The Hockey News' ECAC, WCHA and AHA Jersey Rankings

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. Note: Bemidji State is included in the WCHA rankings as they are to enter that conference for the 2010-11 season.
 
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).

THE HOCKEY NEWS ECAC JERSEY RANKINGS

RK.	LOGO	TEAM	THE SCOOP
1		Quinnipiac Bobcats	Cool colors, fun logo - looks more pro than varsity
2		Union Dutchmen	We were big fans of having the school's founding year on the front
3		Princeton Tigers	Tigers rep the school's crest in a simple, effective manner
4		St. Lawrence Saints	Saints go big with their logo, result is good
5		RPI Engineers	Love the font and the design
6		Dartmouth Big Green	Dartmouth's green is bold and beautiful
7		Yale Bulldogs	Crisp look to traditional college sweater
8		Brown Bears	Font is nice on diagonal design
9		Clarkson Golden Knights	Knight's helmet is cool, but looks a little lost
10		Harvard Crimson	Shoulder patches save Crimson from relegation
11		Colgate Raiders	Very simple; not much else to say
12		Cornell Big Red	At least Colgate had numbers on front

THE HOCKEY NEWS WCHA JERSEY RANKINGS

RK.	LOGO	TEAM	THE SCOOP
1		Minnesota Golden Gophers	Both logo and colors are classic
2		North Dakota Fighting Sioux	Enjoy it one last time, Sioux fans
3		Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves	Nanooks rep Alaska on shoulder, realistic bear
4		Michigan-Technological Huskies	Huskies soar with baseball-style lettering
5		St. Cloud State Huskies	St. Cloud not far behind Tech
6		Bemidji State Beavers	Beaver in the center wins points
7		Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks	Bold purple looks good on Mavs
8		Colorado College Tigers	Nice stripe behind traditional logo
9		Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs	Same colors as rival Gophers
10		Wisconsin Badgers	Expected more from collegiate hockey power
11		Denver Pioneers	Too crowded for hockey; almost looks NASCAR

THE HOCKEY NEWS AHA JERSEY RANKINGS

RK.	LOGO	TEAM	THE SCOOP
1		RIT Tigers	The orange is bold, the logo is tight
2		Holy Cross Crusaders	'HC' may as well stand for 'hard core'
3		Canisius Golden Griffins	Cool emblem with nice striping
4		AIC Yellow Jackets	AIC's yellow really pops on these sweaters
5		Air Force Falcons	Colors and font both worthy of an armed forces school
6		Bentley Falcons	Shoulder patch elevates this from standard to sweet
7		Army Golden Knights	Almost Anaheim-esque in color and font
8		Connecticut Huskies	Some see simple and effective, others see boring
9		Mercyhurst Lakers	Whalers' colors were appreciated by jury
10		Sacred Heart Pioneers	No slight on Pioneers; this was a competitive conference

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 (ECAC, WCHA and AHA jersey voting ends at 9 a.m. EST on Sept. 3). To see ratings from other leagues, visit THN.com's Jersey Rankings and Tournament Central.