(05-29-2018 09:48 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  To me there aren’t many schools that could upgrade. Schools in larger cities like Cincinnati, Memphis, etc. probably get more clout with keeping the city name. I think if Louisville had jumped on Kentucky Tech early in its existence then it might have branded them similar to Georgia Tech, but I don’t see that being viable now.

Murray State > Kentucky A&M (seems to have the most robust combination of agriculture and engineering compared to Morehead and EKU)

Southern Mississippi > Mississippi Tech

UNLV > Nevada State or Las Vegas

Southern Utah > Utah Tech

I have to disagree with Southern Miss and UNLV. UNLV when they were great was one of the most recognizable brands in sports, some thanks to Tupac and others. The announcers back then simply called them “Vegas” during games, which sounds cool.

Southern Miss is just ingrained in my mind, so I can’t imagine them being called something else.

(05-30-2018 02:39 AM)Mav Wrote:  Results in the lab and on the field are what's in a name, not the name itself.

Buffalo tried what seemed to be a slam dunk by rebranding to New York, and that went over like a lead brick.

People are strange.

(05-29-2018 08:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  We've seen a rebranding elevate programs like Texas St, Missouri St, and others but I wonder what others might be more successful (or would have been more successful) under a different name?

In most cases, U of is the most prominent, followed by State. Tech seems fairly well regarded as well. Directionals and City names seem to be frowned upon.

Cincinnati---Ohio Tech
UC Davis---(U of) California A&M
Central Connecticut St---Connecticut St
Northern Arizona--Arizona Tech

What others are there out there?

Are you speaking with respects to athletics, academics, or some combination? Here in Ohio, Akron's attempt to rebrand as Ohio Poly went over like a fart in church.

I'd say Cincinnati has a pretty strong brand. Cincinnati, Louisville and Pitt are old institutions-- UC was founded in 1819, unlike some of these schools in the Summit, Horizon, MAC and other leagues that did not get their start until the 20th century. Changing our name to Ohio Tech would add zero to our brand strength in my opinion.

(05-29-2018 08:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  We've seen a rebranding elevate programs like Texas St, Missouri St, and others but I wonder what others might be more successful (or would have been more successful) under a different name?

In most cases, U of is the most prominent, followed by State. Tech seems fairly well regarded as well. Directionals and City names seem to be frowned upon.

Cincinnati---Ohio Tech
UC Davis---(U of) California A&M
Central Connecticut St---Connecticut St
Northern Arizona--Arizona Tech

If you are going to rename a university Something Tech, shouldn't it at least emphasize math, hard sciences, or other technical knowledge?

Northern Arizona started out as a teacher's college. Nothing wrong with that at all (much of the Mid-American Conference started out that way) but it doesn't imply an overwhelming commitment to STEM stuff. (And, yes, I see they have an College of Engineering and Other Stuff. But still...)

My take: Names should mean something. Akron was toying with the idea of going to "Ohio Polytechnic" a year or two ago, but it was at least plausible given that university's high profile commitment to polymer sciences and other advanced science.

http://www.uakron.edu/cpspe/

(05-30-2018 01:10 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Houston actually considered adopting the Texas St name before SW Texas took it. The administration at the time felt that the school had a lot of name recognition and history (due to the SWC championship teams, the Heisman winner, Phi Slama Jama, Carl Lewis, golf championships, and other accomplishments) under the UH name. They ultimately decided it made more sense to build on that existing brand.

And that was the correct call.

I've thought that UT-Arlington should rebrand if/when they restart football, but the UT system almost certainly wouldn't allow it. A return to Arlington State name (when they were a JC in A&M system) or preferably just Arlington, or maybe even DFW University. Would almost certainly have to leave the UT system to make a change like that though, so I really doubt that happens.

(05-30-2018 09:25 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  I've thought that UT-Arlington should rebrand if/when they restart football, but the UT system almost certainly wouldn't allow it. A return to Arlington State name (when they were a JC in A&M system) or preferably just Arlington, or maybe even DFW University. Would almost certainly have to leave the UT system to make a change like that though, so I really doubt that happens.

But how does that help them? Arlington is hardly a unique name for a city in the U.S. — hell, I live in an Arlington 1,000 miles away from the Texas version. Being yoked with the UT system is not the worst thing in the world, and my guess is they enjoy more esteem as UT Arlington than they would Arlington or Arlington State.

