if (text = FIRST) text = [I]FIRST[/I];

[Dordai]

This is the first time that I have heard that FIRST wants us to italicize its name, and I do think it is a bit rediculious. Like other posters have said, italics already have a specific usage in the english language, and acronyms are not one of them. It would just confuse others without intement knowledge of FIRST who read this forum.
Also, on FIRST's homepage right now, I see FIRST italicised 3 times but it is not italicised 4 times. FIRST itself doesn't even seem too particular about this.

[Matt H.]

I'm am very much against any kind of automatic censorship--no matter how well thought out the censor is it will still make mistakes. Similarly as noted above FIRST has shown very little regard for this rule on their own website (see news front page) and hence I will continue to simply capitalize rather than italicize the acronym.
The standard which I apply to requests from large organizations is to compare it to a request made by an individual. For example if someone requested that I always print their name in wing dings font I would pay them no heed. Similarly as first has shown no valid reason for italicizing their name I see no need to do as such.