Branding for Luck, Money $$$

Normally Jim Rutledge writes the "On the Edge of Sports" blog. Jim has bit off more than he can chew this week. Pardon the cliche, but it's something that happens from time to time with created,talented, want to do it all media people. I can speak from experience. My name is David DiPino, and I've been the sports editor at the University Press since August, 2006. I also write five stories a week and the police blotter, for the Delray Times, a small weekly newspaper in Delray Beach. I write one story a week for the Sun-Sentinel Community News Section, take classes at FAU and try to find time to cover my passion, sports.

I used to write one story a week for the UP. The editor in chief told me in January 2007, that he was going to go with themed issues, which meant no weekly sports coverage. While I was totally against this, I respect his decision, and even though he thought I was taken too much on, I would have found a way to get it done. I used this semester to help out fellow writers like Frank Durosier, Jim, and others. I wrote a few web only stories. Well enough about me, let's talk about sports.

The topic of branding came up recently, when the University of Central Florida Golden Knights decided to redo their logo, and drop the word golden from the mascot. Yes they are now the University of Central Florida Knights. The logo is different, all in an effort to make more money. UCF is moving into a brand new state of the art, 40,000 seat stadium. They will be hosting the University of Texas Longhorns, and in an effort to cash in on sports licensing decided to make the changes. Some would say it's an important step you must take to enter into the college football elite. Others might say it's a big step to take for a team that seldom goes to bowl games or win a conferance title. Time will tell.

FAU decided to change their logo and come with a new branding campaign prior to the 2006 football season. While the new logo made FAU look sharper on the field, it did cost a substantial amount of money for an artist to come up with the new logo you see everywhere today. I didn't think at the time it was neccessary, but it did provide some much needed luck to the athletic department. They plan to have a balance budget by June 30, 2007, which is good news to all of us who support the football program. Remember when the football program existed in the red? Not any more. And while I was against the branding campaign, I now think after seeing the rest of the logos and uniforms in the Sun-Belt Conferance that we look sharper than anybody else in the league. Have you ever seen South Alabama's uni's? Yuck! Since entering the Sun-Belt with our new logos our men's and women's swim teams have dominated with Sun-Belt Conferance titles. Who knows maybe that success could carry over to women's soccer, women's basketball, softball, baseball, men's and women's golf, and football. If it does I'm going to hang it on the head of our newly designed, branded, Owl.