A midst all the hype surrounding the release of Bowman and Hot Rookies, not much has been said about SPX, which may actually be the best looking of the three products due to being fully licensed by the NCAA. As a fan of UD’s stuff, im impressed for sure.

Here are some of the big hits posted so far:

2014 SPX Johnny Manziel Auto Relic RC

2014 SPX Andrew Luck Auto Super Scripts

2014 SPX Jerry Rice Premier Auto Quad Relic

2014 SPX Blake Bortles Blue Auto Patch With Inscription

During 2012, SPX had been demoted to a subset within the release of SP Authentic, functioning much like UD premier is within this year’s product. I think the design of the cards continues to be nice for a product that I have liked for a very long time.

The issue is two fold, both of which are on the plate of Upper Deck to fix. The first has to do with the quality of the jersey swatches used within the cards. Since UD has switched to NCAA cards full time, they have yet to use any patches that are actually sewn on. Even though the company line is that the sewn jerseys are unavailable, but I fail to believe that is the case.

Additionally, the cards are all stickers, which continues to baffle me. Considering how far in advance the cards can be built, I cannot see why these would be stickers. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations, but its the one way that Leaf continues to separate themselves. Again, as soon as these athletes sign with agents, they become eligible to be signed to deals. At that point, the cards should be built and ready for signing. Instead, we see the result, and that isnt good enough.

I will give them a ton of credit for at least adding inscriptions to a few of the stickers, which helps a ton:

2014 SPX Derek Carr Blue Auto Patch With Inscription

2014 SPX Bishop Sankey Blue Auto Patch With Inscription

2014 SPX Aaron Murray Blue Auto Patch With Inscription

SPX has been around for decades, and its time for it to be brought back to glory. Upper Deck continues to show that they have the chops to design the best cards to compete with the likes of Topps, and that is saying something. However, they are still without a license from MLB, NFL or NBA, which are the 3 biggest sports in the game.

Its too bad, because I would be first in line to be buying UD products again the second they had a league license.