Good morning, everyone. Sunday Morning Uni Watch may be done for the season, but college football just keeps rolling along. Today I’m going to carry the proverbial ball all the way to the one-yard line, allowing our quarterback Phil Hecken to punch it into the end zone after the January 20th National Championship game.
We begin today with a preview of what the title game is going to look like.
We can work with this. pic.twitter.com/Mdol7lTohp
— NFL Fashion Advice (@fashion_nfl) January 11, 2025
Indeed.. I *can* work with this. Actually, I’d prefer it if 5th-seeded Notre Dame chose to wear white jerseys and 6th-seeded Ohio State went with scarlet tops. Inside the dome in Atlanta, though, either matchup will do nicely. In the almost-Superdome-like lighting of the home of the Falcons, you should be able to discern the too-light gray pants from the white jerseys.
Now, let’s go back to the games that got us to this point. First up is Thursday’s Orange Bowl between the team that wouldn’t have been here last year…
A team that lost to *Northern Illinois* is playing for the National Championship.
This is not your father’s college football…https://t.co/kalpUsyI8L— Jim Vilk (@JimVilk) January 10, 2025
…versus the team that lost to Ohio State and Oregon.
Not a perfect matchup*, but really really nice. While I am not a minimalist, I do admire the beauty of simplicity. This matchup of logo-less helmets and stripe-less pants ticked enough of my boxes to make this an enjoyable pairing.
As this photo shows more clearly, the teams wore the bowl logo patches on different shoulders. The Irish wore them on their left and the Nittany Lions wore them on their right.
Of course, the Irish went with standard bowl procedure and added Names On Back to their jerseys.
* A perfect matchup would be the Irish with the pre-2011 matte gold helmets and NNOB vs. Penn State’s Generations of Greatness unis. But these days, I’ll take what I can get.
Last night’s game featured the team that lost to Oregon and a somewhat-down Michigan versus the team that lost to Georgia…twice.
Despite being the higher seed, the 3rd-seed Longhorns of Texas opted to go all-white…again…versus the 6th-seed Buckeyes. Let that be a lesson to you!
While I was watching the game with Dad at my sister’s house (does every ESPN bowl game take that long…especially the last two minutes of the first half?), it seemed as if the outcome was swinging in Texas’ favor. On my way home, it was an entirely different story. Anyway, I enjoyed the all-white of Texas in the not-so-harsh lighting of the Jerry Jones Dome.
Properly-sized numbers really help for the Longhorns. Same as in the Orange Bowl, the dark-jersey team had the bowl patch on the right shoulder, while the white-jersey team wore it on their left.
By the way, I don’t recall anyone on this website ever complaining about how the Longhorn logo on the helmet is darker than the numbers, stripes and lettering. Should I have left well enough alone and not said anything?
I have always noticed that the burnt orange on the Texas helmet is darker than that on the jersey. Perhaps that is something that can’t be avoided.
As I recall CDC mentioned that UT would be moving back to a darker/more traditional shade of burnt orange back in 2019/2020 and that’s when the shade on the helmet got a touch darker. At the time it sounded like the plan was that he uniforms would follow suit, but for reasons unexplained they never did.
When good uniforms are involved, and here they are, I love a bracket when a team wearing dark advances to wear white, and, on the other side, a team wearing white advances to wear dark. Nice.
I’d love to see color vs. color for the postseason when jerseys clash enough. Same with the NFL and NHL postseasons.
What would have the Orange Bowl better (than a different result) was if Penn State had their pre-2011 jerseys with the contrasting white trim. It was perfection.
I still want to know why Notre Dame’s pants can’t be as shiny as their helmets. Also, black shoes golden domers.
I did love the contrasting trim. Add that to the GofG unis and *that’s* perfection!
The gray facemask doens’t work – when the bars were thicker pre mid-1980s, it worked better.
The navy facemasks are elegant.
Also, white shoes of the GoG is awful. The *one time* they wore white shoes, the lost the National Championship to Alabama. Don’t celebrate that! The Red Sox celebrating Game 6 of the ’75 series and didn’t win it all for another three decades. The Nats were heading down that path with the Werthquake homer in 2012, but thankfully 2019 happened.
Also, I’ll add that even though it means the striping pattern doesn’t match, I love the sleeves on Ohio State postseason jerseys. They downplay gray too much in their uniforms.
Matching gold pants would be way too shiny and garish.
Question for you, when you say psu contrasting trim, does that mean the collar areas being white on a blue jersey? just want to stay in the loop
Yes. Think New York Jets and their toilet seat collars (link)
ha! thank you for clarifying for me
I prefer to think of them as khakis…..
