It must be hard working with people who strongly identify with their college like that. My team is remote so they wouldn't recognize the name of my college if I told them, and I don't know where they studied.
We do reviews on every PR, so we got used to saying "try it this way instead" or at least asking "why is it like this and not like that?"
I've gotten into the habit of just trying what was suggested. Often it's in an area that was a bit neglected and can use a brush up anyway. If it doesn't end up well we can look at the commit and agree that the improvement isn't there, and discuss where to go. Revert or push further. Or maybe I misunderstood. And often I'm surprised that what looked like an equivalent alternative to me, turns out to be much nicer.
It requires broad agreement on the way the thing is to be built. Otherwise haggling over details is not useful.
We do reviews on every PR, so we got used to saying "try it this way instead" or at least asking "why is it like this and not like that?"