The biggest NCAA athletic conference, rich with 65 years of tradition, has just started its newest chapter. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) is home to 18 Pennsylvania-based universities and 23 different athletic championships. At noon on Jan. 25, Conference Commissioner Steve Murray announced that the PSAC will adopt a new logo and branding style for 2017 and into the future.
The PSAC is unique in that it is comprised of only schools that are in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the new PSAC logo took steps to highlight that. The conference replaced its old seal-like logo that spelled out “Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference” with a new one that simply has the acronym “PSAC” inside of an outline in the shape of the keystone state itself.
The most exciting part of the new logo is that the PSAC has created 18 different versions of the logo, each one sporting one of the PSAC schools’ specific colors. The bottom part of Pennsylvania and the letters will be the school’s primary color while the top part of the state will be the school’s secondary color. For example, SRU’s individualized logo will have a green bottom and text with a gray top.
The PSAC worked with Joe Bosack & Co. for nine months developing the new logo and Murray said in a press release that “the result is a series of marks which exhibit our geographic commonality as institutions throughout Pennsylvania while also featuring each school with their own recognizable elements.”
SRU Athletic Director Paul Lueken said that thought the conference was following the trend of modernizing logos and that he liked the idea.
“This whole rebranding process is pretty popular across the country with new, modernized logos and things like that. I like what they did. I think it’s a good identity, it obviously shows that we’re in the state of Pennsylvania,” Lueken said. “I like that fact that they allowed flexibility amongst the conference schools to do different color combinations.”
Murray also said that there is a three- to four-year plan in place for each of the member schools to place the new conference logo on school uniforms, basketball courts and perhaps even football fields.
Slippery Rock University Sports Information Director Jon Holtz said that the new logo will not be used on SRU uniforms immediately, but there is an expected timetable for its debut.
“The basketball teams will wear a special logo t-shirt for warmups for their games this week. The logo will appear on official SRU uniforms beginning with the next cycle of uniform purchases next fall,” Holtz said via email. “Having different color schemes to work with each of the 18 member institutions is a nice touch to this rebranding and will allow us some more flexibility for use in graphics and other placements for the logos.”
Lueken said that the PSAC will be sending supplies for the university to update existing banners at Morrow Field House, Mihalik-Thompson Stadium or anywhere else with the new logo this summer.
The PSAC also plans to unveil revised championships, awards and a new website design later in 2017.
