Ranking the 50 most visually-appealing college football uniforms

While other schools put the pattern on their helmets first, the most common thing that comes to mind when college football fans think of the winged helmet is the classic maize-and-blue look adorning the lids of Michigan. The look brought to Ann Arbor by former Princeton head coach Fritz Crisler in 1938, has adorned Michigan’s helmets ever since.

That classic pattern, at once anachronistic and increasingly rare in a world where teams deviate from traditional looks like a branding opportunity, is indicative of the Wolverines culture. Like many of its Big Ten brethren, Michigan found a look that transcends time and translates across the eras of college football.

After shifting from Adidas to Nike in 2016, the Wolverines started wearing the Michael Jordan-inspired Jumpman logo instead of the traditional Nike swoosh. Other than that, few stylistic elements really changed with the switch in uniform suppliers.

There have also been some fun alternate and throwback uniforms in recent years. They have ranged from an all-maize effort to several bumblebee-looking patterns to divergent shoulder patterns and stripes. Even with the attempts at subtle modernization, though, every effort has maintained a distinctively timeless feel thanks to the helmet that has remained constant for more than eight decades.