
Winners, losers and surprises of the 2024 NHL draft
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Jun 29, 2024, 05:00 PM ET
The 2024 NHL draft is complete. After Macklin Celebrini went first overall to the San Jose Sharks, there were many twists and turns throughout the event.
From certain prospects dropping to others going well above their pre-draft ranking to the Utah Hockey Club making major trades on Day 2, it was a wild weekend.
Now that all 225 selections have been made, what stands out the most? ESPN reporters Ryan S. Clark, Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski identify the picks, trades and moments we’ll remember most — for better or worse.
WINNERS
Holding the draft at Sphere
Hockey fans should take a moment to thank UFC for helping to create the most aesthetically impressive NHL draft ever held.
The NHL knew it had one weekend on which to schedule the draft, because of the late end of the Stanley Cup Final and the beginning of free agency on July 1. The NHL knew it wanted to hold the even in Las Vegas, as both a popular destination for team personnel and a banger of a farewell party if this is the last in-person draft. One problem: T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights and the logical place for the draft, was booked for UFC 303.
So Steve Mayer, NHL chief content officer, and his group pursued a more ambitious alternative: Sphere in Las Vegas, the James Dolan-owned entertainment orb previously best known to hockey fans as the place where the Nashville Predators didn’t get to watch U2 perform. The result was an NHL draft like no other and a landmark moment for the facility, which hosted its first (of many) sporting events.
The league used the height of Sphere to create incredible imagery, from a draft board that cascaded into the sky to moving images of hundreds of draft picks in a giant collage. Every pick felt epic, both inside Sphere and outside, where they were broadcasted to the rest of The Strip on the exterior of the building.
But the most memorable use of the building was, of course, the trade horn. Fans like the NHL draft for the deals as much as as prospects. Leaning into that, the NHL had an ostentatious goal horn sound and graphics take over Sphere when a trade was announced. From the blockbusters to the pick swaps, every deal caught the fans’ attention with the loudest arena gimmick since the Columbus Blue Jackets goal cannon. From sights to sounds, Sphere was a singular experience. — Wyshynski
The San Jose Sharks
Free agency hasn’t even started, and the argument could be made that the Sharks have had one of the strongest offseasons in the NHL because they added a pair of top-six centers. That’s what it meant for them to draft Boston University freshman center Macklin Celebrini with the first pick after signing Boston College freshman center Will Smith, their first-rounder from last year, to an entry-level contract.
Back when the Sharks started their rebuild, the goal was to center it around the sort of elite players they felt could become franchise cornerstones, similar to what’s been done in Colorado, Edmonton, Dallas and Florida.
Celebrini reiterated that he would weigh his options when it comes to either signing with the Sharks or returning to BU, while Smith will be in training camp. Whatever Celebrini decides, general manager Mike Grier added a pair of top-six centers who will be on team-friendly contracts whenever Celebrini does join the team.
And remember, they strengthened their farm system significantly by adding defenseman Sam Dickinson with their second first-rounder. High marks all around for Grier and his front office. — Clark
It was the most wholesomely unwholesome moment from Friday’s first round when the Anaheim Ducks announced Beckett Sennecke as their third overall pick — and a stunned Sennecke mouthed “what the f—?” to his equally shocked parents before they embraced.
Naturally, Sennecke’s reaction made the social media rounds. At a draft where the No. 1 overall pick was all but confirmed for months ahead of time, it was a delightful contrast to see Sennecke’s honest astonishment at seeing his own dream come true far more quickly than he anticipated it would. — Shilton
1:08
Beckett Sennecke has amazing reaction to being drafted No. 3 by the Ducks
Beckett Sennecke is chosen by the Anaheim Ducks with the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NHL draft.
College hockey
The victories college hockey had in Las Vegas started Thursday at the NHL Awards, when NCAA products Connor Hellebuyck (Vezina Trophy) and Quinn Hughes (Norris Trophy) took home hardware. It kept going into Friday with Celebrini going first and the Chicago Blackhawks selecting Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov No. 2. Together, Celebrini and Levshunov became the second college hockey players to go 1-2 at a draft since 2021 when University of Michigan teammates Owen Power and Matty Beniers were selected with the first two picks.
Another layer to Celebrini and Levshunov going 1-2 is how the college game continues to attract elite players beyond the United States. In Celebrini’s case, he became the fifth first-round pick from Canada since 2016 who either played college hockey or was committed to a college program in their draft year. It’s a group that includes Cale Makar, Owen Power, Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli. It’s a bit of a trend now, considering there were only three Canadians that either played college hockey or were committed to a program who were taken in the first round between 1993 and 2015.
Celebrini, Levshunov and Zeev Buium were the three college players who went in the first round. But there were also six USHL players who went in the first round, and all of them are currently slated to play college hockey in addition to St. Andrew’s College center Dean Letourneau, who is set to play at Boston College in the fall. — Clark
Norwegian hockey
There have been only nine Norwegians who’ve ever made it to the NHL. And yet the nation had four players get drafted in 2024, with two of them coming in the first round. It started when the Detroit Red Wings drafted Michael Brandsegg-Nygard with the 15th pick, becoming the first Norwegian to ever go in the first round. Eight picks later, the Ducks drafted another Norwegian, Stian Solberg.
