The secret of who’s inside your college mascot’s suit is well guarded. But every year just before graduation, students pop off the heads of their costumes for the public.
The “mascot reveal” has become an annual viral social-media moment, and the spectacle is only growing: According to data provided by TikTok, posts using the hashtag #mascotreveal in May 2026 are up 230% year-over-year.
Some of the productions are cinematic, others are silly. They nearly all follow a suited mascot through school grounds before finally cutting to them removing their headgear. The reveal, often at stadiums, is typically timed to the beat drop of a dramatic song; “Double Life” by Pharrell and “Keep It Up” by Good Neighbours are popular selections.
Mascots, spirit programs, and athletic department leaders from around the country tell Front Office Sports that these reveals have become a new tradition that provides a moment of spotlight and celebration for an otherwise anonymous role.
“A Love Letter”
Prior to this era of short-form video, mascot reveals—if they happened at all—were contained to the live moments of graduation ceremonies, where students might walk across the stage wearing their mascot hands or feet alongside their caps and gowns. But the audience now extends well beyond the graduation-day crowd.
Landon Terro, who served as LSU’s Mike the Tiger from 2024 to 2026, is currently feeling the love. His reveal video—inspired by his appreciation for Michael Jackson—has racked up tens of millions of views across platforms, including nearly 14 million from a repost by ESPN’s TikTok account.
“It was never my intention for our video to become as big of a thing as it has,” Terro tells FOS. “My biggest motivator was to give the people who will come next to reveal their identity as Mike something they can use as a blueprint, but it’s been so awesome to see the positive reception.”
He adds: “The trend definitely started a couple of years ago, and every mascot and school has their own take on it. These videos are a love letter to what we’ve done, the people we’ve worked with, and the memories we’ve made. It just wraps it all up in a nice little bow and sends it off; it’s one last chance to spread some joy in and out of the suit.”
This year’s posts have gotten more visibility thanks to the help of Sickos Committee, which bills itself as a “community of depraved college football fans.” It has close to 200,000 followers across X/Twitter and Instagram, and the eight administrators of the account have been reposting every mascot reveal they see.
“We’re about celebrating all of the fun, weird stuff that goes along with college sports, and mascots are a huge part of that,” says one admin. “No matter how good or bad their team is—or if it’s 90 degrees—mascots have to be there, and they have to be happy to be there. They deserve their moment to shine.”
Mad Dash to Create
While college sports content is getting more professional, mascot-reveal videos tend to come together quickly and in relatively lo-fi fashion. With everyone in end-of-year mode, time is tight. Most start ideating their concepts in March and actually film—usually with small crews—in late April or early May.
Terro spent just two hours at Tiger Stadium last week with his longtime friend and freelance videographer Caleb Vedros to capture his now-viral video. “We shot it on a Tuesday and [Terro] wanted to post it on a Friday,” says Vedros. “I had a busy week, so I didn’t get around to editing until Thursday. It was an epic all-nighter.”
Athletic departments generally grant students leeway to create their own individual videos, which they’ll then share on official accounts via collaborative posts.
For Ohio State, “it’s really dependent on what the seniors want to do,” says mascot head coach and spirit operations coordinator Raymond Sharp. “They are given creative freedom and permission to facilitate their reveals independent of me.” He does have a “supervisory role,” he adds—there are, after all, university standards to comply with.
But many athletic-department creative teams, including Ohio State’s, have started producing their own versions, too. In a video revealing the four Bruti who graduated this year, the school dropped tons of fun lore about its nut-inspired mascot. Fact: A former Brutus holds the record for most calories burned by an Ohio State athlete at a single sporting event.
Superman-Sized Reveal
Mascot-reveal videos have definitely “gotten on steroids,” says the Sickos Committee admin. But considering the lengths spirit programs go to keep students’ identities a secret during their mascot tenure, the grandiosity is warranted.
Tyler Wisman, a Brutus who graduated this May, had to tell some white lies to keep from outing himself as a mascot: “Only my family and a few close friends knew. If I had to miss class, I would just tell my professors I was on the cheerleading team.”
The secrecy also maintains the all-important mystique—what makes reveal videos so uniquely appealing. “It‘s like you get to see who Batman was or Superman out of his suit. Mascots are so embedded in campus life; there’s just a natural curiosity about them,” says Sophia Robinson, a former Boko the Bobcat at Texas State. The school formally established the mascot reveal as a school tradition this year.
“Most students or fans aren’t going to get a picture with the star quarterback,” says Ryan Riley, Texas State’s head cheer coach and spirit coordinator, “but they can definitely get one and have a memory with the mascot.”
“People Are Shocked”
When momentum began building around Indiana’s football program thanks to new head coach Curt Cignetti, the school decided to revive Hoosier the Bison after an absence of more than 50 years. The mascot arrived on campus in 2025 via parachute, just in time for the Hoosiers’ historic College Football Playoff run and CFP championship.
Hoosier is “perpetually a 22-year-old guy,” according to Rachel Gillam, who oversaw the scripting of his character as IU Athletics’s director of social media and creative strategy. However, in his first year back, he was portrayed by Abbey Armstrong, a woman.
Although there’s no official database of mascot demographics, mascot and spirit program sources tell FOS it’s quite common for them to be women, with many having a background in gymnastics or cheerleading. Still, the presence of female students during this season of reveals has surprised many people online.
“I think that’s a big reason why a lot of these videos are going so viral,” says Robinson of Texas State. “People are shocked to learn that a lot of us are women because most mascot characters are guys. It’s so fun to be a part of that surprise.”
All mascots FOS spoke with say they’ve received a huge amount of positive feedback from old friends, teachers, or coaches. Strangers, too—Robinson has gained nearly a thousand new followers on Instagram since her video went live in mid-May.
The personal attention is new territory. “Mascots generally have a similar personality type,” says Indiana’s Armstrong. “We’re a little goofy and a little weird, and that’s O.K. It’s why we like to put on a costume and be behind the scenes.”
The mascot-reveal videos will almost certainly surge once again next May when commencement rolls around. “There’s 12 [football] games each season and so many other events, but there’s only one graduation and mascot reveal,” says filmmaker Vedros. “I feel like this is going to be the college version of the NFL schedule release.”
