The 2023-24 college football season comes to an end on Monday evening when top-ranked Michigan takes on No. 2 Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship in Houston (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN).
But before the Wolverines and Huskies take the field at NRG Stadium, we’ve decided to take a look back at the uniform matchups of every championship game of the playoff era and preview tonight’s matchup, the final before we move to a 12-team format.
2015 – Ohio State 42, Oregon 20
Fourth-ranked Ohio State wore the home version of its 1968 throwback uniforms despite being the lower-ranked team, while No. 2 Oregon opted to wear a white and gray version of the apple green set it wore in the Rose Bowl.
Both uniforms featured a fractal diamond Nike Swoosh on the jersey and pants, which has been a staple of the playoff for Nike and Jordan Brand teams since its inception.
2016 – Alabama 45, Clemson 40
In their first meeting of the College Football Playoff era, No. 1 Clemson wore its orange jersey with orange britches against No. 2 Alabama, which donned its standard road set. This started a five-game winning streak for the team wearing white jerseys in the national title game.
2017 – Clemson 35, Alabama 31
Round 2 between No. 1 Alabama and second-ranked Clemson had both teams outfitted in the opposite uniforms of their first matchup, as the Crimson Tide were in their standard home set while the Tigers wore white jerseys with orange britches. This game also had the inverse result.
2018 – Alabama 26, Georgia 23 (OT)
Despite not winning its conference – let alone its own division – Alabama returned to the national championship for the third straight season. The fourth-ranked Crimson Tide took on SEC champion Georgia, which donned its home uniform by virtue of being the higher-ranked (No. 3) seed.
2019 – Clemson 44, Alabama 16
Aside from the change in venue (Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara rather than Raymond James Stadium in Tampa) the national championship game between No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Clemson looked the exact same as their previous title game matchup in 2017. It was the same result, too.
2020 – LSU 42, Clemson 24
In a bit of an interesting twist, both No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Clemson donned their home uniform in the 2020 national championship. The Bayou Bengals traditionally wear white at home, which allowed the other Tigers to wear all-orange.
LSU actually received the playoff patch that is typically reserved for the team wearing a colored jersey and wore it on the right shoulder, whereas every other national championship participant during the CFP era has worn It on the left. This was also the first title game in the CFP era to not feature black end zones.
2021 – Alabama 52, Ohio State 24
Top-ranked Alabama ended a two-game losing streak in its home uniform in the national championship, as well as a five-game winning streak by teams wearing white with a blowout of Ohio State.
It was the same uniform matchup as the the 2015 Sugar Bowl, which the Buckeyes won on their way to the inaugural playoff title – albeit with a small change to the logo on the collar.
2022 – Georgia 33, Alabama 18
After meeting in the SEC Championship one month prior with Alabama in its home uniforms and Georgia in its road set, the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs met in Indianapolis for the national title while wearing the exact same looks.
Alabama fell to 1-3 in its home uniforms in the championship game, including losses to Clemson in 2017 and 2019 and a win over Ohio State in 2021. Georgia, meanwhile, improved to 1-0 in its road look on this stage.
2023 – Georgia 65, TCU 7
Defending national champion Georgia wore its standard home uniforms as the higher-ranked team in the national championship, while TCU wore black helmets, white jerseys and black pants at SoFi Stadium, which saw the largest margin of victory in bowl history (58 points).
2024 – Michigan vs Washington
After wearing maize pants in the Rose Bowl, Michigan will wear blue pants with its blue jerseys and winged helmets. Interestingly, the first time the Wolverines wore this look was their 31-10 win over Washington in 2021.
The Huskies, meanwhile, will counter with gold helmets with white jerseys and pants. They typically wear purple pants on the road, but did so in the above-mentioned loss to Michigan.
This marks the first time that a team outfitted by adidas has made it to the championship game. It’s also the first appearance for Jordan Brand, though it is actually a subsidiary of Nike.
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