Widely Confused Acronyms in FCS

[ToTheLeft]

This isn't FCS but FBS... The South Florida Bulls put USF on all there T-shirts and stuff but ESPN and other stations/websites still calls them South Florida. I may be mistaken but I believe the school even said that they rather be known as USF over South Florida. So... If there are any USF/South Florida fans on here, What are you called?

USF. San Francisco is irrelevant at best, and USF is a rising power in football, it's time we (putting on my USF hat for a minute) take the "USF" acronym and use it on a national stage. Never hear anyone call USF by any other name, other than "The Bulls".

[ToTheLeft]

LU is Liberty and Lipscomb. Don't think anyone will ever confuse them, tho... not usually used in the same context. Most people will shorten it to Lib. as an abbreviation, and I don't think that's frowned upon or anything. Especially if you want to avoid LU confusion.

[ToTheLeft]

PC is Presby, which is also a shortening of the name... not sure what the official stance is.

CSU is Chuck South... ESPN abbreviates it "SCU", which makes no sense... not sure how to avoid confusing with my CSU Rams, but when talking in a Big South context, they're usually Chuck, Chuck South, or CSU.

G-W is usually how GWU gets abbreviated... I'm sure this is a misnomer of sorts. The school would probably rather have the U on there.

CCU is the only one, as far as I know...

RU for Radford... can't think of another off the top of my head, but they are confused with UR sometimes, or as I understand, people will call Richmond RU to poke fun and compare them to Radford?

SBU... I feel for you guys. Everyone likes to add an "e" to Stony, or make it one word.

VMI.... pretty straight forward.

[SuperHornet]

I get confused when it comes to Sacramento State, which is why during my prediction threads, you see me spell it out as "Sac State" (I use the acronyms of the other schools and will spell out those non conference opponents, FBS and FCS). I've been told in the past that Sacramento State does not go by "SSU" as that is reserved in California for Sonoma State, and also does not use the "CSUS" as the school rarely goes by the name of Cal State University-Sacramento.

I've heard that Sac went by SSC back in the day before the entire Cal State system became universities. We are Sac State for athletics and CSUS for academics. You see similar things at other Cal State schools.

For all you guys refering to ESPN: I wouldn't trust them as far as I could chuck them for this. Back when I was a USF fan (that is, before they chucked the best offensive mind in football on nothing more than association), I was always ticked that the arrogant bastards used SFLA for them. They do the same thing for UOP: the Tigers are not PAC, you dummies.

If you think California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo is strange, try California State Polytechnic University at Pomona on for size. SLO and Pomona are both State and both Poly, but they swap the words in their name. I've never understood that....

[D-Wreck]

PSU is Portland State as long as you are on campus. Anywhere else in the BCS and Pac-10 happy Portland, PSU is Penn State.

I get confused when it comes to Sacramento State, which is why during my prediction threads, you see me spell it out as "Sac State" (I use the acronyms of the other schools and will spell out those non conference opponents, FBS and FCS). I've been told in the past that Sacramento State does not go by "SSU" as that is reserved in California for Sonoma State, and also does not use the "CSUS" as the school rarely goes by the name of Cal State University-Sacramento.

Unless you get the ESPN text alerts for BSC football/basketball. I'll admit, the first time I got a text referring to CSUS, I had no idea who the Bobats had just beat.

[GrizMadman2]

USC can be Southern Cal and South Carolina

Ok, but this underlines the point I made earlier: It depends a lot on the context surrounding what's being discussed. This could include the focus of the board & the topics & posts within it. If it's clear the discussion is about Big Sky Conference schools, everyone would know what MSU means. When I read a newspaper about national football, I know what USC means & if USC means South Carolina, then the reporter removes that ambiguity by stating the full name, and it's up to posters to sense that their readers may not understand what their abbr's are referring to, in some cases. Unless the context is clear, you can't just throw around abbr's & expect readers to understand what you're referring to. This goes beyond school abbr's with me, but that's another story.

[LUaddict]

Another LU confusion with Liberty will be Lamar when they begin football again. Just food for thought

[JALMOND]

USC can be Southern Cal and South Carolina

Ok, but this underlines the point I made earlier: It depends a lot on the context surrounding what's being discussed. This could include the focus of the board & the topics & posts within it. If it's clear the discussion is about Big Sky Conference schools, everyone would know what MSU means. When I read a newspaper about national football, I know what USC means & if USC means South Carolina, then the reporter removes that ambiguity by stating the full name, and it's up to posters to sense that their readers may not understand what their abbr's are referring to, in some cases. Unless the context is clear, you can't just throw around abbr's & expect readers to understand what you're referring to. This goes beyond school abbr's with me, but that's another story.

