T-shirts sold at MasterCard Memorial Cup bear striking resemblance to NCAA Frozen Four logo

SHAWINIGAN, Que. — The great divide in developmental hockey isn't anything, at least if you go by the T-shirts sold at both the Canadian Hockey League's championship and the NCAA Frozen Four.

There's an all-out bitter divide between Canadian major junior hockey and U.S. college hockey over who does a better job readying young players for the NHL as well as a life after hockey. Neither wants to give an inch; the only safe middle ground for neutral observers is to be pro-prospect and point out every player with a NHL dream and need of a fallback is a unique case.

So it's ironic that one of the T-shirts sold at the MasterCard Memorial Cup official merchandise store bears the words Final Four as part of a logo that is a near-dead ringer for the one used last month at the NCAA Frozen Four championship. The NCAA might not be too happy against Final Four being used for another event; granted, news from Canada can travel slowly to the U.S. and the tournament could be over by the time it could act on it. The "sternly warns" legalese is also vague. The 2013 Frozen Four is also a doppelganger.

Each has a puck in place the O in "Four." There are only minute differences with the placement of "2012," the league logos. Still, that's awfully crazy.

Of course, to quote a character in Almost Famous, "It's a T-shirt." It's highly dubious that the CHL comes up with the design of the hats and shirts which are sold to fans, although they have right of refusal for something inappropriate, the Shawinigan Cataractes logo possibly notwithstanding.

Perhaps the apparel maker noted that like the NCAA's basketball and hockey championships, the final tournament in the CHL also includes four teams. Final Four is a misnomer with the Memorial Cup. "Final" connotes that every team qualified through a single-elimination tournament.

The Memorial Cup isn't like that, since it always involve a host team or league representative who didn't win their championship. It kind of muddies the brand, don't you think?

Again, it's a T-shirt. No doubt a few fans who appreciate the irony of a shirt that apes the CHL's recruiting rival might more inclined to snap one up for $29.95 Cdn plus tax. The shirt also comes in brown and royal blue and it's a nice, breathable fabric..

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.