A composite image showing the resemblance between N.C. State and East Carolina University’s midfield football designs started an online debate during the weekend and re-sparked the “this is our state” dispute. 

After Saturday’s Homecoming game, UNC-Chapel Hill football players made headlines when they stomped on N.C. State’s new midfield design, which consisted of the strutting wolf’s head within an outline of North Carolina. However, the move also mocked the University’s “this is our state” slogan and drew attention to what some people said amounts to plagiarism. 

“I found it hilarious that N.C. State stole our midfield logo, and I guess they just want to be like us and actually have some form of success,” said Jeremy Lauffer, a freshman at ECU.  “We have the outline of North Carolina as our logo because it’s our state. Are they teaching any sort of creativity at State or do they steal everything else at that school too?”

According to Chris Boyer, senior associate athletics director at N.C. State, the midfield design was based on an existing merchandise design used for bumper stickers and other items. The athletic department was also aware of ECU’s midfield design before the Homecoming game and the design was not slated to be the next University Athletics logo.

“There are certainly similarities [between the two designs] and we understand why people are concerned, but we didn’t want to replicate ECU,” Boyer said. “We certainly respect other field and court designs featuring state outlines, including ECU’s and UNC’s use of our state outline, but the concept of  using state outlines and the logos of the respective state universities in field and court graphics is not new or unique to any one school.”

Matt Hill, a sophomore in Biology at N.C. State, said the state outline being featured in a design can be used by any team in North Carolina.

“I don’t think any school from N.C. can claim that logo idea,” Hill said. “ECU uses it for football [and] UNC uses it for basketball, so I don’t see why we can’t use it for our football team as well.”

Will Barr, a junior in political science, agreed with Hill and said using the outline of a state with a mascot has previously been used by other schools.

“I’m down with anything that upsets the ECU crowd. Having lived near Greenville my entire life, hearing about them nonstop got pretty old, and it’s not even original to them,” Barr said.

Patrick Limer, a junior in political science at N.C. State, said the original design could have come from a lack of creativity.

“It’s probably not a good idea to use a similar style to the one of ECU, but as far as logos are concerned, when incorporating the ‘our state’ slogan, there are only so many ways to go with creating one,” Limer said. “Perhaps there just weren’t enough creative thinkers sitting around the table to come up with a whole new idea.”

ACC sports fans also debated N.C. State’s use of the “this is our state” slogan online this weekend.

Hill posted two pictures on Facebook Saturday showing an N.C. State and a Mississippi State billboard with the same “welcome to our state” slogan. Also, Barr posted pictures of Iowa State University and Mississippi State University using the “this is our state” logo. 

Boyer, who started working with the University in early 2013, said he wasn’t aware that other schools were using the same slogan.

“I was unaware that another institution had used it or something similar to it prior to N.C. State Athletics until recently,” Boyer said. “But I am not sure that diminishes its impact and marketing potential with our specific fan base and target markets.  I do know several other schools have replicated it since we launched it here as well.”

Boyer also said that when hundreds of Universities try to advertise “similar products or services,” there is bound to be some overlap.

“I like the idea of [the slogan], but I think it would go over a lot better if we weren’t the third or fourth best, this season at every major sport in the state,” Barr said. “I think Mississippi State used it first which made sense because they were better than the [other] big, state school, Ole Miss, in basketball, football, and probably even baseball.”

Limer agreed, but still has his doubts about using another school’s slogan.

“It may not be classy to replicate another school’s slogan, but this is a whole separate state and we rightfully made a claim to it as ‘our state,’ [but] we just need to defend that claim a bit better,” Limer said.