How Butler grad returned to his roots as the man behind SMU football’s social media – Butler Eagle

Butler graduate Carter Stanton, a creative director of football at Southern Methodist University, recently worked at a Mustangs practice. Stanton returned to work in college football after a stint as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ social media coordinator. Submitted photo

Southern Methodist University’s football program is getting back to where it belongs.

So is Carter Stanton.

“I think there’s never been a better time to be at SMU,” said Stanton, a 2019 Butler graduate who will play a major role in marketing the Mustangs when they return to the sport’s biggest stage: in a power conference.

He was hired as SMU’s creative director in June following a season in which the Mustangs went 11-3 and won the American Athletic Conference crown, their first league title since 1984. SMU formally joined the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, a transition Stanton was able to be a part of.

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I am excited to share that I have started my new role as Creative Strategy Director for @SMUFB! image.twitter.com/xvBzheWevV

— Carter Stanton (@carterstanton_) June 17, 2024

“From the moment I got here, everyone kept telling me that, yes, SMU has been in the Group of Five for a long time, but it belongs at the forefront of college athletics,” Stanton said. “The most important thing is that we are in a power conference. We are hosting Florida State this year. That is a big deal.”

Stanton oversees all of SMU’s graphic, video and photographic content. The catalog is used internally (for example, for recruiting purposes) and externally, on social media or at the stadium. Her department includes a full-time assistant and a team of students.

Stanton and his team brought a vintage feel to the press day, adding a VHS-style touch to the promotional videos shot in a blue and red laser show. They also made mock video game covers based on Electronic Arts’ College Football 25, which featured head coach Rhett Lashlee and former “Pony Express” stars Eric Dickerson and Craig James.

Stanton previously worked as a student intern in the Oklahoma State University athletics department from 2020-2023 and as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ social media coordinator last season. The latter, he said, focused primarily on the cadence, strategy and timing of social media posts.

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He missed being involved in college football, though. Stanton describes himself as a nerd, fascinated with the ins and outs of the sport — the countless uniform combinations, the different stadiums and the realignment of conferences.

“I think a lot of those aspects are being highlighted in video games this summer,” Stanton said. “It’s so cool that a lot of NFL fans are discovering what makes college football so special. It’s the pageantry, it’s the tradition, it’s the players and the personalities. It’s about so much more than just the result on the field.

“College football is chaotic. It’s full of crazy, random stories.”

Primarily a fan of professional sports, he realized how exciting college football was in high school. He began honing his skills around that time, doing graphic designs and highlight packages in his spare time.

Soon, athletes began to contact him and ask him to make videos of their best moments. That’s how he created his YouTube channel and, little by little, he began to gain followers.

Stanton began attending Oklahoma State in the spring semester of 2020. He was recruited by the Cowboys’ athletic department within his first month at the school.

“I basically just ate, slept and breathed that facility,” Stanton said. “It got to the point where during my later years I was really overseeing a lot of what we did while I was still a student. I led our social media posting efforts, I traveled with the team, I filmed videos, I made videos of every game, I practiced shots.

“You name it, I was doing it.”

According to SkullSparks, a branding firm involved in social media analytics, Oklahoma State’s official team social accounts had the largest percentage increase in followers in a one-year period in which Stanton was a part of the team. Stanton recently wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that SMU’s program had gained the second-most followers in the ACC and had garnered more than two million impressions in its first two-plus weeks in the conference.

“Things like that help, honestly, to know that I’m supposed to be here,” Stanton said. “There’s a reason I’m doing this. Results aren’t everything, but it’s certainly reassuring to see things like that and reassures you that the work you’re doing is going somewhere.”

“I’ve only been here two months and we’re seeing all kinds of growth, which is amazing.”