Edward Boatman • Jul 22nd
Game day in college athletics isn’t just about what happens on the field. It’s also about making sure every banner, uniform, press release, and social media post looks consistent, professional, and on-brand. For athletic directors and creative teams, that is no small feat.
One minute, a communications manager needs the official team logo for a press release for the women’s volleyball team. At the same time, a vendor calls asking for the sponsor graphic for the scoreboard for the upcoming football game. Meanwhile, the social media manager is texting someone for a high-resolution shot of the mascot to post before kickoff.
Creative teams juggle hundreds of images, logos, brand guidelines, and sponsorship assets (by sport) that all need to be shared with the right people quickly and easily. Too often, files are buried in email threads, lost in cluttered drives, or sent out in a rush, increasing the chance of mistakes.
Here’s how higher ed athletics departments are using brand portals and kits to simplify their workflows, keep up with last-minute changes, and deliver polished creative under pressure.
College athletics departments often manage branding for dozens of sports, each with its own set of logos, uniforms, and color palettes. Add in photographers, press, social media teams, and merchandise vendors, and keeping everyone aligned becomes a real challenge.
When creative teams create folders of assets, logos, imagery, and design guidelines, it makes it easy to share an entire Kit of content to specific people. Or, perhaps you want anyone to access your assets—simply make the Kit public and anyone can access it.
Game days move fast. Whether it’s updated sponsor logos, last-minute uniform changes, or a surprise appearance by the mascot, creative teams need a way to distribute updated assets instantly.
That’s one of the nice things about using Lingo for brand asset management for athletic departments. Lingo becomes your home base, and any asset used elsewhere with a direct link to your Lingo Portal will be updated when you replace the file in Lingo. This makes it easy for you to update and make changes at scale without someone waiting on the other end for a picture or asset.
Even small mistakes, like using an outdated logo on a scoreboard graphic or mismatched team colors, can make a university look unprofessional. Worse, inconsistent branding can violate sponsorship contracts or NCAA rules.
This was the worst case scenario at the Camellia Bowl between Arkansas State and Northern Illinois. Popular sports network ESPN mistakenly used the University of Arkansas Razorbacks logo rather than Arkansas State’s Red Wolves logo. And, of course, eagle-eyed fans caught the snafu and immediately took to X to report it to others.
Source: Sports Illustrated
With a brand portal, creative teams can upload pre-approved kits for every sport and every use case. These kits can include logos, approved photos, press release templates, and sponsor graphics. Everything is in one place and ready to go. Teams like LSU also prepare their digital brand guidelines for potential scenarios that could arise so that everyone knows how to handle changes to assets on the fly.
“Our teams and departments have massive social audiences with tremendous engagement. The guidelines and policies we have in place for our 75+ official accounts assist staff, coaches, interns, student workers, and partners of LSU Athletics in making appropriate decisions when using official accounts. Many different areas are covered in the guidelines to prepare the manager of each account,” said Jason Feirman, Executive Director of Creative Design and Photography for South Stadium Productions, the content and branding agency of LSU Athletics.
Learn more about brand guidelines with Lingo.
Instead of digging through cluttered Dropbox, Google Drive, or SharePoint folders, Rutgers uses a single, organized portal where all athletics logos are easy to find and share. These portals can be set to public, private, or password protected depending on who needs access. This allows internal staff, press, and vendors to quickly get the right assets without confusion while keeping sensitive files secure.
When rules or imagery change mid-season, portals can be updated instantly. Everyone always has the latest assets without needing to send updated files to dozens of people.
Lingo lets schools customize portal URLs and themes to feel authentic to their brand. This includes school colors, mascot imagery, and branded links, giving users a seamless experience that aligns with the university’s identity.
For example, Texas A&M has a one-stop shot for all their Aggie brand assets found at https://12thman.lingoapp.com/.
Several universities have already streamlined their athletics branding with Lingo.
Every athletics department has its own unique mix of sports, sponsors, and traditions, but the needs on game day are surprisingly similar. Some schools create a single Kit to use for their athletics team in conjunction with other university initiatives; others prefer to keep athletics completely separated. Either way, the choice is yours.
To keep everything running smoothly, creative teams prepare comprehensive kits that include all the essential assets in one place. These kits make it easy for staff, vendors, and press to grab exactly what they need without waiting on emails or digging through old files. Here’s what you’ll usually find in a typical athletics kit:
Many schools still rely on tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, or SharePoint. The problem is that these platforms were not built for the fast-paced, high-stakes environment of college athletics.
A dedicated higher ed brand portal like Lingo gives creative teams full control, clarity, and speed without the headaches.
Lingo helps athletics departments manage and share branded assets quickly with kits and portals tailored for game day demands.
Start your free trial today to try it for yourself.