Even in Pac-10 happy Portland, the Oregonian will refer to "Southern Cal" in the first line of a story and then "Trojans" whenever possible. Only after that are they referred to as "USC".

Come to think of it, the only team they truly refer to the acronym is UCLA, at the beginning, middle and end. Maybe they will change this practice when someone opens up a university in Las Animas, Colorado.

[CrunchGriz]

Even in Pac-10 happy Portland, the Oregonian will refer to "Southern Cal" in the first line of a story and then "Trojans" whenever possible. Only after that are they referred to as "USC".

Come to think of it, the only team they truly refer to the acronym is UCLA, at the beginning, middle and end. Maybe they will change this practice when someone opens up a university in Las Animas, Colorado.

That'll be the day. Las Animas is about as big as the end of your pinky. The only reason I know this is because I played baseball and basketball against Las Animas when I was in high school. Good pull on the potential acronym, though.

[bench]

While I agree it's a good thread and people are responding to help keep us all straight and up to date...it could have been started differently. Like, without the reference.

And I will still use SAM as long as others use
Texas State University - San Marcos

That whole San Marcos thing wouldn't be as bad if the people who use it would just come right out and admit they're gigging you guys with it. NO NO IT'S YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL AND PROPER NAME. Bullshit. Out of deference to you guys and my boy Mountaineer, I will never refer to Sam Houston State by anything other than Sam Houston State — Huntsville. I'm a hard man, but fair.

My compromise is that they have to call your team Texas State — ¡San Marcos! That should show some proper acknowledgment that they're just fucking with you guys. Also, it's festive! It's got a lot going for it.

[Fresno St. Alum]

Why HIU?

Prior to 1984 Hampton was known as Hampton Institute.

I prefer South Hampton Institute of Technology (SHIT)

[TexasTerror]

That whole San Marcos thing wouldn't be as bad if the people who use it would just come right out and admit they're gigging you guys with it. NO NO IT'S YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL AND PROPER NAME. Bullshit. Out of deference to you guys and my boy Mountaineer, I will never refer to Sam Houston State by anything other than Sam Houston State — Huntsville. I'm a hard man, but fair.

Some of us went to Austin to fight to protect SHSU's name NUMEROUS times because of efforts in San Marcos to not only name themselves "TEXAS STATE", but to gain flagship status and the list goes on.

I will forever call them TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY - SAN MARCOS because of this. It goes back to protecting the name of Sam Houston State and making sure people realize that the school is the same school it has always been and surely not flagship. I spent plenty of time protecting the name of my alma mater and personally coming up with the language of the legislation that eventually passed in the Texas Legislature.

The fight still continues as long as there are some idiots in San Marcos who continue to push for flagship and there are individuals affiliated with 'The Drive' that have made derogatory remarks about the schools and the academics of the schools in the SLC.

[MSU_77]

Of course in Louisiana, you've got Nichols State University and Northwestern State University. I've seen them both referred to as NSU by their own fans.

OK, add Nicholls State to the All-Misspelled Conference

Oops, sorry about that. That's what typing without my glasses leads to.

[ToTheLeft]

Another LU confusion with Liberty will be Lamar when they begin football again. Just food for thought

For some reason I thought they were an LC.

And I forgot about Lehigh, as well. They're an LU. Which made Lafayette vs. Liberty "Lafayette vs. LU", which is the reason, I'm convinced, that they beat us a couple years ago.

[ToTheLeft]

Oh, and Longwood is an LU, but they're irrelevant, so no confusion there.

Although, it is fun to play them in basketball, because "We beat Longwood (clap-clap-clapclapclap)" is about as dirty as we're allowed to get at Liberty.

[DKHardee]

CCU is the only one, as far as I know...

ESPN puts "Coast" and "Coast Car" in there ticker sometimes. Most everyone around here shortens it to just "Coastal"

[kalm]

I recently learned that Eastern is the oldest state college in Washington. In honor of that heritage, I therefore require all of you to refer to us by acronym of the original name - Cheney Normal School, and by original mascot - the Savages.

[danefan]

That whole San Marcos thing wouldn't be as bad if the people who use it would just come right out and admit they're gigging you guys with it. NO NO IT'S YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL AND PROPER NAME. Bullshit. Out of deference to you guys and my boy Mountaineer, I will never refer to Sam Houston State by anything other than Sam Houston State — Huntsville. I'm a hard man, but fair.

Some of us went to Austin to fight to protect SHSU's name NUMEROUS times because of efforts in San Marcos to not only name themselves "TEXAS STATE", but to gain flagship status and the list goes on.

