Southern Utah University

Course Syllabus

Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2026

Branding and Advertising for Sports Communication (Online)

COMM 3707-30I

Course: COMM 3707-30I
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2026
Department: Communication
CRN: 32511

Course Description

Sport Branding is focused on creating and delivering meaningful brand experiences to increase fan engagement and loyalty. Topics in this course include the history of sports branding, the sports ecosystem, team-branding, athletes as brands, product branding, sponsorships, globalization, and how consumer technology & social media platforms are changing the sports industry.

Successful brands today cultivate a distinctive personality through their communications, often digital. Their goal is to represent the essence of their brand to target consumers. When done well, the personality and brand promise align with consumer motivations and interests. Sport branding is no different. The sports “product” is the fan experience. The more enjoyable the experience, the more loyal fans become. This course details the process of developing a sports brand, with an emphasis on how digital technology is changing fan interactions.

Required Texts

There is no textbook required for this class.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Appreciate that the sport ecosystem is dynamic and includes more than just athletic teams;
  • Understand that digital technology and changing consumer behavior require new ways to engage fans;
  • Understand and apply the 5-step Brand Spiral to developing a successful sport branding strategy;
  • Apply the concepts of sport branding to real-world situations and to;
  • Discuss the future of sport branding.
  • Accurately dissect and define athletics brands, key in on their target fan bases, and proficiently develop sales strategies geared toward them;
  • Design and create visual assets to effectively represent a brand;
  • Execute and coordinate in-game activations and branding plans;
  • Create and execute full branding campaigns;
  • Create and pitch full corporate partnership proposals;
  • Create social media plans to grow and develop audiences;
  • Develop full branding plans to recruit for a university;
  • Conceive, design, and develop a plan for a brand new sports franchise.
Essential Learning Outcomes
  • 2.1. Idea: Fluency clearly expresses a unique perspective/idea.
  • 2.4. Command of Content: Demonstrated thorough understanding and use of discipline specific content.
  • 2.5. Presentation: Fluency is a product that is clear, effective and compelling, with no distracting errors.
  • 5.1. Media Production: Fluency involves the skillful creation, modification and sharing of digital media using appropriate technologies and formats.
  • 5.2. Digital Collaboration: Fluency is demonstrated through collaborative efforts that seamless use a variety of technologies (e.g., social media, texting, cloud sharing, web conferencing, etc.) as part of project management.

Course Requirements

The following grading standards will be used in this class:

Grade    Range
A    100 % to 94.0%
A-    < 94.0 % to 90.0%
B+    < 90.0 % to 87.0%
B    < 87.0 % to 84.0%
B-    < 84.0 % to 80.0%
C+    < 80.0 % to 77.0%
C    < 77.0 % to 74.0%
C-    < 74.0 % to 70.0%
D+    < 70.0 % to 67.0%
D    < 67.0 % to 64.0%
D-    < 64.0 % to 61.0%
F    < 61.0 % to 0.0%

Course Outline

(Subject to Change) 

Week One: September 7 - 11
  • Intro to Sports Branding & Social Media
Week Two: September 14 - 18 
  • Who’s Involved w/ Branding 
Week Three: September 21 - 25
  • Branding Through Video 
Week Four: September 28 - October 2
  • Historic Brands & How They Came to Be
Week Five: October 5 - 9 
  • Branding Through Logos, Graphic Design & Photography 
Week Six: October 12 - 16
  • Branding in the NIL Era 
Week Seven: October 19 - 23
  • Branding/Advertising & Sports Information 
Week Eight: October 26 - 30 
  • Taking Advantage of the Moment
Week Nine: November 2 - 6
  • Traditional Advertising Methods 
Week Ten: November 9 - 13
  • Sponsorships & College Athletics 
Week Eleven: November 16 - 20 
  • Where People Watch Your Brand 
Week Twelve: November 23 - 27 (Thanksgiving Break)
Week Thirteen: November 30 - December 4 
  • Let’s Do A SWOT Analysis 
Week Fourteen: December 7 - 11 
  • Branding & Advertising From the Top Down 
Week Fifteen: December 14 - 17 (Finals) 

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Instructor's Response Time & Feedback

It is my goal to:

  • Respond to student messages within two business days
  • Provide grades and feedback within 5 - 7 days from the due date
Learner Responsibilities

Because we are trying to simulate a realistic work environment in this course, late work will not be accepted. All work is due on the day indicated on the course calendar. Late assignments are not acceptable in this course and will receive a grade of zero.

Attendance Policy

As this is an online course your attendance will be measured by your participation and completion of course activities.

Course Fees

Content for this section will be provided by the instructor.

Additional Course Information and Policies

Course Modality, Technology, and Workload

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam. It will be up to you to complete all readings, learning assessments, videos, quizzes, and exams on your own. Every assignment in this course is designed to take multiple hours and test your knowledge of the week’s readings, so please don’t think you can get everything done on a Saturday night.

Canvas Information

Canvas is where course content, grades, and communication will reside for this course.

Department AI Policy 

AI cannot substitute for foundational learning. Students must acquire disciplinary knowledge and critical thinking skills in order to evaluate AI outputs appropriately. Thus, the Communication Department will maintain a 25% tolerance threshold for AI use in completing assignments. That means, unless explicitly stated by your instructor for a specific assignment, any work that is submitted as AI generated at a rate of 26% or higher will receive a zero on their grade and require a conversation with the instructor. In those cases where assignment instructions allow for AI use, students must certify that they have reviewed, verified and edited all AI outputs, which may include AI prompts used. Students should treat AI as a partner in thought and creation, not as a shortcut or a substitute for human expertise, ethics, and judgment. Students should not input sensitive, personal, confidential, copyrighted or proprietary information into public AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) as it is illegal and violates expectations of privacy and academic/creative work.   

AI is allowed for certain assignments (see individual assignment instructions for details). However, presenting AI-generated work as entirely one’s own in a course that does not permit such use, or using AI in ways explicitly prohibited in assignment instructions, constitutes a violation of SUU Policy 6.33: Academic Misconduct and opens the violator up to a series of potential sanctions.

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.