Just for context, the first Norwegian to play in the NHL was Bjorn Skaare, who played once for the Red Wings during the 1978-79 season. It’s a path that was later traveled by Espen Knutsen, Andreas Martinsen and current Norwegian national team captain Peter Thoreson, before Mats Zuccarello became the nation’s most prominent player, with 636 points in 835 games.
Zuccarello and Tampa Bay Lightning prospect defenseman Emil Martinsen Lilleberg were the only Norwegians to play in the NHL during the 2023-24 season. But with Brandsegg-Nygard and Solberg going in the first — while four Norwegians as a whole were drafted — it appears this could be something of a golden age for Norwegian hockey. — Clark
The Utah Hockey Club
Welcome to the NHL!
Owner Ryan Smith noted that the league’s newest team was getting boos from the crowd without having played a single game yet — maybe the first inkling of a geographic rivalry between Vegas and Salt Lake City. If UHC wanted to make a big first impression, then mission accomplished. GM Bill Armstrong selected one of the most prominent names in the first round in Kelowna forward Tij Iginla, son of Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla.
Then he opened Day 2 with the weekend’s biggest blockbuster, acquiring defensemen Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning and John Marino from the New Jersey Devils.
As Armstrong said, his team can score, but needed help on the back end, and boldly sought it out at the draft. My how times have changed: Could you ever imagine Armstrong trading for a player with seven years and $56.59 million left on his contract as GM of the Arizona Coyotes? Free agency should be fun times in Salt Lake City. — Wyshynski
1:01
Utah Hockey Club selects Tij Iginla with first-ever pick
Tij Iginla becomes the first player to be drafted by the Utah Hockey Club expansion franchise.
The Golden Knights had truly impeccable timing, trading goaltender Logan Thompson to Washington on Saturday morning right before Thompson was set to do an autograph signing session for hometown fans at Sphere. Thompson said he was at home in bed when GM Kelly McCrimmon called to share news of the deal, and the goaltender could have easily skipped out on following through with the meet and greet.
But Thompson kept it classy and went to Sphere anyway to cycle through a long line of Golden Knights’ faithful who came for his signature — and now, a chance to say goodbye (and thanks). Credit to Thompson for making the most of an unexpectedly poor situation and honoring one final commitment in Vegas before his next chapter begins. — Shilton
Logan Thompson is a champ for staying to sign autographs and take pictures with fans 30 minutes after being traded. pic.twitter.com/sJ2QByxorT
— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) June 29, 2024
LOSERS
Goaltenders in the first round
No goaltenders were taken in the first round this year. No goaltenders were taken in the first round last year. There wasn’t a goaltender taken in the first round in 2022, either. Altogether, it means there hasn’t been an NHL team that’s taken a goalie in the first round since 2021. Metallurg Magnitogorsk’s Ilya Nabokov was the first goalie off the board, drafted No. 38 overall by the Colorado Avalanche.
Red Wings prospect Sebastian Cossa and Minnesota Wild prospect Jesper Wallstedt were the two goalies who were first-round picks in 2021. What is it about goaltenders that has led to them being shut out of the first round? Could it be possible that it has something to do with the fact that more goalies taken in the later rounds are having success? None of this season’s Vezina Trophy finalists were first-round picks, while the last three Vezina Trophy winners were drafted no higher than 118th.
While there hasn’t been a goalie drafted in the first round since 2021, there was a time when it was a fairly common occurrence. There was at least one goalie drafted in the first round from 2019 through 2021. But in terms of what the figures have looked like since 2014? The NHL has had five drafts (2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021) when a goalie went in the first round, with six drafts (2014, 2016, 2022, 2023 and 2024) in which a goalie wasn’t taken until Day 2. — Clark
Having to rationalize a problematic pick
When Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon described his 19th overall pick Trevor Connelly, he described the player’s high-end talent and offensive skill. Absent was anything about his character, until he was asked about it.
“We have a comfort level that this is a player that will represent our organization as we’d expect any player to do so,” he said.
Many believe Connelly fell to No. 19 because of two incidents as a younger player. When he was 16, he posted an image to Snapchat of a swastika made with building blocks in the children’s area of a library. According to The Athletic, his team the Long Island Gulls dropped him after that. In 2021, he was accused of directing a racial slur at an opponent during a game and was suspended, although the California Amateur Hockey Association lifted the ban when it couldn’t corroborate the accusation. Connelly has denied using a slur.
McCrimmon wouldn’t elaborate on what Connelly told him to ease any concerns, although Connelly himself told the Associated Press that he informed teams that “I’ve put in a lot of work in myself and done a lot of things in the community and volunteered a lot.”
That kind of vague hand-waving might have worked in the past, but fans are demanding more from teams that make this kind of pick today. It’s one thing for McCrimmon is say his team’s “due diligence is very extensive” and that Connelly had “some growth and some recognition of areas where he made mistakes.” It’s another to explain what any of that actually means, given the circumstances. — Wyshynski
Swedish hockey
While Norway had a moment, Sweden had its lowest number of players selected since the 2015 draft, when just 19 Swedes were selected. This season, that number was 22 players from Sweden taken, fourth most behind Canada (87), the U.S. (39) and Russia Federation (27).
