As part of FanJuicer’s ongoing series to identify the most appealing logos in college football, it’s time to take a look at the Group of Five. While the G5 tends to get overlooked in favor of its Power Five brethren, there’s no denying there are some choice logos represented in the G5 ranks. As I mentioned in my B1G logo rankings, the goal here is to provide an unbiased ranking reflective of the average college football fan’s preferences. 

How This Research Was Conducted

I recruited 722 college football fans from across the college football landscape to participate in this research. There was not a particular team’s fanbase that was over-represented in the sample which could potentially bias these results. In fact, more fans of Power Five teams participated in this research than Group of Five team fans.

This just proves that the rankings below are not a reflection of “homer bias.” 

 In terms of methodology, I used the MaxDiff Market Research technique. Respondents viewed 26 sets of five logos, and in each set, they chose the logo they felt was the most and least appealing of the five options. At the end of data collection, I computed the rankings using fancy math (Hierarchical Bayes estimation). 

If you are interested, I’ve done very similar studies in the past ranking the Power Five conferences’ logos (SEC, Big 12, ACC, B1G, and Pac 12). If you would like to participate in future studies like these, follow @FanJuicer on Twitter.

Now Let’s Get To the Results!

Key Takeaways

1. Army is your runaway winnerThe Black Knights of West Point with their helmet-shield-and-sword design take the crown as the most appealing logo of the Group of Five in the minds of college football fans. 
2. Boise State and SMU are the next in lineThe blue bronco – mirroring the color of the famed turf in Idaho – clocked in as the second most appealing of the G5’s logos. It was closely followed by SMU’s iconic mustang silhouette which many associate with the glory days of the Pony Express.
3. There’s a bit of a logjam after the top threeThere’s not much separation after the top three logos. There was little distance in the rankings between the logo ranked #4 (Cincy) and #13 (UConn). Regardless, the top 13 logos displayed above did separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
4. The top logos tend to be mascot imagesIn this research as well as my research ranking the logos of the Power Five conferences (SEC, Big 12, ACC, B1G, and Pac 12), I’ve noticed a trend:  college football fans generally prefer the image-based logos over letter-marks. Of the logos ranked in the top ten of the G5, seven feature a mascot image or silhouette. This lines up with the results of the research I’ve conducted ranking the Power Five logos. The only exception comes from the SEC where Auburn’s “AU” mark took the top prize for most appealing logo in the SEC.