I will forever call them TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY - SAN MARCOS because of this. It goes back to protecting the name of Sam Houston State and making sure people realize that the school is the same school it has always been and surely not flagship. I spent plenty of time protecting the name of my alma mater and personally coming up with the language of the legislation that eventually passed in the Texas Legislature.

The fight still continues as long as there are some idiots in San Marcos who continue to push for flagship and there are individuals affiliated with 'The Drive' that have made derogatory remarks about the schools and the academics of the schools in the SLC.

I used to think your San Marcos obsession was over the top, but having gone through something similar with Stony Brook and Buffalo and the SUNY system I would do the same thing if they ever changed Stony Brook or Buffalo to New York State University, etc....

[chrisattsu]

I used to think your San Marcos obsession was over the top, but having gone through something similar with Stony Brook and Buffalo and the SUNY system I would do the same thing if they ever changed Stony Brook or Buffalo to New York State University, etc....

We grew attached to our Alma Maters, and namechanges can be difficult.

Did we change our name to Texas State University-San Marcos? Yes. However, the lack of any other Texas State University allowed us to use the "Texas State" branding. Which is the official 'second reference' for the university.

Are we part of the Texas State University System? Yes. Just like Sam, Lamar, and Sul Ross

Did we (Texas State) try to force a namechange on the system schools to get defacto flagship status?
These are two separate things that get lumped together. In the past couple of years, our system has transitioned from a weak chancellor to a strong chancellor. There as discussion around this time that perhaps we should consider standardizing the naming convention to create public awareness that the TSUS was a multi-university system. People immediately recognize that UT-Arlington and UT-San Antonio are in the same system, same with A&M-Kingsville and A&M-Commerce however people don't think about Texas State and Sam Houston State and Lamar being in the same system.

Along with the strong chancellor came the idea that maybe we should consider declaring a flagship. Naturally, the San Marcos and Huntsville campuses felt like they both had a claim to this title. Texas State was larger, and had higher admission standards while Sam was older and granted more PhDs. Both groups bicker of this, but we still have yet to declare a flagship.

Most Bobcatfans will tell you that we do not want another "Texas State-" floating around because that would mean that we would have to change our branding. We might have to go the California Route (San Marcos State) or the alphabet-soup TSUSM.


***Please note that FresnoStateAlum was right about Tarleton State University being referred as TSU. That is where the TSU in my name comes from, not Texas State

[ASUMountaineer]

While I agree it's a good thread and people are responding to help keep us all straight and up to date...it could have been started differently. Like, without the reference.

And I will still use SAM as long as others use
Texas State University - San Marcos

TT can't help himself. No need to worry about him taking a cheap shot at you here (because posting should always be about football ). It's cool Catmom...we all know how he is.

As to the thread, it's a good topic. I found out some information I didn't know, petty jabs notwithstanding.

[UAalum72]

Unless you get the ESPN text alerts for BSC football/basketball. I'll admit, the first time I got a text referring to CSUS, I had no idea who the Bobats had just beat.

Which brings up that BSC could be either Big Sky or Big South

[TexasTerror]

Did we (Texas State) try to force a namechange on the system schools to get defacto flagship status? These are two separate things that get lumped together.

As they should.

And it should be further noted that one school - Angelo State - skipped out of the system because of the threat of being called 'Texas State University - San Angelo' since they are the only TSUS not named after a person. That and the strong chancellor setup threatened their Carr Endowment.

[bench]

That whole San Marcos thing wouldn't be as bad if the people who use it would just come right out and admit they're gigging you guys with it. NO NO IT'S YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL AND PROPER NAME. Bullshit. Out of deference to you guys and my boy Mountaineer, I will never refer to Sam Houston State by anything other than Sam Houston State — Huntsville. I'm a hard man, but fair.

Some of us went to Austin to fight to protect SHSU's name NUMEROUS times because of efforts in San Marcos to not only name themselves "TEXAS STATE", but to gain flagship status and the list goes on.

I will forever call them TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY - SAN MARCOS because of this. It goes back to protecting the name of Sam Houston State and making sure people realize that the school is the same school it has always been and surely not flagship. I spent plenty of time protecting the name of my alma mater and personally coming up with the language of the legislation that eventually passed in the Texas Legislature.

The fight still continues as long as there are some idiots in San Marcos who continue to push for flagship and there are individuals affiliated with 'The Drive' that have made derogatory remarks about the schools and the academics of the schools in the SLC.

Darling, you know I don't care about all that.

[OSBF]

Illinois State University= ISU

Indiana State University= no one really cares

[chrisattsu]

Indiana State University= no one really cares

You mean Larry Bird University?