SMU Athletics and Truist have launched a multi-year partnership that will expand exposure, storytelling and sponsorship support for Mustangs women’s sports.
DALLAS - SMU Athletics is expanding its commercial reach in a significant way, and women’s sports are at the center of it.
Mustang Partners and Truist Financial Corporation have announced a multi-year agreement making Truist the presenting partner of SMU Women’s Athletics.
The deal gives Truist year-round visibility across the Hilltop while also creating new platforms to promote SMU’s female student-athletes, teams and history.
For SMU, this isn’t just another logo-placement sponsorship.
The agreement includes digital and social content tied to women’s programs, including gameday and final-score coverage.
It will also feature a six-part social media series focused on the history of SMU Women’s Athletics, giving the school another way to spotlight the athletes and moments that helped shape the program.
That storytelling component is what makes the partnership stand out.
SMU Deputy Athletic Director Dawn Rogers said the agreement is designed to go beyond traditional branding and create more opportunities to celebrate women’s sports both on and off the field.
Truist’s presence will also be hard to miss on campus.
The company will have branding on team bench chairbacks at Moody Coliseum for volleyball, women’s basketball and men’s basketball.
Permanent signage will also be added at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex, extending the partnership to both SMU men’s and women’s tennis.
Football fans will see the relationship, too.
Truist will receive in-stadium LED exposure during SMU football games, a Boulevard activation space on gamedays, hospitality opportunities at Gerald J. Ford Stadium and a future leadership event featuring head coach Rhett Lashlee.
The move also fits into SMU’s broader push to grow revenue and commercial opportunities through Mustang Partners, the athletics department’s integrated sponsorship, NIL and brand division launched in late 2025.
For Truist, North Texas is a key growth market. For SMU, the deal adds another major corporate partner while putting a clear emphasis on increasing the visibility of women’s athletics.
In the rapidly changing economics of college sports, that combination matters.
SMU isn’t simply selling sponsorship inventory.
It’s building a larger platform around its athletes, and this time, the women’s programs are getting top billing.
