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Mine:

Texas
Michigan
USC
UCLA
Alabama


Honorable mentions to PSU and tOSU

My own list, in order, is:

1.  Bama
2.  Ohio State
3.  Oklahoma
4.  Notre Dame (there is a drop off here)
5.  Michigan
6.  Texas
7.  USCw
8.  Nebraska

I consider history heavily, and then weight it for more recent performance.  I could go with OSU at the top because of so few bad years ever, but Bama has a lot of rings and near rings.

i'm bias, but i love bama's. simple, classic, timeless, and recognizable.

really like nebraska's as well.

i like osu's, but not the stickers. i appreciate the tradition, and it's really cool so i wouldn't change it. but it does, imo, ruin the helmet's look a bit.

mich is also a good one outside of the "simple" realm. not that it's busy, but it's unique.

nd is another good one.

au has nice one as well. i must begrudgingly admit they have a good overall uniform, even if the colors suck.

for non-bog boys, i like csu rams. my hs was rams and we had similar helmets, thought different colors. but the curling horns is a great look on a helmet, imo.

lots of teams have done this recently, but i really like the matte finishes as well.

All the teams listed above (just in order of first listed) and my thoughts:

• Notre Dame:  I hate Notre Dame with a passion but really, that is part of what makes them a helmet.  Ohio State has beaten Notre Dame four times (1995, 1996, 2006, 2016) and I own a T-Shirt with the score for EACH of those games.  I don't even do that for Ohio State's wins over Michigan.  I don't do that for ANY of Ohio State's wins except NC's and . . . Notre Dame.  
• Alabama:  They have it all.  They have more NC's than anybody (maybe some Ivy League school has more if you count NC's won retroactively by teams playing a game that vaguely resembled modern football).  They have a proven ability to recover from a prolonged period of mediocrity, and they have NC's in multiple eras with multiple coaches.  The only thing you could maybe knock them for is that they aren't quite as consistent as Ohio State but nobody else is either.  
• Ohio State:  The place where Ohio State blows away the others is consistency.  I went back and looked at all of these teams and a few others and calculated the rolling 10-year winning percentages for each of them from 1927-1936 through 2012-2021.  Only four haven't had a decade below .500.  Ohio State's worst was .632 (54-30-7) from 1943-1952.  The next best worst decade is USC at .554.  That gap is so large that Ohio State is farther ahead of #2 USC than USC is ahead of #8 LSU.  What Ohio State lacks is two things:  First, the top end.  They have NC's but not like OU and Bama.  Second, the proven ability to recover from a prolonged period of mediocrity.  The Buckeyes haven't had a prolonged period of mediocrity to recover from so it remains unknown whether or not they could.  I think they could, but it isn't proven.  
• Michigan:  As an Ohio State fan I just hate the Wolverines and I'd love to say that they are no longer a helmet.  For a while I was thinking that maybe after RRod and Hoke, they weren't but Michigan still gets notice and recruits even when they suck for the better part of two decades and really that is a pretty good test of "helmetosity".  I don't like it, but Michigan does have it.  
• Penn State:  I have mixed feelings here.  I feel like they *SHOULD* be a helmet because they have a very favorable geographic location and they have a few NC's and they've generally performed at a helmet-like level but they just "feel" maybe a half-step behind the true helmets.  Penn State, more than any other school on this list is identified with ONE coach, Paterno.  Sure, Bama has Bear and tOSU has Woody, etc but Bama/Ohio State have had a LOT of success under guys other than Bear/Woody.  Such a large portion of Penn State's success was under one coach that it is to be determined whether or not they can do it in multiple eras with multiple coaches.  
• Texas:  Texas is a helmet if for no other reason simply because they are the primary "home" school in a state with a massive number of quality recruits.  Thus they are always just one hire away from greatness.  
• USC:  The Trojans are second to Ohio State in the consistency department and high on the list of NC's as well.  To me they are clearly a helmet.  
• Oklahoma:  I can't believe that the Sooners were not mentioned until @Cincydawg 's post, #4 in this thread.  The Sooners are a clear and obvious helmet.  They have NC's in multiple eras under multiple coaches, one of the best runs in the history of the sport, a ton of NC's, etc.  
• Nebraska:  I covered my thoughts on the Cornhuskers in this thread.  Briefly, they have the absolute best four-decade run in CFB History.  Mostly under Devaney and Osborne from roughly the 1960's through the 1990's they were incredible.  For every 10-year period from 1962-1971 through 1994-2003 they were .750+.  That is incomparable.  The problem is that they were not just mediocre but absolutely horrible for a few decades prior to that and they've struggled since so the question of whether or not they can recover is an open one.  

