Wikipedia:WikiProject College football/Naming conventions

This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention.

Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

In general, the year should always come first. School names should be the short preferred version and not acronyms. "Oklahoma" and not "University of Oklahoma" or "OU". "Penn State" and not "Pennsylvania State University" or "PSU" or "PA State" (Penn is generally acceptable, therefore an exception to fully spelling out the name). There should never be "University of" in an article name. The names on the Master Team Table can be used for reference.

Nickname should be the proper male (if exists) version of the name. "Buffaloes" and not "Buffs".

This guideline does not list any bad examples to prevent confusion. To determine whether a name is following this guideline, please use the talk page.

Special note: The University of Southern California (USC) must never be referred to as "Southern Cal", either in an article name or in general text. The school specifically declares this to not be a valid name.^[1]

Articles about teams

Team historical articles

Generally, historical article about teams should be in the format "<School> <Nickname> football under <Coach Name>". Examples:

General

The general article about the entire team at a should be "<School> <Nickname> football". Examples:

Individual seasons

An individual season is certainly acceptable for some instances, such as a national championship team or even a conference championship team. However, if an editor begins an individual team article before or during the season, and the team fails to achieve a championship, it should not be deleted since it would discourage future articles. Over the long run, the article may be able to be merged into an article in the style above. However, starting a past individual season article is discouraged until the season is notable and there is likely enough information to be able to create a full article about the single season.

The naming convention for individual seasons shall be "<Year> <School> <Nickname> football team". Examples:

Individual games

Regular season

An article name should be "<Year> <Visitor School> vs. <Home School> football game". Examples:

Notes: neutral sites will still have a visitor and home team, it should still follow this guideline as above.

Postseason

An article about a single bowl game should be "<Year> <Name of Bowl>". Examples:

An article about championship games should follow "<Year> <Title> Game". Examples:

Special cases

Some games have special names, which can supersede this guideline. Such as Fifth Down or The Play. Further, games that are cyclic or annual in nature can also supersede this guideline such as the Red River Shootout could have 2006 Red River Shootout.

References

^ As clearly stated in all media guides: "Note to the media: In editorial references to athletic teams of the University of Southern California, the following are preferred: USC, Southern California, So. California, Troy and Trojans for men’s or women’s teams, and Women of Troy for women’s teams. PLEASE do not use Southern Cal (it’s like calling San Francisco “Frisco” or North Carolina “North Car.”). The usage of "Southern Cal" on licensed apparel and merchandise is limited in scope and necessary to protect federal trademark rights." It’s Not ‘Southern Cal’, 2005 USC Football Media Guide, USC Athletic Department, pg. 3.

[1] As clearly stated in all media guides: "Note to the media: In editorial references to athletic teams of the University of Southern California, the following are preferred: USC, Southern California, So. California, Troy and Trojans for men’s or women’s teams, and Women of Troy for women’s teams. PLEASE do not use Southern Cal (it’s like calling San Francisco “Frisco” or North Carolina “North Car.”). The usage of "Southern Cal" on licensed apparel and merchandise is limited in scope and necessary to protect federal trademark rights." It’s Not ‘Southern Cal’, 2005 USC Football Media Guide, USC Athletic Department, pg. 3.

[1]