not having contrasting numbers and/or a slogan is a loss of a timeout per quarter unless the team changes out of its uniforms.
(Last year, Arkansas State was penalized twice for having non-contrasting numbers on its jerseys against Auburn. The penalty was upped to timeouts in 2014.)
However, Vanderbilt knew the jerseys had been approved. (The letter re-enforcing the no-slogan rule was sent out August 6.) During the game, school officials got an email it had gotten when submitting the uniforms that said they were approved. After showing Williamson the email, Vanderbilt was awarded its timeout back.
Take note, all other college football programs, you can have lettering on the back of your jerseys that blends in. But you should keep any documentation proving their legality just in case.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Vanderbilt prints email to prove to referee that special jerseys are legal (Video)
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