Perhaps the biggest indication that this wasn’t the most robust year for Swedish prospects: They didn’t have a player selected in the first round of the draft. The first Swede drafted was center Lucas Pettersson of MODO Jr. at No. 35 overall to the Anaheim Ducks.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, 2010 was the last previous year that a Swedish player wasn’t taken in the first round. It’s the fourth time it’s happened in the last 25 years (2024, 2010, 2004, 2003). Prior to this year, the last time no Swede was picked in the top 10 was 2015; Joel Eriksson Ek was the first Swedish player taken, 20th overall that year. — Wyshynski
No player trades on Night 1
The NHL had installed a kitschy goal horn graphic (and sound effect!) at Sphere to be used when clubs made a trade. But it took a while for that thing to get any use — because not one general manager made a significant trade during Friday’s first round.
And that was a bummer. Player trades are the lifeblood of a draft after about the 10th pick, when you know the number of prospects being taken who will actually see NHL action in the next season or two is dwindling.
In years past, we’ve seen trades go down even before the draft’s opening bell that gave us all something to talk about long into the night ahead. Alas, that wasn’t the case this year.
Kudos to Utah’s GM Bill Armstrong and Tampa Bay’s Julien BriseBois for bringing the heat to start off Day 2, though. That goal horn was blowing loud and proud out of the gate at the pre-9 a.m. hour local time, no doubt electrifying all those who had an enjoyable time in Sin City the night before. — Shilton
No QMJHL players in the first round
This was another draft cycle that saw the QMJHL have more than a dozen players get selected. This was also another draft cycle that saw the QMJHL fail to produce a first-round pick; the second year in a row. Prior to that, the previous time the QMJHL didn’t have a first-rounder was the 2008 draft, when goaltender Jake Allen was a second-round pick by the St. Louis Blues.
Granted, the year Allen was drafted came off a draft cycle that saw the QMJHL produce four first-rounders. And since then, the QMJHL has had three years in which they had the No. 1 pick, with Nathan MacKinnon (2013), Nico Hischier (2017) and Alexis Lafreniere (2020). They’ve also had draft classes that saw as many as five players go in the first round. That came as recently as 2020, the same year that Lafreniere was selected with the first pick.
Altogether, this is the fourth time since 2000 that the QMJHL didn’t have a first-round pick, and the first time in league history that it’s gone consecutive years without a first-round pick, according to the QMJHL’s records. – Clark
The timing of the draft and free agency
Not that a weekend in Las Vegas is some sort of punishment, but it’s also not an ideal situation for a number of front offices either. Why? Because of the extremely tight turnaround they face with trying to get back home as they seek to have everything in order before free agency opens Monday at noon ET.
But this is also the NHL, where managing the small window between the draft and free agency has become a rite of passage. It was like that last season when teams traveled from an albeit more centralized city in Nashville where they had two days to prepare. Back in 2022, the NHL had to readjust because of the truncated 56-game schedule it played while navigating the pandemic. That year, the draft ended July 8 with free agency starting July 13 — a four-day window in between.
It’s what makes the decision to move to a decentralized draft next season something that could plausibly benefit more front offices. Instead of traveling to a central location, teams will be able to operate from their respective facilities. One amateur scouting director told ESPN last week that the decision to move to a decentralized draft resulted in “a divided opinion.” On the other hand, another amateur scout said they were in favor of the new approach, because it allowed teams to openly explore their options in a private room rather than in a more public setting like the draft floor. — Clark
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‘Our tradition to is to be untraditional’: Inside the lifecycle of an Oregon uniform
Published
3 hours agoon
September 26, 2025By
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EUGENE, Ore. — Inside the Marcus Mariota Performance Center, history dangles from wire hangers.
The glitz and glamour surrounding Oregon football is not immediately apparent. This is a practical place — a dimly lit, long hallway inside the second floor of the equipment room furnished with gray built-in closets — created not as a way to showcase, but rather to store the very thing that has become synonymous with the Ducks: their vast array of fabrics, colors and prints.
Among a sea of roughly 800 jerseys, there’s nearly every shade of green — from neon to emerald to forest to army. Here, black or white never look boring, and the yellow used over the years ranges from a Gatorade-colored hue to Cal gold. Splashes of pink, gray, brown, orange, chrome and blue complete the synthetic rainbow.
On this Saturday afternoon following Oregon’s win over Oklahoma State, football equipment administrator Kenny Farr thumbs through pages of dri-fit material and mesh as if flipping through a scrapbook. Every jersey has a story, every color and design a reason for existing at the time as well as an inevitable association that depends on something the style cannot control.
“Some of our best uniforms we’ve ever worn, we lost the games,” Farr said. “It’s hard to mention those, because they looked good, but we didn’t win the game. So it kind of goes down as a jersey I’ll try to forget about and move on to the next.”
Farr isn’t the man behind the jerseys, the designs or even the final decisions of what combinations make it out onto the field. But over the past 15 years, Farr has become a key cog in the enterprise that is Oregon’s uniforms. His role is part manager, part craftsman, part custodian and collector, as well.
“Kenny is the godfather of Oregon football uniforms,” said Quinn Van Horne, one of the senior designers of Oregon’s latest generation of uniforms.
