Prior to this year, any club team with a coexisting National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team was required to use the terminology “club” rather than “team.” However, new requirements at Cal Poly state that club sports organizations — regardless of NCAA overlap — must include the phrase “club sports” on all merchandise, as stated in an email sent to all club sports presidents on Jan. 13.
“It’s outrageous,” club sports triathlon member and biomedical engineering junior Oliver Pilion said. “We’ve called ourselves ‘the tri team’ for three decades.”
The goal of the new logo requirements is to distinguish Club Sports from NCAA teams and simplify the Cal Poly branding system, but some athletes have frustrations with the change.
“I know they’re trying to preserve the respect for the NCAA teams, but this just seems a bit off-color,” psychology junior and Distance Club president Sophie Cohen said.
According to Swim Club vice president and psychology junior Cassidy Wells, the new requirements are proving to be problematic even for club sports organizations that haven’t previously used the word “team” in their name. Sports clubs such as Distance Club, Swim Club and Wrestling Club will need to change their names to include “club sports.”
“We’re happy to be a part of club sports, but we were founded on the name ‘Swim Club,’” Wells said. “Taking away our name and the brand we’ve created feels like a huge smack in the face.”
After the release of Swim Club’s merchandise with the 2023 logo requirements, numerous swimmers expressed their frustration with the new designs, complaining the addition of “club sports” is redundant, according to Wells.
“I got a lot of negative feedback and people weren’t very happy with me, but there wasn’t anything I could do about what the logos look like,” Wells said.
Student Affairs and University Marketing are responsible for Cal Poly brand requirements. Some club sport teams that haven’t ordered their merchandise yet are hoping to reach a compromise. Distance Club president Sophie Cohen wants to find a way where the double use of “club” won’t be required.
“I’m not hopeful that they’ll let us,” Cohen said. “Normally, we work really really closely with the advisers and they work in our best interest, but this just feels like they’re trying to put us in our place a bit and it doesn’t feel great.”
In order to use the CP and Mustang design, a staple of the Cal Poly Cycling Club’s merchandise for years, they were required to omit “team” from their attire.
“I don’t understand why it has to say ‘club sports’ when we have always gone by ‘cycling team’ and don’t have an NCAA team at Cal Poly,” mathematics graduate student and club sports Cycling member Erik Bruenner said.
Mustang News reached out to Sasha Palazzo, who manages Cal Poly trademark licensing, but did not receive a reply.
Correction, Feb. 23: This article was updated to clarify that Student Affairs and University Marketing are responsible for Cal Poly brand requirements.
