This time of year, with pre-season magazines lining the shelves of your local grocery store, many lists ranking various aspects of the upcoming college football season can be found like this one ranking non-BCS quarterbacks. In an effort to be a bit different, I’ve stepped off the field, strayed away from the sideline, and have instead found myself assessing these lesser funded schools’ graphic representation…their logos.

Let me begin by saying that I have no experience or training in graphic design. Through my eyes, certain color combinations have no hidden meaning and sharp angles or soft curves don’t add specific definition to an image. This list is created by your average college sports fan who has learned to love logos through years of dedicated time spent watching ESPN’s Sportscenter or flipping through magazines.

I realize that most schools have several alternate logos, so for simplicity’s sake I used the logo found at nationalchamps.net for each university. The logos were graded on a 5 point scale in three categories (any ties were broken by personal preference):

1. Cleanliness / Drawability - This category is based on two important purposes of a collegiate logo. A logo should be clean enough to make an attractive car decal or adorn an alum’s golf bag. Additionally, with many Fridays of my youth spent attempting to draw logos to represent the next day’s upcoming NCAA football matchups on the wide-ruled notebook paper in my Trapper Keeper binder, I learned the value of a logo’s simplicity which I’ve termed “Drawability”.

2. Creativity - This category is basically created to award logos which are more than a combination of the school’s acronym. I recognize that there’s value in a letter-based logo, but for the purpose of my ranking, I wanted to reward artistic creativity.

3. Recognition Value - Probably the most important aspect of a logo is it’s ability to be recognized as representing that specific University. While my perspective on this category will differ from someone in another part of the country, I tried to assess the logo’s value nationally as best I could.

* A 2-point bonus was awarded for logos used on a school’s helmet.

Without further adieu…

BJsD’s Top Ten College Football Logos (non-BCS edition)

10. Colorado State Rams - MWC

Maybe it’s because it seems like they owned Thursday night football when I was growing up. Maybe it’s because their helmets are just like the St. Louis Rams’. Maybe it’s because I’ve always liked the green and gold color combination or the fact that there was something about B.V.P’s game that I always enjoyed. Whatever the reason, representing the Mountain West Conference, the Colorado State Rams come in at #10.

9. Central Florida Knights - CUSA

To be honest, I visited the conference usa website and had no clue what university was represented by the Knights’ logo, but it caught my eye and had to make the list. I would like to see such a unique logo on the side of UCF’s helmets, but the logo was cool, so it made the list.

8. Wyoming Cowboys - MWC

Our second Mountain West representative, the Wyoming Cowboys’ logo has always been a favorite of mine. The helmet bonus is what allowed the logo to make the top 10.

7. North Texas Mean Green - Sunbelt

I won’t argue that I’m biased, but I think I was fair by ranking my alma mater this far down the list. The logo itself hasn’t been around more than a couple years, but I feel like it has staying power. Due to its relatively recent adoption, the fact that rather than being displayed on the helmet, the logo can be found on the top of the team’s pants, and the confusing detail that while obviously matching NT’s eagle mascot, the logo doesn’t easily represent the team’s “Mean Green” moniker, at this point, the North Texas logo could climb no further up the ranking.

6. Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles - CUSA

Best known as “Brett Favre University”, Southern Miss has become one of the powers of Conference USA. At the program’s foundation, is a logo that embodies the strength and direction…just kidding. As the program moves forward, their logo will be more recognizable and may one day slide up on this list.

5. Brigham Young Cougars - MWC

At this point, several schools rated equally on my system, so personal preference established positioning. With high points for simplicity and recognition value, BYU’s logo found itself higher on the list than any creativity assessment would’ve allowed. Some may say that it shouldn’t make the list because it’s nothing more than a letter, but it was allowed into the list based on the oval surrounding the “Y”.

4. Boise State Broncos - WAC

With their meteoric rise to national prominence including the 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory (I can’t get enough of that), the Broncos’ logo has been on display nationally for the last several years. I’m not a fan of a school’s name being part of their logo, so it fell to number 4 on the list.

3. Utah Utes - MWC

The Utes were the first non-BCS conference affiliated school to crash the BCS party. Combine that success with the Keith Van Horn and Rick Majeris days of Utah hoops and the Utah logo is known by all college sports fans. It defines simplicity and effectiveness.

2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Independent

Their main logo may be an interlocked “ND”, but equally recognizable is this angry leprechaun. The combination of the two logo options for the Fighting Irish creates a powerful branding punch, but based on the leprechaun itself, it falls to #2.

1. Southern Methodist Mustangs - CUSA

I’ve always been a fan of the Mustang’s logo. It’s very clean and unique. Their success in the early 80’s may have brought them the NCAA version of the death penalty, but it also brought national recognition for both the program and, more importantly (for this ranking), their logo.

Controversial? Maybe. Offensive? Possibly. Important? Undoubtedly! This ranking of logos should be the beginning of a long summer waiting for college football to begin.

I will continue this series with a BCS version to be followed by a compilation of the two lists.

Weigh in with your assessment of my list and feel free to rank them yourself.