Throughout the past 2½ decades, as Oregon has cycled through nine different versions of its uniforms, nearly 50 iterations and countless more combinations, the fascination over its attire and the ripple effects it has caused inside and outside the program continues. While some teams have rarely wavered from their classic designs and colors over the years, the Ducks have pushed the envelope, creating a unique energy around their ensembles that attracts players and prompts other schools to try and emulate them.
“We don’t have the tradition that Ohio State or USC or Notre Dame or some of those blue bloods have,” Farr said. “So how do you counteract that? Well, you just go full steam ahead the other direction. Our tradition is to be untraditional; we’re going to always push the edge.”
BEFORE THERE WERE so many permutations of Oregon jerseys, before the well-oiled system that produces at least one new uniform every season and a brand-new set of designs every three years was set in place, the concept began with a simple question.
“How do you make a duck look cool?”
Rick Bakas was working for Nike in the mid-to-late 1990s under a subdivision called Team Sports, dedicated to apparel for professional and college teams.
Bakas, alongside a team of fellow designers who were overseen by Nike creative director — and father of Quinn — Todd Van Horne, had just redesigned the Denver Broncos’ uniforms. The success of that redesign, as well as the momentum Oregon created after its appearances in the 1995 Rose Bowl and the 1996 Cotton Bowl (the first game in which Oregon wore all Nike) led to founder Phil Knight and a cadre of Oregon alumni, including longtime Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, tasking Van Horne and his team with a mission: remake the Oregon Ducks.
As he did nearly every year, Bakas attended the Detroit Auto Show in search of inspiration. There, painted across the chassis of a concept car, Bakas found the key that unlocked everything: a type of paint called ChromaFlair, which gave off a sheen that changed colors.
“I was eating a sandwich out there by the lake, and I was feeding some bread to a mallard out there,” Bakas said. “I was looking at its head, and I was like, ‘That paint looks like this mallard’s head.'”
Bakas brought some of those green swatches of the ChromaFlair paint back to Oregon, took them into a studio and pulled out the darkest and the lightest possible versions; those became the core colors of the concept he and the team presented to Knight.
“It’s amazing how much that helped keep that futuristic feel as we got into the ‘O’ design,” Bakas said. “The project really gave us a chance to marry the two together where we could think about the entire head to toe, how everything was going to look.”
Van Horne believes that even though the color-changing helmets were one of the most important elements of the redesign, they wouldn’t have been complete without the iconic “O” — its inner outline shaped to replicate Hayward Field, Oregon’s track and field stadium, and the outer one mimicking the outline of Autzen Stadium.
The creator of that “O” logo remains in dispute — Van Horne credits Hatfield with the idea, while Bakas says it was his own — but there is no debate about its impact. When the Ducks walked out onto the field to open the 1999 season sporting new colors, with the brand-new “O” on their green ChromaFlair helmets, the paradigm of uniforms shifted.
“The players loved it,” Bakas said. “They were coming from yellow and green with a duck on loose-fitting jerseys. What we gave them was super futuristic, and they absolutely ate it up.”
FARR’S OFFICE PHONE had been ringing. Oregon had just lost 42-20 to Ohio State in the 2014 national championship game while wearing a uniform combination that had not yet been featured that season: white jersey, black numbers and lettering, gray pants and a white helmet with silver wings.
“It looked great, but we didn’t win the game,” Farr said. “I had about 15 voicemails on my line the next morning, the next couple of days, of people blaming me, ‘We should have worn green! Why didn’t we wear green?’ And in my mind, I’m thinking, ‘We could have worn any color. I don’t know if we were going to tackle Ezekiel Elliot any better.'”
While it was coach Mike Bellotti who welcomed the original redesign, it was not until the arrival of Chip Kelly in the late 2000s and through 2012 that Oregon’s sartorial flair truly matched its fast and furious style of play. More uniform combos and a 46-7 record under Kelly supercharged a frenzy, not just around the team’s on-field success, but also around its next iterations of uniforms.
“Winning on a national stage helped so much,” Van Horne said. “That’s when we really dialed up the notion of looking different every game and different combinations and working with the athletes on scripting [uniforms] and even scripting the fans.” It all led to the notion of a uniform release as an event that both Oregon fans and even college football enthusiasts speculated about. The result was an insatiable desire for a wow factor to go with every drop.
“Fans’ expectations are so high for something new and cool, like you’re going to have some groundbreaking uniform that’s never been done before every single game,” Farr said. “But that’s not reality. I would say the last probably six or seven years is really where I got the sense of there’s some weeks where some fans are disappointed because they’re expecting us to have a helmet or a jersey with LED lights in it, and we didn’t do that.”
Farr has found that sometimes, more is less, and most Ducks fans will notice small splashes just as much as they will fixate on what they think of a certain jersey-pant combination.
Sometimes, the splash can be a custom cleat, like the Ducks did last season for the Rose Bowl, or what they’re doing against Penn State this week with exclusive glow-in-the-dark cleats, gloves and accessories. Often, Farr looks to the helmet — the only piece of the outfit he can customize on a weekly basis — as a way to add something new, even if it means an inordinate amount of work for his staff of one assistant and roughly 16 students.
