Ranking College Football's top costumed mascots

Since spring practice is in the books, it’s time to give college football’s top mascots some loving before the summer begins. On3’s panel of experts, in this case Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman and River Bailey, decided on the best costumed mascots in the sport.

Make sure to read that again: costumed mascots! As Staples described it, no human mascots, such as the lumberjack at Sam Houston State, or live animals like UGA at Georgia, can be used.

But you’ll notice a common theme with these costumed mascots in college football. All three of the esteemed cast members of Andy and Ari On3 shared one favorite in their rankings. Let’s dive in.

Andy Staples

1. Sparty – Michigan State
2. The Duck – Oregon
3. Sparky – Arizona State
4. Big Red – Western Kentucky
5. Pistol Pete – Oklahoma State

Staples topped his list with Sparty among all other mascots. “Lot’s of cartoon steroids” and Sparty would “annihilate you in a fight.” That’s good enough for us. He’s a factor in college basketball that’s for sure and maybe he’ll come back around in football.

Although if you’re a fan of The Duck, or Puddles, or whatever his name is, you’ll be mad at Andy for this ranking. There is Oregon representation on this list, but not over Michigan State. Look out for Big Red, the Western Kentucky mascot is a fan favorite for the college football sickos out there.

Ari Wasserman

1. The Duck – Oregon
2. Purdue Pete – Purdue
3. Paydirt Pete – UTEP
4. The Tree – Stanford
5. Demon Deacon – Wake Forest

Wasserman went unique with the Demon Deacon at Wake Forest because he has an insane head and rides a motorcycle. Then, he went with the insane mascot, The Tree of Stanford. That’s it. It’s a tree. That runs!

The Ducks is an obvious choice for most, but Wasserman went with that mascot as his best. But Purdue Pete, with his dead or insane eyes, is his No. 2. Don’t stare too deeply at him, you might be gone forever!

River Bailey

1. Big Red – Western Kentucky
2. Rocky the Rocket – Toledo
3. The Duck – Oregon
4. Cosmo the Cougar – BYU
5. Otto the Orange – Syracuse

If you want to have a beer with a mascot, Otto is your guy. Bailey is a big fan of Sycause’s rounded piece of a fuzzy fruit. But Big Red is his top mascot in college football. He didn’t get his due from Staples and Wasserman on this list!

But like his contemporaries, Bailey has Oregon’s Duck on his list as well, right in the middle. But let’s not forget MACtion in college football folks. Rocky the Rocket has an insane helmet, like he’s going to blast off to outer space. Just electric energy every game. He’s a “futuristic” mascot.

Honorable mentions

Hoosier the Bison – Indiana
Albert and Alberta Gator – Florida
Chip the Bison – Colorado
No SEC mascots

The crew concluded the SEC has a lot of live mascots that are awesome. Staples even said he’s ready to have another list with different criteria. 

As far as the other mascots, how about Hoosier the Bison coming back after nearly six decades on the shelf? No wonder why Indiana won the CFP national championship! Chip the Bison is just hilarious because it’s a cartoon head while the school actually had a real live animal in the stadium. Staples also questioned if Albert and Alberta were actually married gators by the way.