Gotta disagree with the preference for the matte gold helmets. The newer, shiny gold (1) look great in all lighting, (2) more closely match the actual golden dome on ND’s campus, and (3) allows ND to wear the more traditional athletic gold pants without clashing (think the saint’s mismatched golds).
Thanks, Jim! Enjoy the visit with your dad and your post-UW adventures.
I used to prefer the matte finish ND helmet but after seeing them in person at Mercedes Benz stadium vs Ga Tech the new gold really pops off each player.
That’s the point — it was never meant to be matte finish, and yet the then-painting process produced that look. That’s why they went looking for something new.
When college teams wear stripeless pants we love it, but it’s a scourge in the NFL?
I liked the matchup in spite of the stripeless pants.
I think of it as a stylistic difference between varsity and professional teams. Stripeless pants, merit stickers, and big lettering over the front number are fine for colleges, unacceptable in the pros.
Agree and also disagree.
There is a universal (but obviously opinion-influenced) standard for what makes a good uniform, regardless of at what level it’s played. Since there are many more college teams with uniforms than the pros, and some have been established for decades, we (I think) tend to be a bit more *lenient* as to what is acceptable for colleges — as Walter rightly points out, we tolerate things like stripeless pants, merit decals, big lettering on jersey fronts, mono outfits, etc. For several teams, like PSU, stripeless pants are their classic look. Would they perhaps look even better with white pants and a blue stripe? Most likely. Is that the classic PSU look? Not really. But if PSU wore their current look as a pro team, we might all (rightfully) be asking why they couldn’t put stripes on their pants.
Personally, things I bemoan for the pros get a lot more slack when done in colleges, and high schools get more latitude than that.
I wouldn’t say stripeless pants, merit decals and big school (team) names on the front are unacceptable in the pros, but looking “like a college team” isn’t likely to rate a uniform higher.
There’s also one big difference which greatly affects pro vs. college uniforms. Pros are required to wear “high” socks (as opposed to colleges, who are only required to wear “low whites”, although there are several schools who eschew this). Stripeless pants over bare legs is the quintessential college look, but we’d never see it in the pros (unless of course, you’re Tyreek Hill link); Bare legs means there can be no yoga pants look and the yoga pants look is especially terrible at the pro level.
But my point (if I have one, still woozy and dizzy from the norovirus still plaguing me), is that the “lower” the league, the more leeway I (and others) give them, uniform-wise … I hate alternate jerseys in MLB, but I’m completely fine with them for college or MiLB. Doesn’t mean I like alt jerseys on MiLBers, but I’m fine with them as a jersey/fashion option. So I’m in agreement with Walter that things ok for college/minors don’t necessarily fly for the pros.
It’s not as bad since socks seem to be taboo in college. There’s no risk of the yoga pant scourge.
The biker shorts are worse than yoga pants. Guys are playing games in glorified hot pants.
Don’t speak too soon. Players (in all sports) have a unique ability to take a bad uniform and make it worse.
I like full-length pants stripes from the NFL down to Pop Warner. My high school had awesome striped pants.
What’s with the obsession over how many games the two finalists lost and to what schools? Does anyone look at the Super Bowl finalists and say “Sure. they’re playing for the title but they both lost to Cleveland?” With the playoff system in place — and general parity growing via the transfer portal system — it’s going to be increasingly rare to see an undefeated team make it all the way through to the final. This is healthy, btw.
Not obsessed about it…just pointing out how much things have changed. Those losses would have kept them out of playoff contention last year, and now they don’t. It is what it is, but I thought it was interesting.
Possibly. Notre Dame’s loss was terrible, but it was also early in the season. The 1977 team lost game two to Mississippi, but won the rest to put themselves in position to play, and beat, number one-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl. That, combined with other losses on New Year’s Day, gave Notre Dame the title. Ohio State’s bad loss was late, and also knocked them out of the Big Ten title game. It would have been an interesting discussion as to who the fourth team in a four-team playoff would have been. Even more heated than this year’s last team in the 12-team playoff (which turned out to be SMU over Alabama and Mississippi).
If and when the Buckeye’s win it all, I will be certain to remind their fans that the title comes with an asterisk. And they know too it will feel somewhat empty, winning the CFP but failing to defeat their hated rival and not even playing for the B1G championship. In the past, both of these instances would have disqualified them from any title contention.