My list:

• Notre Dame:  I absolutely hate to put them here but it isn't about just wins it is about being a team that gets attention and Notre Dame gets lots of attention even when they suck simply because they are Notre Dame.  That is "Helmet".  Nobody's helmet is as big as Notre Dame's.  
• Alabama:  The Tide are only behind the Irish because of the attention that Notre Dame gets even when they suck.  Bama beats them in just about every other category.  
• Ohio State:  I know I'm biased but IMHO, Ohio State's ability to remain "in the conversation" even in their relative down periods counts for a lot.  If you looked at the top programs from any 10-year period in the last almost 100 years, Ohio State would be on the short list no matter what decade you picked.  If you looked at 56-65, ND was barely over .500.  If you looked at 49-58 Bama was .500.  If you looked at 27-36 or 90-99 Oklahoma was barely over .500.  Other programs have higher peaks but nobody has higher troughs.  
• Oklahoma:  Their peaks are higher than anybody.  Bama right now is flirting with catching them but Oklahoma won over 92% of their games for both 1948-1957 and 1949-1958 (97-7-2 for both).  That included their long winning streak that remains the longest ever.  Also, it isn't like that is Oklahoma's only period of greatness.  
• USC:  High in both consistency and NC's.  They are clearly a helmet.  
• Texas:  Their status as the "home" school for Millions of Texans and a whole lot of quality Texas HS football talent keeps them this high but honestly they don't have as much historic success as you would expect given those advantages.  
• Michigan:  Only two things hold them back from being a lot higher (possibly #2).  The first is their multiple prolonged periods of mediocrity.  They were sub .500 from 1958-1967 and bottomed out not far over .500 in the midst of the RRod/Hoke malaise era.  The other is Bo's inability to win Bowl games.  Bo ended up 2-8 in Rose Bowls with the two wins coming in seasons where the Wolverines had multiple regular season losses.  Of the eight Rose Bowl losses, one was Michigan's only loss for that season (1971) and five were Michigan's second loss (1976, 1977, 1978, 1986, 1989).  If he had been 5-5 in Rose Bowls he may have had two or three NC's and he'd be up there with guys like Woody and the Bear.  As it is he was a great coach who truly rescued Michigan from a fate similar to Minnesota's but zero NC's makes it hard to seriously consider him among the greatest.  
• Penn State:  They'd be higher if not for the fact that the bulk of their success came under just one coach.  
• Nebraska:  Sorry @FearlessF , I loved my visit but Nebraska's two MAJOR down periods detract a LOT from that awesome 40 year run under Devaney/Osborne.  In the last ~100 years none of the schools above and even some others like the Florida Schools (UF, FSU, Miami) and Clemson have NEVER had a decade as bad as Nebraska's from roughly the 1940's through the 1950's.  Also, the consistent struggles since the turn of the century leave me honestly unsure if the Cornhuskers can ever get back to being a regular contender.  

With such a consensus, it'd be more interesting to poll the best "non-boring" helmet.  

Don’t make me say nice things about Michigan 

Does Medina know the topic is about the helmets they wear, and not “helmet” status?  I think he doesn’t.  

Anyway, the answers on this thread drive me crazy a little bit because I think the answers are driven by the historical success of the program more than the design of the helmet.  Is anybody answering Penn St or Ohio St if they have  program success similar to Illinois or Purdue?  I bet they aren’t.  I mean, who couldn’t just say, “Make the helmet plain fu*king white. Thanks, I’ll pick ‘em up next week.”

Bama? So, we’re just putting the player’s number on the helmet? Brilliant (chef’s kiss). Michigan?  I know people fawn over Michigan’s helmet because it hasn’t changed in a 1000 years, but if you’re a novice fan watching a Michigan Wolverines game there is nothing about that helmet that screams “Michigan” or “Wolverines.”

I hate to say it but Pitt has a great helmet.  UCLA has a great helmet.  I like Iowa’s.  LSU has really cool helmet.  Of the traditional “helmet” programs I like USC’s and ND’s shiny gold helmet.