Article College Sports, Losing Seasons, and Image Repair Through Open Letters to Fans Josh Compton 1 and Jordan L. Compton 2 Abstract College sports coaches and administrators can use open letters to repair images and weather crises, especially during losing seasons. Our rhetorical analysis uses Benoit’s typology of image repair to reveal three primary strategies attempted during losing seasons: evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, and corrective action. We take note of how open letters distributed via electronic media channels widen the audience of such letters, but also, complicate issues of timing and of targeted audience analysis. We offer five implications for scholars and practitioners, including the importance of audience analysis, the value of corrective action, the ineffective- ness of attacking accusers, and the unique value of transcendence in sport com- munication image repair rhetoric. Keywords image repair, fans, losing season, letters, audience Introduction Open letters from coaches and administrators can be unique components of media sports coverage. Such letters are written with a broad audience in mind—to their 1 Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA 2 School of Communication Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA Corresponding Author: Josh Compton, Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, Dartmouth College, 6250 Baker Library, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. Email: josh.compton@dartmouth.edu Communication & Sport 2014, Vol. 2(4) 345-362 ª The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2167479513503542 com.sagepub.com