Soda over scholars: USU signs Coke contract

At its core, soda is a drink with carbonated water and flavoring, but in Utah, soda has become a cultural phenomenon. With “dirty soda” shops located in most Utah towns and expanding outside of the state, to the Utah State Aggie, soda may be more than just a means of hydration. Thus, when USU’s 3.5 million dollar Pepsi contract came to an end this June, the university decided to enter into a ten-year contract with Coke.

This is not the only loss Pepsi is taking this year. According to outlets such as CNN, MSN and the New York Post, Pepsi is no longer America’s number two soda and has been technically surpassed by Dr. Pepper.

Students located in Logan will be trading in their Pepsi products such as Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7UP, Aquafina and Mug Root Beer for Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Barq’s and Minute Maid in all locations except the TSC Quickstop, where products of both brands will be sold.

It may surprise current students to know this is not the first time they will be able to find both brands on the Logan campus — having both brands in the Quickstop was the norm until the Pepsi contract was signed in 2013, making USU a Pepsi campus for the last ten years.

Coke was not originally chosen back in 2013 because it would not fund the Aggie Smart Start nor the Aggies Thrive programs. Pepsi would annually pay a sum of $50,000 towards these programs.

According to a previous Statesman article, the plan was to write in USU’s contract that there had to be funding for these programs before the soda contract bidding even began, but the university had a change of mind.

“The scholarship, which was tied to university housing, is going away with the end of the Pepsi contract. The university’s needs are often changing, and some scholarships like the Aggie Start Smart will occasionally phase out as those needs and demands change,” said Logan Wilbur, news director of University Marketing and Communications in an email to the Statesman.

Ashlynn Smith, USUSA Student Events executive director, shared how the new contract will affect Student Events.

“Coke is more willing to sponsor events, and it’ll help us attract more audiences and create more incentive to get people to come,” Smith said. “Plus, who doesn’t love a good Diet Coke?”

The contract also has a special section carved out to allow the university to enter into another contract with Red Bull. This separate contract will allow both Red Bull and Coke to support Utah State Athletics.

There have been Coke vending machines placed in the TSC already. As the replacement of 80 vending machines takes place across campus, students can expect to see the signature red color all over campus by the time they arrive for the fall semester.

Josie Packer, USUSA Activities director and Diet Coke enthusiast, is avidly awaiting when she gets to see the red vending machines on campus.

“Sometimes you’re on campus and you’re like, ‘Geez, I could go for a Diet Coke,’ and then you remember there is no Diet Coke. Diet Coke doesn’t exist. But wait, now it does,” Packer said. “I hope it doesn’t make me feed my addiction or anything because I don’t want to be addicted to soda — I think that’s embarrassing. However, I do think it will be nice.”

USU and BYU, although rivals in sports, will now share a commonality via soda. BYU ended its decades-long anti-caffeine policy in 2017 with the addition of Coke products to its campus. USU and BYU are the only two Coke-declared colleges in the state.

Pepsi has not suffered a complete loss: it has been the chosen brand of the University of Utah since 2017, as well as Southern Utah University since 2020. All other Utah colleges do not have an officially declared soda brand.