Texas Technological College
Tempe Normal School
State University of Iowa
Add Ran Male and Female College
University of Deseret
Iowa Agricultural College
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas
Norman Territorial University
Los Angeles Branch of California State Normal
Oregon State University
Oregon Aricultural College
Oklahoma Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical College
Territorial University of Washington
Kansas State Agricultural College
Washington Agricultural College

A lot of P5 schools west of the Mississippi have undergone name changes. Most are self-explanatory, but there are a few puzzlers.[/i]

(05-29-2018 11:06 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(05-29-2018 09:49 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  City names are fine as well as unique names like Stanford, Duke, Wake, Notre Dame, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, etc.

Schools that would be better of with a better name
UAB - Birmingham
ULL - Louisiana
UCF - Orlando or should have kept Florida Tech Citronauts. Best name ever
USF - Tampa Bay
UConn - Connecticut
Southern Miss - Mississippi Tech
ECU - Carolina University
App State - Appalachian (unique name should drop the state)
ODU - Shoild go by as Old Dominon. Its a unique name and they should use it
UTSA - San Antonio
Western Michigan - Western University

UConn is Connecticut. It's been on the jerseys and everything.

When I was growing up UConn was Connecticut, since y'all joined the AAC and rebranded you're "UCONN".

But I'll add on to the list UMass should be Massachusetts. We have a similar situation, we've used it on jerseys and everything too... although not with as much media coverage/usage as UConn has had with Connecticut. If "Massachusetts" is physically too long, then in those contexts I think Mass. would work just as well (similar idea to Pitt, Cal, Carolina, etc.).

"Mass." has long been used to identify our athletics, before "UMass", "U Mass" or "U-Mass". It goes back to the days when we were the "Mass Aggies".

(05-30-2018 01:10 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Houston actually considered adopting the Texas St name before SW Texas took it. The administration at the time felt that the school had a lot of name recognition and history (due to the SWC championship teams, the Heisman winner, Phi Slama Jama, Carl Lewis, golf championships, and other accomplishments) under the UH name. They ultimately decided it made more sense to build on that existing brand.

They made the right decision. Going to Texas State would’ve been a terrible mistake. Also, anyone uses that Ohio Tech sounds better than Cincinnati, I don’t know what to tell them? That’s a really strange claim.

[/quote]

Metropolitan State University of Denver ---> Denver State University
but University of Denver has a problem with it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolit...ontroversy
[/quote]


The main reason that the University of Denver (DI) objected to Metro State University becoming Denver State is because there is already another DII school with Denver in the name, the University of Colorado-Denver. Having three city named schools is confusing, citing the challenges in San Diego, with San Diego State University (SDSU), University of San Diego (USD) and University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

(05-29-2018 08:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  We've seen a rebranding elevate programs like Texas St, Missouri St, and others but I wonder what others might be more successful (or would have been more successful) under a different name?

In most cases, U of is the most prominent, followed by State. Tech seems fairly well regarded as well. Directionals and City names seem to be frowned upon.

Cincinnati---Ohio Tech
UC Davis---(U of) California A&M
Central Connecticut St---Connecticut St
Northern Arizona--Arizona Tech

What others are there out there?

Well, let's see...

There's the University of Louisville, aka Louisville Tech
Boston College, aka Boston Tech
University of Miami (Florida), aka Miami Tech
University of Pittsburgh, aka Pittsburgh Tech
Syracuse University, aka Syracuse Tech

I can't speak for the others, but the University of Cincinnati will be celebrating its bicentennial next year (1819-2019). In other words, it's stood the test of time. If folks don't think its name has enough panache, screw 'em.

(06-03-2018 09:20 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  

(05-30-2018 01:10 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Houston actually considered adopting the Texas St name before SW Texas took it. The administration at the time felt that the school had a lot of name recognition and history (due to the SWC championship teams, the Heisman winner, Phi Slama Jama, Carl Lewis, golf championships, and other accomplishments) under the UH name. They ultimately decided it made more sense to build on that existing brand.

They made the right decision. Going to Texas State would’ve been a terrible mistake. Also, anyone uses that Ohio Tech sounds better than Cincinnati, I don’t know what to tell them? That’s a really strange claim.

The time to go to Texas State was in the 1960's, not now. UH has too much established history.

(06-03-2018 10:39 PM)puck swami Wrote:  Metropolitan State University of Denver ---> Denver State University
but University of Denver has a problem with it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolit...ontroversy



The main reason that the University of Denver (DI) objected to Metro State University becoming Denver State is because there is already another DII school with Denver in the name, the University of Colorado-Denver. Having three city named schools is confusing, citing the challenges in San Diego, with San Diego State University (SDSU), University of San Diego (USD) and University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

SDSU (DI) - San Diego State University
-- Marketed as San Diego State University
--- Not marketed as CSU San Diego...

USD (DI) - University of San Diego
-- Marketed as University of San Diego...