Game 5 uniform for @oregonfootball: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕪’𝕤 ℝ𝕚𝕟𝕘𓂀💍
– ⚫️⚪️⚫️ for the 3rd year in a row, 6th time ever
– 2nd yr in a row that the black lids make their szn debut in week 5
– 1st 🦆 uni to 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 feature glow in the dark cleats, gloves, accessories#GoDucks pic.twitter.com/DbENrpW1Cv
— Jonah Henderson (@JonahNHenderson) September 25, 2025
When Oregon faced Wisconsin in the 2020 Rose Bowl and Farr had to reuse a uniform combination, he opted to tweak the chrome helmets with green tonal wings that he painted on to match the face mask. As the famous San Gabriel mountain sunset struck its pose during the game, the helmets reflected it perfectly.
“It ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done,” Farr said. “Then we won the game. So, it’s iconic right around here. But if we would’ve lost the game, people would be like, ‘Ah, we didn’t have a new uniform.'”
Farr is now used to that pressure, in large part because he knows it’s not his vision that ultimately matters. In fact, Farr has, in the past, been overruled on a design he didn’t love only to see it shine.
“We wore one at Washington, I want to say four or five years ago, where it was a yellow helmet, yellow gloves and yellow cleats, but it was all white,” Farr said. And I was like, ‘This is looking stupid, and this is going to look terrible.’ We got on the field and people thought it looked great. So they like to give me a hard time about that.”
In the end, the final fit comes down to those who actually wear the jerseys.
TEZ JOHNSON WAS playing the part of lobbyist to no avail. The Oregon wide receiver, four of his teammates and Farr all gathered early last year to make the all-important decision: What were the Ducks going to wear for 2024, and when?
Farr had already received samples of every one of the five base uniforms that made up the “Generation O” class of kits from Van Horne Brands — helmets, jerseys, base layers, socks, cleats and gloves — and had them ready for players to see.
With five to pick from, players have to get creative. Farr does, too. When EA Sports’ college football game made its return last year, Farr was able to get EA to preload all of Oregon’s uniform combinations from its latest set onto the game so current players could try different blends they might be able to replicate in real life.
Johnson was adamant: Oregon should wear an all-black combination against Washington in the season finale. His teammates disagreed. The black getup was their best look of the year, and it should be worn earlier, specifically against Ohio State.
“It was very hotly debated for way too long,” Farr said. “The rest of the guys kind of overrode his vote. He was upset about it — I was like, ‘That’s all part of why you’re on the committee, but you’re only 20% of the vote, man.’ I totally leave it up to them.”
Farr has conducted this meeting for several years now, as a way to democratize the process. Every year, Farr selects a group of players, typically upperclassmen who have shown interest, to form a committee made up of an odd number so there’s never a tie. Over the course of two to three hours, players debate their choices, weighing things like opponent, where the game falls in their schedule and even weather.
“It’s got to be guys that are opinionated and not afraid to voice their opinions, because that’s what you want, you want a healthy dialogue,” Farr said. “For the players that are part of it, it’s kind of a badge of honor.”
Once players have finalized their choices with Farr’s assistance, he will lay out the scripting in a look book and show head coach Dan Lanning before the spring game for approval. Finalizing the looks well in advance of the season helps Farr organize the high volume of inventory he has to line up. Going off-script is rare, but not impossible. Two years ago, with undefeated Colorado visiting for a highly anticipated matchup, the Ducks changed to a different uniform combination.
Now, with the postseason potentially adding four extra games on top of the conference championship, Farr & Co. have to think beyond the regular season and a single bowl appearance. In the first season of the 12-team College Football Playoff last year, once Oregon knew whether it would be the away or home team, Farr texted committee members to get them thinking about their options for a quarterfinal look so Farr could get a combination set and organize the inventory in time
When you have one set of uniforms for three seasons of games, a repeat, especially in the playoffs, is almost inevitable. Even if players love a particular combination and want to run it back, Farr will always try to find a way to add a special twist.
“My whole argument is let’s not be different, just to be different,” Farr said. “We don’t have 12 helmets, 12 jerseys or 12 pairs of pants. It’s the different combinations and tweaks you can make that keep the looks unique.”
THE DUCKS MAY not have a different uniform for every game, but the fact that it feels like they do, or that it feels like they could if they wanted to, is a unique feature of Nike’s influence.
According to Farr, while Nike sponsors many programs across the country, it tiers schools, and that determines access to perks such as special releases and custom apparel, with Tier 1 being the highest — that is, unless you’re Oregon.
“[Nike] always told us,” Farr said, “we were Tier 0.”
“When I got to Oregon, I thought the practice jersey was the game jersey,” said wide receiver Evan Stewart, who transferred from Texas A&M. “It’s just different here. You look good, feel good, you play good.”
While players get to test upcoming fabrics and jersey materials that may not come out until 2028 (Oregon has been in the current Nike Fuse chassis that just came to the NFL since 2019), Nike gets to use Oregon athletes as wear test subjects (often it’s the uniform selection committee who gets first dibs) who provide feedback on the products. And while the Van Hornes and Nike are technically behind the designs, part of their process is getting input from players.
“Sometimes we don’t talk to players about what you want to look like,” Quinn Van Horne said. “It’s, ‘Hey if Oregon was a car, what kind of car would it be? What’s your favorite superhero movie? What kind of music are you listening to? When you walk out on the field, what do you see and what do you want to picture? What do you want to feel like?'”
