Baylor's gold chrome helmets lead best Week 1 college football uniforms

Week 1 of the 2025 college football season has arrived, with most teams officially getting their seasons underway.

As the saying goes, you get only one chance to make a first impression. And the very first such impression teams will make on their fans in Week 1 will come when they run out of the tunnel, fresh threads and all.

One team making a major early splash with its gear? The Baylor Bears.

Baylor has asked fans to make the team's Friday night opener against the Auburn Tigers a blackout, with the Bears' uniforms matching such a theme. Last season, Baylor added an anthracite jersey to its uniform repertoire. This week, the anthracite will make its 2025 debut -- and will be paired with a new gold chrome helmet. The Bears often wore gold chrome lids in the 2010s, but the helmet had been out of use for years before being reintroduced earlier this summer.

Baylor isn't the only team to start off the season strong with its threads. Here are some of the top uniforms from Week 1 of the college football season.

More new looks

The Cincinnati Bearcats opened their season under the lights against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Arrowhead Stadium, and they did so wearing a uniform feature appropriate for the special occasion: script lettering on the helmets.

Normally, the Bearcats' lids feature the school's C-paw logo. This week, though, a new, gleaming red "Cincy" helmet will make its debut. Cincinnati will match the helmet with the rest of the uniform's all-red look.

The NC State Wolfpack also opened the season Thursday with their new "City of Oaks" uniform, which was unveiled earlier in the month. The look pays homage to the school's location in Raleigh, North Carolina -- nicknamed the City of Oaks -- with a twist on the team's classic red-and-white threads.

A trio of stripes runs down the jersey's shoulder pads and over the center of the helmet. "NC State" is featured on the helmets and chest plate, with "City of Oaks" displayed on the back of the helmet.

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White-on-white swag

All-white uniform combinations are always a safe bet to hit, a premise that's especially true when the look is accented by the gold numbers and stripes that the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will don this week.

The Yellow Jackets showcased their Week 1 combination with a flashy video that contrasts their threads with a sparkling metallic silver background.

Another team that went the all-white route with great aplomb was the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who asked their fans to match their team's uniforms by wearing their own white attire in the stands.

The Hilltoppers' look features red and black stripes on the shoulder and down the center of the helmet.

The Utah State Aggies' white-on-white look comes with a twist: The real draw of the uniforms is the helmets. 

Complete with a clever "aura farming" caption, the Aggies' lids match otherwise simple white threads with a helmet that boldly uses a pattern not often seen in collegiate sports: cow print. Hilariously, the inspiration for the cow print helmet came from an April Fools' joke posted to the team's social media in 2024. Fans loved the fake design, however, and by Utah State's season opener five months later, the cow print had been made reality.

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Cool colors

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers have the benefit of playing in one of the most distinctive colors in the sport: teal.

For Week 1, Coastal Carolina played into teal's ability to pop on screens, pairing plain white jerseys with a teal helmet, pants and numbers.

The first game of Rich Rodriguez's second stint with the West Virginia Mountaineers will be played with Rodriguez's alma mater keeping things simple but colorful with their threads.

The Mountaineers are going gold-on-gold with their jersey and pants in Week 1, complementing a navy blue helmet.