NCAA Top 25 Helmets-and more!

[mcrosby]

With the season at end, and an amazing template I've decided to count down from 25 and put out some wacky helmet designs that someone at Nike may actually come up with. I'll be putting out 5 at a time.

Without further ado, here's #25 UCF

This one is one of the most tame of the group, the only significant change being the stripe, it's now modeled after the sword in UCF's logo.

Next up is Hawai'i. This one takes some inspiration from Tulsa's Hawai'i bowl helmets with its sublimated pattern.

Florida State uses the classic spear as the helmet stripe, with the little used FSU monogram on the sides.

West Virginia uses the 'carbon' pattern Oregon has been using, carbon says coal to me, and coal says West Virginia

And the last of this set of five is Mississippi State. I used the banner portion of their monogram logo and draped it over the facemask, similar to the piece of tape a player wears with his name on the helmet pre-season. I used their bulldog logo on the side.

This set is, in my opinion, the most conservative of the bunch, the top 15 is where I started to get really ridiculous. C&C please

[Brave-Bird 08]

would not mind to see any of these as specific one game, or bowl game helmets. i love that WVU one!

[Lights Out]

You don't even need the bulldog on the Mississippi State helmet, it would look better with just the banner.

Nice set!

[MC2]

Wow these look great. I love the Hawaii one.

Where did you get this template?

[redsox1002003]

Excellent start. The Mississippi State helmet surprising works very well. The Hawaii helmet is pretty nice too.

[mcrosby]

I'm going to move on to the next five, in hopes of a bit more of a response.

Here's South Carolina. This one is the first real 'out of the box' type. It features the tail of USC's gamecock along with the spur out of the earhole.

Utah's was hard to change. I tried to stick with logos that the school's already had, and well, Utah doesn't have much to work with. I added sun rays to the circle due to Ute meaning "land of the sun."

Nebraska presented another challenge. I considered a black helmet, but I'm just not a fan at all, so I used a logo that the University has been using recently on the regular helmet.

I used Texas A&M's star T logo because I think it's great, and underused. The stripe reflects the bevelled T.

And Alabama, what else but houndstooth?

[redsox1002003]

I am really enjoying that South Carolina helmet. It looks great. Like you said, the Utah and Nebraska helmets are basically the same. I wouldn't mind the A&M helmet if the stripe is on the other side of the nose bumper as well, not just a stripe all the way to the right. And the sublimated houndstooth helmet looks very nice. I wouldn't be surprised if Nike cranked out something like that next year for their Pro Combat uni.

[north dakota]

Amazing job on all of these, but i would enlarge the side logo on the Mississippi State helmet.

[infrared41]

You don't even need the bulldog on the Mississippi State helmet, it would look better with just the banner.

Nice set!

Stop the presses! I actually agree with Mr. Out. That Mississippi State helmet is killer but it would look even better without the bulldog.

[mcrosby]

Here are 15 through 11. Things start to get a bit more... innovative.

For Nevada I avoided their Denver Bronco/middle school knockoff logo and went for their regular logo sans 'N'. It was partly inspired by the Michigan Panthers-a look we'll see later in the series.

Oklahoma State was tough for me. I wanted to do a half and half with the two oranges from their logo, but it just didn't feel inspired enough. Instead I went with design based on the shape of the Revolution helmet.

I did a pseudo throwback/simplification for Virginia Tech. Nothing too special here, just some sort of imagery to evoke the hokie bird. Plus, the turkey track looks a bit like a V/T combination.

For Mizzou I took a Cincinnati route, not all that original, but still a new look for college football. I also loved putting this striping onto this template.

I wanted to take LSU's eye logo and expand it to cover the whole helmet. The extended striping ended up just looking like old tiger-stripe camouflage, so I went with just the eye. I like it.

The next five are arguably the most ridiculous of the bunch. At least one, possibly two, will be loathed.

[cjzilligen]

Mizzou and OSU look really nice, the tiger striping is a great look for them.

I would love to see the half-n-half shell color for the 'Boys, though. It sounds like a real interesting idea, maybe have them gradient into one another. Regardless, this is a nice helmet.

[Somppi]

Can I give you a kiss? All of these are perfect (not a fan of VT's tho)

[mcrosby]

On to the top 10.

First up, Boise State. I took what NIke seemed to attempt to do and took it a step farther. I made the helmet orange-a change from their usual blue, and Michigan Panthered the bronco.

This one is pretty ridiculous, A spartan helmet made to appear as though its fitting the helmet. I tried a few different approaches to this and this is the best I could come up with. I know I've seen a spartan (not MSU) helmet put onto a football helmet in this fashion on the boards before, but I couldn't find it.

The Razorbacks have had that darn pig on the helmet for as long as I can remember, but it's always been rather small. I took this opportunity to give the little guy center stage.

The Sooners are another tradition rules helmet, so naturally I threw that out the window. I never get to see this friggin wagon, I like it. This is probably the least plausible of the bunch.

And rounding out 10-6 is The Ohio State. Too bad they weren't higher on the list, this is one of my personal favorites (good thing they weren't higher on the list though, ON WISCONSIN). This takes from the padded helmet they wore in the early 60's. The helmet had extra padding on the top and was painted red. This would be for a bowl game, imo, and would go well with some sort of 'Earn It" slogan, to reflect the single buckeye decal (only on this side of the helmet). I like it, take note Nike, and send me some moneys.

[Somppi]

Loving these, I can't wait for Auburn.

[Jahgee]

For Oregon, I suggest a carbon O on a feathered helmet

[Slammersman]

The Bama Helmet is that a white face mask or the traditional grey?

[RuffDawg]

These are brilliant, I think Oklahoma is the only one I don't really care for. Michigan State's "helmet on a helmet" is beautifully executed; I'd love to see them (or another Spartans-nicknamed team) taking this route.

[cameroncrazie07]

Wow these are great, Missouri and LSU are amazing. I'm not sold on Mississippi St. yet. Thats the only one I don't like.

[mcrosby]

Bama's mask is white, look at it now I think i'd go with grey. Top 5 to come soon. You've already seen TCU in my last thread, Wisconsin is the only one giving me trouble. Any ideas?

[Somppi]

A big badger perhaps?