2005 Cotton Bowl (RING)
Although this ring often classified as a ring for the 2004 season, a more fitting classification would be that this ring represents the participation in the 2005 Cotton Bowl which occured at the end of the 2004 season.
That may simply be a matter of semantics, however for purposes of this site, it is much easier to label rings such as this as a "Bowl Ring" vs. a "Season Ring."
In fact, as it currently stands (in case your curious) I catergorize Football Rings into three categories. The first is that of "Bowl Ring" (whether the Bowl game was won or lost is irrelevant). The second category is that of "Championship Ring" (for Conference or National Titles, etc.).
This second category is made up of rings that represent a Conference Crown (or National). However, they also often display information about the Bowl Game that followed the Conf. Title season. Again, just as with the "Bowl Rings," the outcome of the Bowl Game (on a Conference Championship ring) is irrelevant to the classification of the ring itself.
Finally, the third category (which is so rare that it's almost not worth mentioning) would be "specialty rings." These are rings that are made for another purpose (Ex: Letterman's Ring). However, these rings can also fit into one of the first two catergories as well as this third category. Or otherwise stated, a Category 3 ring could also be a Category 1 or 2. However, a category 1 or 2 ring will never be anything else but a 1 or a 2.