With the NFL season in full swing, both on the field and in the card world, fans turn now to the game and event-used NFL jersey swatches and patches as the prime targets of their favorite players.  Playoff Absolute Memorabilia and Gridiron Gear have whetted the appetite for many collectors of getting those new draft picks with swatches from their NFL team’s uniforms.

However, Donruss Leaf has not forgotten about the fans of the college game and the market for those collectors.  While they won’t be releasing any sets dedicated strictly to the college game, Donruss Leaf will be including college-themed subsets in three of its more popular upcoming releases.

Leaf Certified Materials Football

Scheduled for release on September 24, 2008, LCM is considered one of the first key sets to include rookie autograph and memorabilia cards.  This set will certainly be no different.  While the Freshman Fabric, Fabric of the Game and many mirror parallels will be the key subsets from LCM, it will also include a Fabric of the Game College subset.  The base subset will feature 40 different players numbered to 100 or less with parallels numbered to 25 and to 10.  There will also be a Fabric of the Game College Combos set of 10 cards featuring two stars in their college jerseys and two jersey swatches.  This set will be numbered to 50 or less, with a “Prime” parallel numbered to only 10 or less.

Leaf Limited Football

Leaf Limited is scheduled to release on October 29.  This set is always a huge release, featuring the ever-popular Limited Rookie Phenoms and Limited Legends Sets, plus the hightly sought after Lettermen set.  As with past releases, Limited will also include a sixteen card Phenoms College set.  This set will feature rookies in their college uniforms and with college jersey swatches inserted.  The base set will be numbered to 99 or less with parallels numbered to 50 and to 25, and a chase parallel set numbered 1/1 which will be sure to feature some amazing swatches.

Leaf Rookies & Stars Football

Though not as anticipated of a release as LCM or Limited, Rookies & Stars is still a popular set, and will have an even greater focus on the college cards than those two sets.  The main rookie set out of LR&S is the SP Rookie Signatures Set featuring signed NFL patch rookie cards.  There will also be an SP Rookie College Signature set with the same design, but it will feature embroidered College Patches instead.  The set list includes Matt Ryan, Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan, Donnie Avery, Joe Flacco, Jonathan Stewart, Devin Thomas, Brian Brohm, Felix Jones, Jordy Nelson, Chad Henne, Rashard Mendenhall, James Hardy, Chris Johnson, Eddie Royal, Matt Forte, Ray Rice, DeSean Jackson, Kevin Smith, Malcolm Kelly, Jamaal Charles, Limas Sweet and Steve Slaton.

LR&S will also feature a Team Chemistry set featuring rookie dual signed embroidered college patches.  That set will feature pairings of Darren McFadden/Felix Jones, Brian Brohm/Harry Douglas, Early Doucett/Glenn Dorsey, Chad Henne/Mario Manningham and Limas Sweed/Jamaal Charles.

The SP Rookies College Signatures set will include parallelss numbered to 25, 10, 5 and 1.  In addition, there will be an SP Rookies College Jumbos set that will also feature parallels numbered to 25, 10, 5 and 1.

So, even with Press Pass and Sage having already offered their big releases, and the other major companies having already issued their college heavy sets, there are still cards to be produced featuring players in your favorite school’s uniforms to collect and even chase.

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