Helmets of Future College Teams

This page contains announced helmet designs for college teams that will begin varsity play in the year 2023 or later; there were two new college teams for the 2023-2024 school year. The new teams for 2023-2024 were Eastern University (of the NCAA Division III Middle Atlantic Conference) and Thomas University (of the NAIA The Sun Conference). Helmet images for the new-for-2023 teams have been moved to their respective conference pages.

If you are associated with one of these future teams and have information about what the team's helmet design will look like, I would certainly appreciate hearing from you, but PLEASE wait until a final decision is made about what the helmets will look like!

One fact which became abundantly clear to me after having worked on this web site for several years is that many colleges will put together for ceremonies associated with the arrival of varsity football some sort of helmet design that is never really intended to be a "prototype" design for the team; it would probably be better to call such a helmet a "prop" helmet. It is my impression that decisions about actual helmet designs are usually reserved for the head coach to make, and rarely will a head coach have been named as soon as a decision is made to institute a team. So, without additional information to indicate otherwise, I do not consider photographs from "football introduction festivities" showing "prop" helmets to be reliable information about actual future helmet designs.

The following colleges and universities have announced that they will be adding varsity football programs either in 2024 or subsequent years (first year of play in parentheses):

There certainly may be others as well which I have not heard about, so please let me know if you have any additions! (including colleges in Canada and junior or community colleges).

New teams for the 2024 season

ANDERSON UNIVERSITY

"Trojans" will be the team nickname and the school colors are listed as black and gold. The team wore gold helmets during a scrimmage game in October 2023 but black helmets have also been used during practice sessions. First game: September 7 vs Saint Andrews

ANDREW COLLEGE

This new junior college team will be known as the "Fighting Tigers". The school colors are listed as being blue and gold.

CALVIN UNIVERSITY

This team will be known as the "Knights" and the school colors are listed as maroon and gold. Maroon helmets were worn during a 2023 scrimmage game; the school's logo - a "knight helmet" - was worn on the helmets during this game. First game: September 7, 2024 vs Oberlin

CENTENARY COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA

Centenary's team will be known as the "Gentlemen" and the school colors are listed as maroon and white. Centenary had a football team decades ago; it last played in 1947. During exhibition games in 2023 the football team used white helmets with a maroon "C" logo on the sides.

CENTRAL GEORGIA TECHNICAL COLLEGE

This is a new junior college team which will compete in the NJCAA, though the team's 2024 schedule shows only two games against NJCAA opponents (Georgia Military College and Andrew College, which will be playing its first season). The school colors are burgundy and navy. First game: August 31 vs "Hardeeville Vikings"

NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE

This team will be known as the "Pilgrims" and the school colors are listed as red, blue, and navy. NEC had a team previously, with 1973 being the most recent year football was played.

SIMPSON UNIVERSITY

This team will be known as the "Red Hawks" and the school colors are listed as red and black. No information has yet been received regarding a helmet design for this team, but during a September 2023 scrimmage against the George Fox University JV team Simpson used black helmets with a red stripe and a red "hawk head" logo on both sides.

WILLIAM WOODS UNIVERSITY

The WWU team will be known as the "Owls" and the school colors are listed as forest green and maroon. First game: August 29 at William Penn

Other colleges which may start football teams

Below are listed some other colleges which may be adding football as a varsity sport in the near future, or which at least appear to be considering doing so, and some others which have recently rejected the idea. For each of these, it is my impression that the addition of football is not yet a certainty. (There are probably many others besides those listed here; reports about additional schools, both in the United States and Canada, would be appreciated.) I usually purge entries from this list after a decade or so if nothing happens.