UCSD (DI 2024) - University of CA San Diego
-- Marketed as UC San Diego

Each institution embraces the San Diego name in their marketing campaigns...none objected to the other in their use of San Diego in their institutional names..USD does not object to SDSU's use of San Diego in their name...all of these institutions are DI universities (UCSD 2024)...their branding philosophy is to market nationally...

“UC San Diego” not “UCSD”
Using UC San Diego in place of the UCSD acronym better identifies our campus both locally and nationally. There’s confusion among San Diego higher education institutions because of similar acronyms—UCSD, USD, and SDSU—which we eliminate by using UC San Diego. Additionally, this naming convention is consistent with other campuses in the University of California system, such as UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, and so on.
https://ucpa.ucsd.edu/brand/story/use-of...sity-name/

"A school is known to the world by its name, and the university knows how important that is."
http://triton.news/2017/11/4225/

(05-29-2018 09:09 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  UTEP - Texas Western
ULaLa - University of Southwestern Louisiana

University of Southwestern Louisiana - University of Louisiana at Lafayette - LOUISIANA

Central Connecticut State to Connecticut State seems to be the most logical name change.

Nice to see that UC-San Diego is finally trying to fix part of the confusion problem among San Diego city-identified schools by moving away from its own UCSD acronym, as of 2017.

I am sure there is not just sports confusion there, but especially general confusion among people who are not from California, and especially for international students still trying to figure out which San Diego school is which. Names and acronyms can take a long time to change in common use....

The DU vs Metro State name issue came to a head in 2011, some six years before the UCSD acronym change. I know DU was consulting closely with fellow private USD during that time in 2011, and USD mentioned that there was a lot of confusion with all three San Diego schools.

(05-30-2018 09:52 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(05-30-2018 09:25 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  I've thought that UT-Arlington should rebrand if/when they restart football, but the UT system almost certainly wouldn't allow it. A return to Arlington State name (when they were a JC in A&M system) or preferably just Arlington, or maybe even DFW University. Would almost certainly have to leave the UT system to make a change like that though, so I really doubt that happens.

But how does that help them? Arlington is hardly a unique name for a city in the U.S. — hell, I live in an Arlington 1,000 miles away from the Texas version. Being yoked with the UT system is not the worst thing in the world, and my guess is they enjoy more esteem as UT Arlington than they would Arlington or Arlington State.

The University of Texas at Arlington will not change names, nor should it. For one thing, none of the suggested names listed above are even remotely an improvement. Our name can't be improved upon. We like being a University of Texas, and there is value in it; it's who and what we are. Also, there is great value in continuity; UT Arlington has been UT Arlington for 51 years and counting. This isn't even something that is discussed, except right here.

Very occasionally it makes sense to change a name. Southwest Texas State to Texas State made sense. Got rid of a directional name in favor of a name that better reflected its expanded mission and size. It would make no sense, for instance, to change the University of Houston name.

(06-04-2018 11:03 AM)puck swami Wrote:  Nice to see that UC-San Diego is finally trying to fix part of the confusion problem among San Diego city-identified schools by moving away from its own UCSD acronym, as of 2017.

I am sure there is not just sports confusion there, but especially general confusion among people who are not from California, and especially for international students still trying to figure out which San Diego school is which. Names and acronyms can take a long time to change in common use....

The DU vs Metro State name issue came to a head in 2011, some six years before the UCSD acronym change. I know DU was consulting closely with fellow private USD during that time in 2011, and USD mentioned that there was a lot of confusion with all three San Diego schools.

I think the only downside to de-emphasizing UCSD in favor of UC San Diego is that it introduces more opportunities for the disfavored hyphenated version, UC-San Diego, to be used. Frankly, I think they should embrace using both UCSD and UC San Diego. People routinely use the initials and the longer version for the campuses in Irvine, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Davis, and Santa Cruz.

The older schools are the odd ones in this sense. UCLA is only ever UCLA, not really UC Los Angeles. And UC Berkeley doesn't use UCB; they prefer Cal, but just for sports.

(05-29-2018 09:49 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  City names are fine as well as unique names like Stanford, Duke, Wake, Notre Dame, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, etc.

Schools that would be better of with a better name
UAB - Birmingham
ULL - Louisiana
UCF - Orlando or should have kept Florida Tech Citronauts. Best name ever
USF - Tampa Bay
UConn - Connecticut
Southern Miss - Mississippi Tech
ECU - Carolina University
App State - Appalachian (unique name should drop the state)
ODU - Shoild go by as Old Dominon. Its a unique name and they should use it
UTSA - San Antonio
Western Michigan - Western University

UConn is such a great name...Better than Storrs Agricultural School....cause that really jumps off the screen....