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On Monday, the Oregon Ducks unveiled their uniforms for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Despite being the "home" team in the title game, the Ducks will be wearing a white and steel variation of their Rose Bowl uniforms.
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Because did you really think the Ducks would wear the same uniforms twice? Nike would have a damn heart attack if that was allowed to happen.
The uniforms are a new twist on those the Ducks wore in the 2010 Civil War when they clinched a berth in their first national championship in school history.
@ryro23 Reminds me of this which I thought was a good look pic.twitter.com/cIp7LetvJW
— Jonathan Adams (@JonathanAdams) January 5, 2015
While flipping through Nike's gallery of the uniforms, you'll come across an up-close shot of the neck with what appears to be a crooked "O" logo. Nike claims the logo is at a 27-degree tilt to represent Oregon's 27 bowl appearances. Deadspin calls shenanigans. Yay for conspiracy theories!
Ohio State will be wearing their traditional scarlet and grey home uniforms that feature black numbers on the shoulders, a nod to the 1968 Buckeyes team that beat USC for the national championship.
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This marks the second time the Ducks will not don their school colors for a national championship game. Back in 2011 when Oregon played Auburn in the BCS National Championship Game, the Ducks went with a carbon and volt combo. After losing to LSU to open the 2011 season while wearing a different variation of the volt uniforms, we buried the highlighter jokes for eternity as the combinations were never seen again.
The Ducks had the opportunity to wear green and yellow, but chose otherwise.
As highest seed Oregon had choice what color jersey to wear in title game & Ducks chose white
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) January 5, 2015
Same concept as why the Cowboys always wear white at home. Something tells me though that it wasn't entirely their decision and Nike likely played a large role in selecting the uniforms. Because who wants to buy a jersey that the team never even wore? The white jerseys were available for purchase when the uniforms were unveiled before the semi-finals.
While I would have liked to see the Ducks go with their school colors for the biggest game in school history, I like the overall look of the uniforms, especially the white helmets. It's like a hybrid between the "stormtrooper" look against USC in 2012 and the 2010 Civil War uniforms.
The overall feedback has been generally negative so far, but I have a feeling that if Oregon is able to beat Ohio State to clinch their first national championship in school history, people will grow quite fondly of the look that we'll never see again.