You can buy a UH football jersey with the same numbers that Noah Borden and Dejon Allen wear on their Rainbow Warriors uniforms.

Borden, the University of Hawaii long snapper, wears No. 1. Allen, a fourth-year starter on the UH offensive line and potential professional player, wears No. 50.

These specific players, however, are not why the jerseys available at the store bear those numbers.

No. 1 is for sale because it promotes the notion of “We’re No. 1.” (For a lot of fans it doesn’t matter what the team’s record or the rankings say, their team is always No. 1.)

No. 50 is available because — yes, you guessed it — Hawaii is the 50th state.

You might have figured this correctly, too: The players whose numbers are on the jerseys don’t get any of the $80 rung up on the register at the school bookstore, or that changes hands in cyberspace, whenever one is sold on the UH gear website.

This was always the case, even back when schools didn’t worry about selling jerseys with numbers that obviously correlated to star players.

A lawsuit against the NCAA forced compensation to current and former college athletes whose likenesses were used in video games. A settlement of $60 million benefiting 24,000 former college football and basketball players was reached last year.

The suit, led by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, didn’t directly address the issue of money a school might make by selling gear associated with specific players. But other recent settlements and new NCAA rules have also gone in the student-athletes’ favor. That includes the cost-of-living stipend many, including at UH, receive in addition to their athletic scholarships.

One of the unintended consequences of this trend is that schools are being careful about what numbers — if any — they now have stitched onto the replica jerseys they and their apparel sponsors sell to the public.

I noticed this a couple of weeks ago during a visit to the Brown and Gold Outlet in Laramie, where University of Wyoming sports gear is sold.

Out of curiosity, I asked a clerk how the No. 17 football jerseys were selling. When I didn’t see any, I figured the store was sold out of shirts with the number of the Cowboys’ quarterback, Josh Allen. Headed into the season Allen was hyped as potentially the first pick of the next NFL Draft.

“We don’t have any,” the clerk answered.

When I asked if more would be arriving in time for game day, she said, “We’re not allowed to sell them.”

It makes sense that the athletic and marketing departments at universities are erring on the side of caution now, given the trend in the courts. Unfortunately, fans are denied a product for which there is a demand.

In the old days, the schools could just sell jerseys with any numbers on them for any reason without fear of getting bit in the okole later. So, of course they would use the numbers of the team’s best and most popular players.

Was it fair to the star athlete who didn’t get a penny of the money generated by the sale of replicas with his number on them?

Of course not.

In 2011, NCAA president Mark Emmert basically said, “too bad.”

“They didn’t come to college because there was financial gain involved,” Emmert told CNBC. “They came because they wanted to come to school and to participate in sports. If they choose to become pros after that, that’s all well and good, but this is not about creating new opportunities for them to monetize their position.”

The argument is often made that free tuition (now, plus the stipends) is compensation enough. Plus, the future pros get a stage where they can strut their stuff.

However true it is, it still makes me think of when Mike McDermott in “Rounders” sardonically says, “Oh, well. Knowledge is my reward, sir,” when he resists the invitation to take all the old lawyers’ and judges’ money at their poker game.

The difference is the student-athletes — especially the football players — don’t have a choice.

There’s a simple and fair solution when it comes to the jerseys. The schools should sell whatever numbers they want, but upon graduation the player who wore that number gets half of whatever profit sales of that jersey generated.

If there’s a market for a jersey with a certain player’s number on it, there’s no reason why the school and the student-athlete can’t benefit.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529- 4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.