Few things are more integral to a college football team’s brand than its helmets. They immediately catch your eye on the field and are typically the first thing, besides the logo, that you associate with a team.
The helmet scene in the Big Ten is one of the most interesting in the nation. There are old-school teams who pretty much wear the same helmet every single game and have for decades now with minimal change. Then, there are the others who have followed new trends, introducing re-designs and playing around with alternate uniforms.
Ultimately, there are very few bad helmets in the Big Ten, and competition at the top is very fierce. This is especially true with the introduction of the four newcomers from the Pac-12.
With those expansion teams in mind, here is a complete ranking of every standard Big Ten helmet. I tried my best to only consider the base helmet for each team, but some really made that difficult. I’m looking squarely at a team from the Pacific Northwest.