It’s this system that will constantly evolve as players with different perspectives cycle in and out of the program that Todd Van Horne believes will keep Oregon’s well of uniform ideas stocked for years to come.
Perhaps nothing embodies that mindset more than the fact that Oregon commits to having at least one entirely new, never-before-seen uniform design each season.
Dubbed the “energy moment,” this sixth uniform combination has, over the years, run the gamut and largely been led by players. From a bright pink helmet with black jerseys in 2013, to a pan-Polynesian heritage-themed “Ohana” uniform in 2020, to a “Stomp Out Cancer” jersey in 2017 designed by cancer survivors as well as working on a “Heroes” bright yellow fit with Lanning’s wife, Sauphia (who is eight years cancer-free after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma),last season, the energy moment jersey is where Oregon and Nike often flex their muscles. A Stormtrooper look? Yes. A Lewis-and-Clark-inspired combo? Why not?
“While we want to do some throwbacks and some throwbacks need to be done, it’s like, what’s the next thing?” Farr said. “How are we going to evolve?”
There’s another committee that Farr oversees of younger Oregon players who are part of the idea process for what the energy moment jersey will be in 2026 and 2027. This year’s edition had to be approved by Nike 18 months before it saw the field against Oregon State; it featured a charcoal black and gold look with white helmets dubbed “Shoe Duck” that honors Knight.
“We talk so much about when Oregon comes out with a really big uniform, we’re extra stressed,” Quinn Van Horne said. “We really want to make sure they win, because we know what a win does to cement a uniform and its foundation.”
For Farr, the Van Hornes and Bakas, being part of establishing or furthering Oregon’s aesthetic identity is important and an inextricable part of Nike’s history over the past 25 years. But the goal, from the beginning, has always gone beyond that.
“We intentionally said it, we’re doing all this to win a national title and the uniform [redesign] was part of that too,” Bakas said. “That’s the Nike mentality — you want to be the best. The goal was to win a national championship, and the wheels were set in motion back then. The intent was there, but I didn’t think it would take 30 years or 25 years to get to this point. I thought we would’ve won one by now.”
THE BUILDING THAT houses them is named after him, but inside the hallway of hanging jerseys, you won’t find any sporting Mariota’s name.
Players who finish their senior season at the school are given a framed jersey before their last home game. Because the jerseys are technically state property, should a player want any of his other Oregon jerseys back, the price is $50 — plus shipping and handling.
Mariota bought all of his once he made it to the NFL. Not everyone else has, though. It’s why even though that closet holds close to 1,000 jerseys, there are still 600 to 800 more sitting in storage on the floor below.
“There’s guys that have left after their five years, and maybe your freshman year was the full reset, and then three years in you got another full reset,” Farr said. “So we’ve had guys that have, at the end of their career, had 40 or 50 jerseys.”
After years of simply taking old jerseys and selling them at a school surplus sale, Farr decided on a different approach. When the performance center was built in 2016, he took the jerseys from storage in rail cars to this room, where he organized them in alphabetical order. You never know who is going to swing through Eugene one of these days wanting to reunite with their polyester past.
“For every Marcus, there’s 119 other guys on that team that maybe weren’t the star player, or maybe when they graduated they couldn’t afford to buy all their jerseys,” Farr said. “So maybe they forgot about it or whatever the situation is, and they’ll come back and they’ll just ask me, and I get to tell them ‘Yeah, here they are.'”
Farr got to do just that as recently as the game against the Cowboys this season.
Cornerback Jaylin Davies was a freshman at Oregon in 2021 before transferring to UCLA for three seasons, eventually landing with Oklahoma State. Davies and Farr greeted each other after the game on the field. Though Davies had only recorded a few snaps as a freshman, he wanted his piece of Oregon history.
“You still have my jersey?” Davies asked Farr.
“I do,” Farr told him. “Call me after the season is over.”
Farr was happy to oblige. After all, that’s one more jersey he can take off a hanger and send on its way, just in time for another to take its place.
Sports
West Virginia, Boise State lead best uniforms from college football Week 5
Published
3 hours agoon
September 26, 2025By
admin
Sometimes, to go forward, you have to go back.
After a Week 4 loss on the road against the Kansas Jayhawks, the West Virginia Mountaineers are looking to notch their first Big 12 win of the season against the Utah Utes.
And West Virginia has an ace in the hole for that matchup with the Utes: new throwback uniforms.
Unveiled in May, the vintage look’s inspiration dates back to 1965. Its distinguishing features include a twist on the school’s usual color palette — a muted “old gold” hue replaces the Mountaineers’ traditional yellow, while light blue makes an appearance on the uniform’s helmets.
The light blue color fills in an outline of the state of West Virginia, with “WVU” superimposed on the state’s outline in an old-school, bolded font. The old gold elements are paired with a simple, navy blue base jersey.
Old gold.
Light blue.Brought 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲.#HailWV pic.twitter.com/OGOjtRzi3o
— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) May 5, 2025
The Mountaineers aren’t the only school bringing the heat with uniforms this weekend. Here are the best threads from around the college football world in Week 5.
The Boise State Broncos are donning lids touched up with unparalleled detail — an unsurprising characteristic, given the helmets were hand-painted.
