All right, the breaking news for UNC in the last 48 hours:

1. The men's basketball team, without a leader or consistent scoring, is going nowhere but down - and quickly.
2. The women's basketball team is also falling quickly, losing their last three games after starting 18-3.

And of course...

3. Football season is still six months away.

There are a number of things to be excited about with UNC football - returning 20 starters from last year's team, the new recruiting class coming in, spring practice culminating with the televised spring game on ESPN - but nothing is as exciting as the season opener against LSU on September 4th. (If you missed my schedule analysis after it was released, you can find it by following the link here.)

The ACC-SEC Season Kickoff Event at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia has been a pretty cool thing...if you're in the SEC and you want a good win. The last two years, Alabama has come in to the Georgia Dome ready to play and with something to prove, and they did so at the expense of Clemson and Virginia Tech, two very good ACC teams who will contend for conference crowns. This year promises to be an equally exciting match up, with both LSU and UNC expected to compete in their respective conferences for a shot at league titles.

However, even with all this excitement, this is not the "most" exciting news to come out of Carolina that is football-related in the last 48 hours.

The most exciting revelation concerning the LSU game is the now-leaked picture of possible new UNC helmets to be used for the game, furnished by Nike and their new Pro Combat line of uniforms. If you haven't seen the picture, you're not alone - photos have cropped up on the Internet, only to be removed hours later. This is a very well-kept secret, and something UNC does NOT want to have leaked out until they announce it.

Too bad.

Here are my initial reactions. I personally think the helmet looks good, but I hate the lighting in this picture because it makes the helmet look like someone ripped off a Tampa Bay Buccaneers decal and slapped on the UNC logo. I think the more "true" color of the helmet is at the bottom of the picture , where the helmet appears to be a more dark silver/gunmetal color. This would make sense, considering that is the motif that Nike is typically going for with these uniforms (see TCU's if you want a better representation of what I'm talking about), but one of UNC's official colors is, in fact, metallic silver - or Pantone 877 to be exact. (NOTE: You can see the official Pantone colors for UNC below. Carolina Blue (P278), Carolina Deep Blue (P282), Carolina Silver (P429), and Carolina Metallic Silver (P877) are all recognized as official colors by the University, as well as white.) If the helmet is more of a silver color, then I think it has the potential to look very cool. You can be sure that EVERYONE will be talking about these uniforms for the next few months, and with the right uniform combination (and of course a win) UNC will definitely make a statement on the national stage.

But what is the right uniform combination? Well, that much has actually NOT been leaked out. I don't think we will see the official color sequence until gameday, but judging from the helmet and other Nike Pro Combat gear it looks as though the uniform will likely be some derivative of the trademark Carolina blue, with more "deep blue" and silver than we've ever seen on a UNC uniform.

And before everyone comes on here asking when all of this is going to be released - stop. I am not a University official, nor do I have any connection within the UNC program (in fact, within a few hours of this being posted, I will probably be contacted to remove the picture of the helmet by UNC, whereupon I will of course oblige and take it down). I have no idea when all of this is going to come to light, but I can tell you this -

I'm very excited to see what comes next for the UNC football program. These uniforms symbolize what is about to happen in Chapel Hill...and I can't wait.