I like it. They need to drop the "Buffalo" and just call them selves "SUNY" or something else.
there are a lot of SUNYs & most of them are just known by the city they are in; U of Buffalo, U of Albany, Binghamton University, Stony Brook, etc. Then putting that in their jerseys is just paying homage. It would be like Rutgers putting State College of New Jersey on their jerseys, but that would be much less cooler.
I read somewhere a while back that they're trying to rebrand themselves as something as close to "New York State" as possible. They're trying to separate themselves from the other SUNY's, or as much as they'll be allowed to.
they're already known as simply the University of Buffalo, not sure how they could separate any more than that, like I said most SUNYs dropped the SUNY years ago, it's what makes the uniforms so noteworthy. The academic side of UB doesn't use that branding.
I heard about it during the realignment sagas. It's a ploy to get them into a bigger conference. The logic is that while they dropped the SUNY tag, they picked up a commuter school tag as a result. I guess the overall thought is if they unofficially brand themselves as New York State, and they flaunt their AAU creds, it may get them into the American conference or something like that.
They're basically trying to figure out a way to Louisville or TCU their way into a major conference, and this rebrand is a step. I noticed their football jerseys had New York on them, too, when they played Baylor.
Anyway, the jerseys you posted lined up with what I heard they were planning on doing, so it all kind of lines up. Probably won't work, but it looks like they're running with it.