Named “The Front Porch of Idaho helmet,” the Broncos’ headgear for the weekend pays homage to the school’s location in the capital of Idaho. One side of the lid features a bronco charging forward, while the other shows the Idaho state capitol building. Albertsons Stadium and its famous blue field make an appearance on the back, orange end zone included.
Representing 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 #BleedBlue | #BuiltDifferent pic.twitter.com/81AntuTxSV
— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) September 25, 2025
It’s a given that the Oregon Ducks will bring out a memorable uniform combination for any big game, but its Week 5 threads for its game against the Penn State Nittany Lions are notable for a particularly unique reason: a logo.
Playing in Penn State’s iconic annual White Out game atmosphere, the Ducks seem to be leaning into the intense nature of the road environment. In addition to a white jersey, Oregon’s threads for Saturday night will also include an alternate motif of a seemingly mummified duck, making an appearance on gloves and other accessories.
Prepare and Beware.
Game 5 uni combo. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/XcsgWWwfCV
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) September 25, 2025
Blue is the color of the week for the Old Dominion Monarchs, whose uniforms for Week 5 will feature contrasting shades.
The helmets and pants will be a lighter powder blue, while the jerseys contain a navy base. The light blue shade will also serve as the outline for the numbers and trimming on the jerseys.
chartin’ our course ⚓️ #ReignOn | #BeTheReason pic.twitter.com/7lO4WdXDzg
— ODU Football (@ODUFootball) September 25, 2025
With one major upset this season already under its belt, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are looking to add another to the ledger this Saturday against the Tennessee Volunteers.
The color of the Bulldogs’ uniforms will match the home crowd, which has been asked to make Week 5 a whiteout in Starkville. Mississippi State will be going with an icy white look itself, highlighted by a helmet that features a maroon, retro-style interlocking “MSU” logo on a white base.
Ice Meets Iron. pic.twitter.com/MWf1tS0iU1
— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) September 25, 2025
An appropriately patriotic element will spice up the East Carolina Pirates‘ look for its Thursday clash with the Army Black Knights, with the school donning military appreciation uniforms for the service academy matchup.
While the Pirates’ purple jerseys and white pants are standard fare, the helmets this week are distinctive. East Carolina will add a splash of red, white and blue to the lids, with an American flag superimposed on the Pirates’ usual skull and crossbones motif.
The Military Appreciation look for Thursday 🏴☠️ pic.twitter.com/1AgTjtWE9R
— ECU Football (@ECUPiratesFB) September 23, 2025
Sports
MLB playoff tracker: Dodgers, Mariners clinch divisions — what else is at stake?
Published
6 hours agoon
September 26, 2025By
admin
The final weekend of the MLB season is here — and there’s still plenty to play for!
The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs have both clinched postseason berths, with the Brewers also taking home the NL Central title. The Philadelphia Phillies have locked up the NL East title, and the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their fifth straight NL West title on Thursday. The New York Mets, clinging onto the final wild-card-spot, won their series against the Cubs this week and control their own destiny going into the final weekend, but the door is still open for the Cincinnati Reds — who won on Thursday afternoon — and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL wild-card race.
In the AL, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first AL team to secure a playoff spot and the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners joined them days later. In the biggest twists of the 2025 season, the Cleveland Guardians have rocked the American League playoff picture with a September surge, emerging as a serious contender in both the AL Central and wild-card race: After winning their series against the Tigers this week, the Guardians are now tied with Detroit for the the AL Central lead.
Beyond division races, there are many storylines to watch as the regular season comes to an end and playoffs begin: Where do current playoff matchups stand? What games should you be paying attention to each day leading up to October? Who will be the next team to clinch a postseason berth? And what does the playoff schedule look like?
We have everything you need to know as the regular season hits the homestretch.
Key links: Full MLB standings | Wild-card standings
Who’s in?
The Brewers clinched the season’s first playoff spot for a second consecutive year on Sept. 13 and followed up by securing their third straight NL Central title. They earned a bye in the first round and are playing for the NL’s overall No. 1 seed.
The Phillies clinched a spot in the postseason on Sept. 14. With a win the following night, Philadelphia clinched the NL East title for the second straight year. On Wednesday, the Phils beat the Marlins to clinch a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the NLDS.
The Cubs clinched their spot in the postseason on Sept. 17 and will be making their first playoff appearance in a full-length season since 2018. They will face the Padres in the wild-card series.
With a win Thursday over the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers clinched the NL West title for the 12th time in the past 13 years. They will be the No. 3 seed in the NL and host the No. 6 seed in the wild-card series.
The Blue Jays became the first AL team to secure a postseason berth with a with over the Royals on Sunday. They are currently tied with the Yankees for first place in the AL East — the division winner will earn a bye.
The Padres clinched their fourth postseason trip in six years with a walk-off win over the Brewers on Monday. They will face the Cubs in the wild-card series.
The Yankees became the second AL team to clinch a playoff spot with a walk-off win over the White Sox on Tuesday. They are currently tied with the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East — the division winner will earn a bye.
The Mariners clinched their first postseason appearance since 2022 on Tuesday and, with a 9-2 win on Wednesday, won their first AL West crown since 2001. They earned a bye in the first round.
