A Sea Of Red

I see more items with the Flames logo like this one, especially at Walmart. If you check the LU Branding guide, this version of the logo does not appear. If branding is so important, than why does Liberty approve of using a logo that is not even "officially" in their own branding guide. I don't buy anything with this grey outline version. By the way, trying to ask branding@liberty.edu gets this automated response:
The group branding only accepts messages from people in its organization or on its allowed senders list, and your email address isn't on the list.

Long time, no see.

Here's the response from marketing -

"There are several more color options available to our licensed vendors that are not in the brand guide in general. The gray outlined version of the primary athletics mark is used a lot in retail. A vendor that may not care about the cost associated with using one more color in their designs come up with a variation that sells. The point being, that all of our licensed vendors have access to that option. It is preferential."

At least they appear to be honest in their explanation.