Voters line up around the block as Helmet Bowl III Conference polling begins. We are less than 48 hours into the season and already surprises are springing.
Who ya got?
Helmet Bowl III features two-part Conference play. First, every team is entered into its own conference for a flat out, open vote, contest for three weeks.
Then, the top four teams in each conference enter a head-to-head bracket for the conference championship.
It's early in the conference poll season, yet we are seeing some things to draw to your attention.
ONE
Helmet Bowl I Champion Gallaudet Bison are serious about another Conference win and presumably a second National Championship. Votes are starting to stack up here. Vote in the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference.
TWO
How does the Virginia Tech Hokies gorgeous helmet struggle to gain votes in the ACC? Meanwhile, North Carolina and Syracuse lead voting. Vote in the ACC.
THREE
The Big Ten rolls into Helmet Bowl III with some of the most iconic helmets in all of college football, yet underachieves. Exhibit A: Maryland. The Terrapins have one of the most fantastic helmets in the country, yet struggle to win even against such blandness as Penn State, Purdue, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and the like. A Big Ten Conference Championship should be a walk in the park for the Old Line State. Maybe the third time is a charm. Vote in the Big Ten.
FOUR
The Big Sky offers a slew of nice looking helmets and atop them so far sit the simple growling Bobcat of Montana State. The Eastern Washington Eagles, Sacramento State Hornets, even the axe head of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks deserve a look here. Vote in the Big Sky.
FIVE
We have admired the Moravia Greyhounds helmet for a couple of seasons now, but the Centennial Conference belongs to the defending Helmet Bowl National Champion Dickinson Red Devils. However, it's the Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins who currently have a substantial lead. Vote in the Centennial.
SIX
Over in the Frontier Conference, the votes are piling up. Is this because the Frontier is the first conference listed on the Helmet Bowl page and garners more votes due to that, or do the Montana Tech Orediggers have something special in mind this year? They lead voting as of this writing over the Montana Western Bulldogs, Southern Oregon Raiders, and one of our perennial favorites, the diagonally designed Eastern Oregon Mountaineers. Vote in the Frontier Conference.
SEVEN
22 teams (yes, TWENTY TWO) make up the Mid-South Conference in the NAIA (yes, we know there are two divisions) and there are a slew of cool lids here to chose from. The Faulkner Eagles currently take an early and slim lead over the St. Thomas Bobcats, the Kentucky Christian Knights, and the Keiser Seahawks, but check out the rest of these helmets. Vote in the Mid-South.
EIGHT
One of our primary goals in Helmet Bowl is to give you a view of every college football helmet in the nation. As much as you might love LSU and are drawn to their yellow helmet because you've been a Tiger fan forever, you may find a pile of great looking helmets, in, say, the Mid-American Conference. Check out the helmets from Eastern Michigan (Eagles), Toledo (Rockets), Western Michigan (Broncos), and Buffalo (Bulls). Vote in the Mid-America.
NINE
As any previous conference champion knows, the key to winning is to first get your helmet together and get Helmet Tracker a good image good image. A good image makes all the difference in Helmet Bowl.
Then, get the vote out. Make sure your staff and even players know about Helmet Bowl, but it becomes more and more important to get your fan base involved. Helmet Bowl II drew a half-million votes, so your staff won't be able to carry the load on its own. Plus, they got enough to do! Get your media departments and SID involved. Let them know it's important to you to bring home your Conference Championship, fun for the fans, and maybe most importantly to them, it's good for your program.
Ten
We are looking for your top ten helmets in Helmet Bowl III. Got a slate of helmets to show us and the rest of the Helmet Bowl voters? Can you tell us a little about why you chose the ones you do? Shoot us a line at helmetbowl@helmettracker.com .