Judging sweaters from the U.S. college ranks takes a bit of a different eye, since so many schools follow a similar style. Whereas pros tend to go with logos on the front, colleges favor lettering and numbers. This makes distinguishing them all the more difficult and fonts and color schemes become all the more crucial.
But there are still gems all around in the NCAA, so the jury hashed out its hits and misses, both traditional and new-school.
While logos (last year’s competition) are certainly a big part of the hockey jersey, we also considered shoulder patches, striping and piping – so teams gained and lost points based on those factors. You'll also notice both home and away jerseys are used to represent the teams. Simply put, we took the one we liked best out of the two.
With all that in play, here are the rankings. Click on each thumbnail for a larger picture.
Once you've taken in our top rankings by conference, head over to the voting page to select your favorite help it to move on in the Jersey Tournament that will follow the rankings of each league’s jerseys (find the rankings and tournament schedule on The Hockey News Jersey Rankings and Tournament Central page).
Over the next two months, THN.com will leave the voting on the best jerseys up to you, the reader. To vote for your favorite, click HERE (CCHA, HE and CHA jersey voting ends at 9 a.m. EST on Aug. 31.). To see ratings from other leagues, visit THN.com's Jersey Rankings and Tournament Central.