Who can clinch a playoff spot next?
Upcoming clinch possibilities:
-
The Red Sox can clinch a postseason berth Friday with a win OR an Astros loss
-
The Guardians can clinch a postseason berth Friday with a win OR an Astros loss
-
The Tigers can clinch a postseason berth as early as Friday with any combination of three Detroit wins and Astros losses
What are this October’s MLB playoff matchups as it stands now?
American League
Wild-card round: (6) Tigers at (3) Guardians, (5) Red Sox at (4) Yankees
ALDS: Tigers/Guardians vs. (2) Mariners, Red Sox/Yankees vs. (1) Blue Jays
National League
Wild-card round: (6) Mets at (3) Dodgers, (5) Padres at (4) Cubs
NLDS: Mets/Dodgers vs. (2) Phillies, Padres/Cubs vs. (1) Brewers
Tiebreaker scenarios
AL East teams
Toronto Blue Jays
Win tiebreaker: Mariners, Red Sox, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker: Guardians
New York Yankees
Win tiebreaker: Mariners
Lose tiebreaker: Blue Jays, Guardians, Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
Win tiebreaker: Astros, Guardians, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker: Blue Jays, Mariners
(Red Sox still have 3 games left vs. Tigers)
AL Central teams
Cleveland Guardians
Win tiebreaker: Astros, Tigers, Yankees, Blue Jays
Lose tiebreaker: Mariners, Red Sox
Detroit Tigers
Win tiebreaker: Astros
Lose tiebreaker: Guardians, Mariners
(Detroit still has 3 games left vs. Red Sox)
AL West teams
Seattle Mariners
Win tiebreaker: Tigers, Guardians, Red Sox
Lose tiebreaker: Blue Jays, Yankees
Houston Astros
Win tiebreaker: N/A
Lose tiebreaker: Guardians, Red Sox, Tigers
NL East teams
Philadelphia Phillies
Win tiebreaker: Dodgers
Lose tiebreaker: Brewers
New York Mets
Win tiebreaker: N/A
Lose tiebreaker: D-backs, Reds
(Mets would lose tiebreaker in 3-way tie with Reds and D-backs)
NL Central teams
Milwaukee Brewers
Win tiebreaker: Phillies
Lose tiebreaker: N/A
Chicago Cubs
Win tiebreaker: Dodgers
Lose tiebreaker: N/A
(Padres and Cubs tied season series, division record tiebreaker TBD)
Cincinnati Reds
Win tiebreaker: D-backs, Mets
Lose tiebreaker: N/A
(The Reds would win tiebreaker in 3-way tie with D-backs and Mets)
NL West teams
Los Angeles Dodgers
Win tiebreaker: Padres
Lose tiebreaker: Brewers, Cubs, Phillies
San Diego Padres
Win tiebreaker: N/A
Lose tiebreaker: Dodgers
(Padres and Cubs tied season series, division record tiebreaker TBD)
Arizona Diamondbacks
Win tiebreaker: Mets
Lose tiebreaker: Reds
(D-backs would lose tiebreaker in 3-way tie with Reds and Mets)
Breaking down the AL race
The Blue Jays are trying to hold for the AL’s No. 1 seed and division title. While Toronto sits atop the AL East, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are duking it out for wild-card seeding. And the Seattle Mariners separated themselves from the Houston Astros in a two-team AL West race to win their first division crown since 2001. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Guardians are going toe-to-toe with the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central while also playing themselves into a tight race for the final wild-card spot.
And what about when these teams get to the postseason? Here’s what their chances are for every round:
Breaking down the NL race
The Brewers were the first MLB team to seal its spot in October, and the Phillies — who then sealed an NL East title — clinched next. A group of contenders have separated themselves atop the NL standings with the New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds battling for the final playoff spot, and there is intrigue in the NL West as the Dodgers attempt to fend off the Padres for the division crown.
And what about when these teams get to the postseason? Here’s what their chances are for every round:
Game of the day
Looking for something to watch today? Here’s the baseball game with the biggest playoff implications:
Playoff schedule
Wild-card series
Best of three, all games at better seed’s stadium
Game 1: Tuesday, Sept. 30
Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 1
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 2*
Division series
Best of five
ALDS
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 4
Game 2: Sunday, Oct. 5
Game 3: Tuesday, Oct. 7
Game 4: Wednesday, Oct. 8*
Game 5: Friday, Oct. 10*
NLDS
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 4
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 6
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 8
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 9*
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 11*
League championship series
Best of seven
ALCS
Game 1: Sunday, Oct. 12
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 13
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 15
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 16
Game 5: Friday, Oct. 17*
Game 6: Sunday, Oct. 19*
Game 7: Monday, Oct. 20*
NLCS
Game 1: Monday, Oct. 13
Game 2: Tuesday, Oct. 14
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 16
Game 4: Friday, Oct. 17
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 18*
Game 6: Monday, Oct. 20*
Game 7: Tuesday, Oct. 21*
World Series
Best of seven
Game 1: Friday, Oct. 24
Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 25
Game 3: Monday, Oct. 27
Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 28
Game 5: Wednesday, Oct. 29*
Game 6: Friday, Oct. 31*
Game 7: Saturday, Nov. 1*
* If necessary
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