Ugliest college football helmets

[winghaz]

And now, my picks for the ugliest college football helmets, by conference (Division I-A only, of course):

ACC -- Maryland. It's just Terps written in script. No logo, no M, no Maryland flag, no nothing that was good in the past.

Big East -- Tie between Pitt and Syracuse. Pitt's T-Rex like Panther was even better than just block letters saying PITT. As for Syracuse, any team that uses numbers on its helmets is automatically one of the worst (hear that, Alabama?)

Big Ten -- Illinois. They copied the old New York Giants helmets, not realizing those Giants helmets were ugly. Glad to see the ny back for the Giants helmets. Too bad Illinois couldn't come up with its own decent helmet.

Big 12 -- Texas with the numbers. If Texas goes without the helmets, then it's Kansas. The simple reason: Why, when you have such a neat logo like the Jayhawk, would you just put a KU on the helmet?

MAC -- Bowling Green. This Falcon just doesn't fly. It needs some coloring on the inside, not just an outline.

Mountain West -- UNLV. How clever. Just put "UNLV" in block letters. It should spell "UGLY."

Pac 10 -- Real tough call. I like all the helmets. So I'll pick Oregon State just because I don't think the Beavers script underneath the Beaver is necessary. But that's being really picky.

SEC -- OK, Bama fans, you think I'm going to pick your helmet as the worst, right? Wrong. I'm going with Florida, just because the Gator script makes it look more like a can of orange pop. But, sorry, Bama fans, no matter how traditional your helmet is, it still ain't pretty.

Sun Belt -- Louisiana-Lafayette. I'd rather see them go to the 1997 helmets of three fleur de lises.

WAC -- Idaho. The Vandals also could do much better.

Independents -- Navy, only because I'd like to see the anchor on the helmet.

And the worst of the worst is (drum roll, please) ...

Illinois.

Not only is the Illini helmet unclever, it was copied as well. That sucks bigtime.

[sacker12]

I side with you on the Bowling Green helmet. The Ball State helmet is about as bad.

[Cujo]

[iowahoo]

BOWLING GREEN HELMET

As a falcon fan i must say the current design upset most fans when they went to it last year. It doesn't show up well on tv and is just missing something. Here are some helmets, beginning with the 1983-2003 helmet the current one has replaced as well as some new designs I came up with. I really like hte white helmet with orange facemask. What do you guys think?

Old helmet (83-03) with something on the inside:

Current helmet on the left, white falcon mock up on the right:

My design if they decide to update the helmet to the uniforms (fang stripes on helmet like Louisville)

[sacker12]

I like that one. They need to fully remove themselves from the Browns look-alike phase and use something like you made up.

[worst. jersey. ever.]

I've always been a fan of the team's name in script on the helmets, so I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the Maryland and Florida verdict, and I LOVE 'Bama's helmets. I do agree with you on Pitt, Syracuse, and Texas, they are all pretty ugly. I like Navy's helmets and they are really classic, but it's too much of a ND ripoff and they should have the anchor, that would be really cool.

[otherwilds]

San Diego State Aztecs have the most horrendously ugly helmet. Period. End Of Story.

[iowahoo]

I like that one. They need to fully remove themselves from the Browns look-alike phase and use something like you made up.

Thanks for the comments sacker12. They "modernized" (got fangs on pants and side panel stripes on jerseys) the uniforms but not the helmet, seemed odd.

That said you kind of have it backwards as the Browns have Bowling Green look a like uniforms. (Paul Brown held his first training camp here in BG in the 1940s and decided he liked our color scheme, thus the burnt orange and seal brown of the cleveland browns)

[Gary]

your opinion, not mine, those are some of the most beautiful helmets you will ever see, you may not like it but I LOVE EM. Now as far as the ugliest. That honor would go to Oregon, i'm sorry but there is really nothing going with the O on Dark Green Helmet. Never really understood it. Boring is more I like it

[axl007]

[bhambruiser]

But, sorry, Bama fans, no matter how traditional your helmet is, it still ain't pretty.

[old southern drawl]football aint meant to be purty[/old southern drawl]

spit

edit- by the way- you make no mention of Penn State's helmet which has NOTHING on it....???

[andrewharrington]

I liked the 1983-2003 BG helmet.

[JetsLuvver]

For some reason, during the 80's, several teams decided to copy the Giants underline helmet logo. Only Illinois has stuck with this lame look.

[RidgeRunner]

Question...

You said you don't like Maryland's helmet because it just has "Terps" in script yet say that you like all the Pac-10 helmets. Doesn't UCLA just have script "UCLA" on the helmet?

But I will agree with you with Bowling Green. That's a pretty ugly helmet.

[redsfan39]

But, sorry, Bama fans, no matter how traditional your helmet is, it still ain't pretty.

I like it alot..

[WSU151]

That honor would go to Oregon, i'm sorry but there is really nothing going with the O on Dark Green Helmet. Never really understood it. Boring is more I like it

The paint is the best part of Oregon's helmet. It's metallic, but they also use a weird and unique (to UO) style paint that can really alter the color based on light reflection.

[amare32]

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[leafs13]

San Diego State Aztecs have the most horrendously ugly helmet. Period. End Of Story.

San Diego State Aztecs have the best helmet.

[Gary]

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Don't you mean

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[winghaz]

A couple of comments on comments:

edit- by the way- you make no mention of Penn State's helmet which has NOTHING on it....???

Two reasons:

1. Having nothing on a helmet is better than having numbers.

2. I didn't mention Penn State's helmet because I only picked the worst one from the Big Ten. And, in my humble opinion, Illinois not only has the worst helmet in the Big Ten, but in all of NCAA I-A.

For the record, though, I don't like Penn State's helmet, even though it is traditional. I would like to see the oval Lion in the white helmet. I think it would be sharp.

You said you don't like Maryland's helmet because it just has "Terps" in script yet say that you like all the Pac-10 helmets. Doesn't UCLA just have script "UCLA" on the helmet?

Yes, but the script UCLA is more of the school's logo than any diagram of any Bruin. Script works with some teams, while with others it doesn't. Script definitely works with UCLA and Pitt, to name just two. It doesn't work with Terps or Gators.