A 2-Minute Read by E&I, Featuring Legend Labs

The West Coast Conference (WCC) Athletics Rebrands Itself to Compete

With a new commissioner and a bold vision to compete at the highest level of collegiate athletics, the West Coast Conference needed a new positioning statement and identity equal to its aspirations. Legend Labs worked with the conference and its ten institutions to articulate a powerful and "ownable" brand positioning that is a platform for storytelling.

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The West Coast Conference

The West Coast Conference has 9 teams and is being joined by UC San Diego is joining in 2027. All of the current members are faith-based institutions, with five being Jesuit institutions, including the newest member, Seattle University. Historically the WCC's strongest sports have been soccer, but the recent rise of Gonzaga to national prominence in men's basketball has helped make the WCC a household name. Saint Mary's has also had NCAA basketball success. In 2024, Oregon State University and Washington State University announced they would become affiliate members in all sports except football and baseball. As the Pac-12 dismantled, the WCC has an opportunity to fill in the competitive void.

A New WCC Commissioner
With a new commissioner and a bold vision to compete at the highest level of collegiate athletics, the West Coast Conference needed a positioning and identity equal to its aspirations.

Stu Jackson, who began his tenure as Commissioner of the West Coast Conference in late 2023, started an initiative to bring the WCC to more prominence. Commissioner Jackson has some history with the league. He played his senior season of college basketball at Seattle University when it was part of the Conference. Commissioner Jackson remarked that he remembers playing in small facilities as a player, but that the players in the WCC now are much better. Jackson brings a great deal of leadership experience to the WCC. His resume includes coaching and working in the front office for NBA teams, along with 13 years in the league office. He comes to the WCC following nine years as the Big East Conference’s Executive Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball.

Finding a Branding Partner – Legend Labs
The WCC began working with Legend Labs. Legend Labs offers branding consulting and campus crisis management that stems from it's experience working with educational institutions. Legend Labs consults with many different campus departments, from university health systems to campus deans to athletics.

Legend Labs worked with the conference and its ten institutions to articulate a powerful and ownable brand positioning as a platform for storytelling. For research, Legend Labs conducted 7 in-person campus visits, 3 virtual campus visits, it interviewed 10 WCC athletic directors, did 6 media interviews, performed 3 student-athlete focus groups, and administered 592 student-athlete surveys.

After the diligence period, the Brand Steering Committee decided that the Conference identity needed a "refresh" to align more closely with the personality and tone of the positioning. The rebranding efforts required input from university presidents, athletic directors, athletes, creative talent, administrators, and faculty from the ten schools.

Legend Labs helped with the WCC’s brand positioning, reframing the concept of ‘faith’ in the content of sports and the community impact of it. Faith can mean faith in each other, or an unwavering belief that athletes can make a difference. Legend Labs also helped the WCC focus on “westward” themes in uniforms and arena branding, shaping the story with words and expressions of ‘going west’ in the new and competitive WCC.

In 2024, Legend Labs helped the WCC with a new brand relaunch video, new uniforms, arena and other athletic branding. “Our Way is West” is a new brand launch video.

This is just an executive summary, see the full case study by Legend Labs.

 

BYU uniforms
1 BYU's new WCC uniforms.
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2 An example courtside view of the WCC basketball conference tournament.

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