Jim Harbaugh and the University of Michigan defeated the University of Washington in the national championship game at NRG Stadium on Monday night. However, their victory hats do not match.
It’s infuriating.
Before we go any further here — this is not just a Wolverines thing. This has been going on since the start of the College Football Playoff during the 2014 season.
That doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Let’s break it down.
Michigan won the 2024 CFP National Championship. However, the Wolverines are champions of the 2023 college football season.
All of the logos on the field reflected the current year because the game was played on Jan. 8, 2024.
All of the logos on the uniforms — for both teams — also reflected the current year. They wore jerseys with a patch that displayed the year 2024.
And then, as soon as the clock hit zero, hats were distributed to the victors that reflected the year in which the regular season took place. Michigan players wore jerseys with 2024 and hats with 2023.
Georgia players wore 2023 on their jerseys and 2022 on their hats last year.
They wore 2022 on their jerseys and 2021 on their hats in the year prior.
This is a trend that dates back to Jan. 12, 2015 when Ohio State won the first-ever Playoff.
It makes sense on paper.
The Wolverines won the 2024 CFP National Championship to become national champions of the 2023 college football season. The Buckeyes won the 2015 CFP National Championship to become national champions of the 2014 college football season.
That doesn’t mean it makes sense in reality. Having mismatched logos looks wrong!
If we want to claim that the team that wins the national championship in the current year then the hats should match the jersey and the field. If we want to say that the winning side is national champions of the previous year then the field should either reflect that notion, the field should remain year-less, or the game should be played in the year prior.
Let’s pick one or the other.