After weeks of voting and thousands of votes from across the conference and the country, it’s time for the match-up that will determine which school wins The Great Western Uniform Bracket 2011. And this pairing is a perfect match: it’s purple and gold versus black and gold, the Pacific Northwest versus the Rockies and conference veteran versus Pac-12 newcomer. On the field, the rivalry is dead even; in 11 meetings beginning in 1915, each team has won 5 games. Luckily for the fun of the final round, these two schools did not just squeeze through to the finals via easy opponents and lucky breaks. Washington and Colorado are the top two cumulative vote-getters after the first 3 rounds.
Washington, the fan favorite so far in the bracket and the higher initial seed, begins the final match-up summary.
Overview: Washington
The Huskies have breezed through the last two rounds of the bracket while amassing the highest vote total of any school in each of the last couple of rounds and the highest overall vote total from Day 1 until the finals. The Huskies wear a fairly minimalistic uniform that makes use almost exclusively of their white, purple and gold school colors. And while UW doesn’t still sport the exact uniform of the school from decades past, the new threads (introduced for the 2010 season) are a natural evolution of the traditional school brand.
Sonny Sixkiller wears Washington's 1970s uniform.
Washington wore white pants for the majority of last season, suggesting a move away from purple or gold pants. That leaves the Huskies with a largely white uniform on the road:
Jake Locker and Drew Schaefer on the road (Photo via Neon Tommy on Flickr)
At home in Seattle, the Huskies sport the dark purple top with the same design as the away jersey:
Overview: Colorado
The Buffs have gone back to their uniform roots, opting for a throwback, traditional look in the newest version of their uniforms. They’ve also matched the gold of the helmet with the gold of the rest of the uniform, resolving a problem that was extremely unpopular among Colorado players and fans.
Although the entirety of the new uniforms hasn’t yet seen the field, some help from AllBuffs.com members and uniform bracket voters yielded a good idea of what we’ll see in Boulder throughout the season. Colorado’s home throwbacks (which the team wore last year and will institute as their default home uniform for 2011) appear below with the now-eliminated helmet color discrepancy:
On the road, the team will wear a white version of the above jersey and pair it with black pants.
While we’re posting photos of old Sports Illustrated covers, why not throw in one for Colorado? With the new, retro-themed threads for 2011, the Buffs will return to a look almost exactly like the one that Michael Westbrook’s CU squad wore back in 1994:
In this battle of golden helmets and fan favorites, which team will prevail to win The Great Western Uniform Bracket 2011?
Voting is now closed. Check back on Tuesday for full results.
Related Posts:
About the Author
Pingback: The Great Western Uniform Bracket 2011 | The Daily Axe