College football is full of surprises, and Week 6 was a perfect example. Not only were there some shocking outcomes on the field, but some uniform combinations took us by surprise.
Just as some plays look good on paper, they don’t translate to the field. We have to go back and revisit some of our assumptions entering this weekend. Below are the five best and worst uniform matchups from Week 6 of the 2026 college football season.
Best
5. Stanford at Notre Dame
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have no shortage of rivalries, and we love their annual showdowns against the Stanford Cardinal. While we would have preferred Notre Dame to wear gold pants and Stanford to wear white pants, the “Irish Wear Green” uniforms overall were great this year.
4. LSU at Kentucky
The Kentucky Wildcats’ throwback uniforms looked better than expected, especially against the LSU Tigers’ iconic look. Pulling off a 35-34 overtime upset followed by a field rush only adds more aura to the Wildcats’ retro uniforms.
3. UCLA at Oregon
As an old-school Pac-12 fan, I would expect nothing less from yesterday’s uniform matchup between the UCLA Bruins and the Oregon Ducks. UCLA wore one of the cleanest away uniforms in the sport, while the Ducks debuted their “Origin of Speed” uniforms. The clash in styles worked out well once again.
2. North Carolina at Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Panthers celebrated the 50th anniversary of their 1976 National Championship team in style. Meanwhile, we’re just glad to see the North Carolina Tar Heels get away from their throwback uniforms (even if Bill Belichick was still wearing the quarter-zip on the sidelines).
1. USC at Penn State
For all of the flash this weekend, the classics won out. Last night’s game between the USC Trojans and Penn State Nittany Lions was aesthetically beautiful. Two iconic uniforms prove that the fundamentals are essential. It helped that they looked crispy clean on the primetime NBC broadcast.
Worst
5. San Diego State at Oregon State
We can’t fault either the San Diego State Aztecs or the Oregon State Beavers for their approach to the game. It could easily have been worse for two teams with Red/Black and Orange/Black color schemes. Both teams made earnest attempts to avoid color clashing and overlap. Still, the all-orange uniforms were pretty brutal.
4. Arizona at West Virginia
We ranked both the Arizona Wildcats and the West Virginia Mountaineers among our top ten uniforms heading into this week. So what went wrong? The “Coal Rush” uniforms should have been saved for a night game, and it would have helped had West Virginia repainted the field in matching colors instead of keeping the Navy/Gold details.
3. Florida State at Louisville
The Louisville Cardinals made the right call with the all-black uniforms. It avoided color overlap, and it was a Friday night game (perfect time to get wild). And understandably, the Florida State Seminoles rocked all-white uniforms. In theory, it’s great; in practice, the Seminoles looked like, well, practice uniforms. Florida State should have just gone Gold-White-Gold.
2. Kansas at Utah
The Utah Utes’ home whiteout didn’t do it for us, and the Kansas Jayhawks’ all-black uniforms are fine. But this game didn’t need to be a color rush. Both teams rocking their primary uniforms probably would have been better.
1. Duke at Georgia Tech
We don’t take any enjoyment in picking on the Duke Blue Devils and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. But Georgia Tech’s Dark Grey pants are rough. Plus, Duke made the perplexing decision to rock their triple-black alternate uniforms, which made no sense. Once again, Duke made the worst uniform choice of the week.
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