Utah State Univ. Saturday "unveiled a new brand and identity, complete with new logos and uniforms," according to Kraig Williams of the DESERET NEWS. The new logo and uniforms "are part of a 15-month long collaboration with Nike to re-brand Utah State." Nike President and Utah State alumnus Charlie Denson worked with AD Scott Barnes on the project, "which includes a new color palette, primary logo, custom font, wordmark and a new aggressive bull logo." All of the school's sports "will now have three color choices to choose from, adding pewter gray to the standard navy blue and white fans have grown accustomed to." Along with getting new logos and uniforms, Utah State "will also replace" the flooring in its on-campus basketball facility the Smith Spectrum, and the football field at Romney Stadium (DESERET NEWS, 4/29).
CONFERENCE CAROUSEL? In Las Vegas, Mark Anderson cites a source as saying that WAC member schools Utah State and San Jose State Univ. "are expected to join the Mountain West Conference in all sports" for the '13-14 season. A formal announcement "could be made in the coming days" as the MWC "meets in Phoenix this week to discuss its impending merger/alliance with Conference USA" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/30). In San Antonio, Dan McCarney cited a source as saying that the Univ. of Texas-San Antonio "is expected to join Conference USA in all sports for the 2013 season pending approval" from the Univ. of Texas System Board of Regents. The source said that UTSA "would be among a group of schools joining C-USA" and that UTSA "had also received invitations from the Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences." UTSA was slated to leave the Southland Conference and "join the Western Athletic Conference on July 1 ... but it will be an unexpectedly short stay." McCarney noted it "is not immediately known what will happen to the WAC, which is also adding Texas State, UTSA's long-time rival" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 4/29). CBSSPORTS.com' Brett McMurphy cited a source as saying that C-USA "is also looking to add" the Univ. of North Texas and Florida Int'l Univ. from the Sun Belt, and Louisiana Tech Univ. from the WAC. The addition of those three schools and UTSA "would give the league 12 members and means Conference USA's merger with the Mountain West would not occur in 2013" (CBSSPORTS.com, 4/28).
