To avoid assigning duplicate hood linings to colleges and universities that used the same school colors, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) used different types of heraldic patterns to divide the two or more colors in an academic hood. In IBAC lists from 1927 and 1948, a number of hood lining patterns were described as “[color] above [color]” or “[color] over [color]”, which referred either to a hood lining divided per chevron, per reversed chevron, or per bar. Unfortunately, today it is not usually known which of these three patterns the Bureau intended to describe.

The Intercollegiate Bureau assigned Cumberland University a “white above maroon” hood lining no later than 1927, according to an IBAC list from that period. The Bureau used this arrangement to avoid duplicating the hood they had already assigned to Mississippi State University (white with a maroon chevron). Cumberland University appeared in only one other IBAC list, from 1948, but the description of the university’s hood was unchanged. As the first college or university to be assigned this arrangement of white and maroon, Cumberland’s colors were probably divided per chevron.