But that loss to such a lowly Michigan? Ouch. Perhaps they should thank the Wolverines for the motivation… ;-)
Incorrect about not playing in a conference championship game. Alabama, Ohio State, and one or two other schools, I think, made the playoffs without appearing in their conference’s championship game. And Notre Dame has appeared and they never play in a conference championship game. Michiganders never let the facts get in the way of a good story. ; )
I’m sure it’s not the case, but it absolutely looks like Ohio State wears lighter color grey pants when wearing white jerseys. The same goes for the Las Vegas Raiders silver.
I sometimes think the same thing.
I’m colorblind, so YMMV, but to me the Texas orange is far more neutral than that of Oregon, or Tennessee– nearly brown. I was raised to call the color Terra Cotta, though on these pages, the preferred term is Burnt Orange. To me, burnt orange is the hue between red and orange on the color wheel.
Burnt orange is whatever color Texas may be wearing – whether it be brown in some years or the burnt orange we see more today.
I’m kind of disappointed Notre Dame isn’t bringing out their green jerseys for the championship game.
I don’t know if the rules would still allow it, but in ’77 against USC, they warmed up in navy jerseys, then went back to the locker room, changed and made a surprise entrance in green jerseys…
I don’t analyze Texas much as Pac/Big watcher, but I too noticed last night the way darker logo on helmet. It is really BROWN when the other colors are truly a burnt ORANGE.
It’s been that way for years. Texas is one of the few schools for whom “icy white” is their look (on the road and sometimes even as the “home” team), and the mismatch (shade of orange) is even apparent with their white shirts; it’s worse (or at least more noticeable) with the burnt orange jerseys. It’s a uni quirk I do not find endearing, as it sets off my OCD.
That being said, with the size of the logo (and TV numbers on the back), making the shade match the jersey would render the logo even less visible. I tolerate the darker logo for that reason alone. But it’s definitely several shades darker, and looks more brown than orange.
I have noticed the darker helmet logo over the years but never was bothered by it – way better than that metallic crap they wore for a few years (2016 example here link – complete abomination with giant wordmark and bevo on front of jersey). And have never really had any problem with whatever shade of burnt orange Texas is wearing – whether it be the more brown era or the burnt orange of the last decades, Burnt orange is whatever color Texas is wearing. Seemed a pretty good match throughout the later SWC years and did not get darker until after the SWC ended (although I remember it being more brown at times in my childhood – but that was the limitation of uniform manufacturers back then). I have mostly thought the darker look of the helmet logo is just stadium lighting, etc. But now with Phil’s comments I do wonder if it is intentional – and now I must know if it is a concerted effort… They seem to match perfectly in 2018 through 2020 and appear to have gone darker in 2021.
I never particularly liked the raised chrome logo — reminded me of shrinky dink art that they just applied to the hats. (link)
But the one thing I did like about the logo was how the color better matched the “burnt” orange of the jerseys.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the walk off punt from the I-AA championship!
I missed that! Didn’t get to watch the game.
The burnt orange of the Texas Longhorns uni is an under-utilized color, it really put the burnt into burnt orange – IMO
How can Ohio State lose to themselves? Intra squad scrimmage perhaps? Yes, they did indeed lose to Oregon, but I believe you certainly must have meant Penn State, definitely not Ohio State, though it would be interesting to see them lose to themselves.
The team I was talking about was Penn State, who lost to Ohio State and Oregon. It’s written correctly.
It is very confusing the way that it is written because of the breaks in the sentences and the continuous use of “…..” in the article. But thanks for your clarification. I did not notice that you had said “Penn State”. Thanks again for setting me straight and clarifying that you had written it correctly.
Well my “father’s college football” sucked because they thought just letting the 2 teams they voted on play for a “national championship” was a good idea.
The biggest scam job ever is them convincing generations that “plan” was actually good.
Notre Dame has perfect unis when in those blue tops and khakis…
When Lou Holtz was first made coach at ND, he suggested that the helmets should carry the logo of the University, like other schools.
It was then that the staff explained why the ND helmet has (had) no logo….
Great story…
I hatred when Texas switched from the shinier logo on the helmet however many years ago. It actually matched the uniforms. I’m pretty sure it was covered here
I would say the fact that Ohio State destroyed the only other team they lost to who made the contest clears that loss.
Butler looks very cool in their ska 2 tone racing checkers uniform.
As I recall CDC mentioned that UT would be moving back to a darker/more traditional shade of burnt orange back in 2019/2020 and that’s when the shade on the helmet got a touch darker. At the time it sounded like the plan was that he uniforms would follow suit, but for reasons unexplained they never did.