Western Kentucky

[tornado]

The Western Kentucky people have made the point that....they have...
"specific demands over what schools want to be called"

"the school states that it should always be referred to by its full name or by "WKU" ??” and
that it should never be called "Western Kentucky, Western, Western Ky., W. Kentucky or any other variation."

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/07/11/1344136/call-wku-western-at-your-own-risk.html#ixzz0tNCL6dIQ

other schools are doing same and making demands on what they want to be called...
University of Louisiana at Monroe wants to be ULM
Florida International University wants to be FIU
North Carolina-Asheville wants to be UNC Asheville or Asheville
Miami of Ohio wants to be Miami University, Miami University (Ohio) or Miami (Ohio)
NC-Charlotte wants to be just Charlotte

[Braves4Life]

Actually, I have little problem with this. All of these schools compete against each other and for attention. What they are doing is trying to clearly establish their brand. It's kind of like Radio Shack trying to re-establish themselves as "The Shack", or the way International Business Machines branded themselves simply as IBM. There are numerous similar examples.

[amettrick]

This isn't uncommon or a new trend. Schools have been making a fuss over what they should be called for years. When Bradley played Ohio in the CBI a couple years back they had an entire little section in their media notes clarifying how they would like to be refered to.

Unfortunately for Western Kentucky, they're not going to get their wish, at least not as far as the media is concerned. AP style (the guidlines almost all newspapers follow) states that when a school is first referenced in a sports story, they should be refered to as the school's name minus the word "university." So Western Kentucky University becomes simply Western Kentucky, Bradley University becomes just Bradley and so on.

There are exceptions, like UCLA, but there aren't many.

[PTTB]

I too don't believe this is a new trend. If you look at opponent media guides, there is usually a place that mentions, "Please refer to us as X University, X Mascots, or X". This is more common for directional schools like Western Kentucky or Southern Illinois. I also heard a few years ago where TCU was specifically stating that they wanted to be called TCU and not Texas Christian. Not sure if they were trying to drop the 'Christian' element from their branding or what.

I guess I look at it as though there is a preferred name, and they are simply stating what it is. Hi, my name is Richard Jones, please call me Dick (or Rick, or Rich, you get the point).

[AZ BU Fan]

Wonder if this has anything to do with protecting exclusive licensing of school branded products?