Vol. 68 No. 4 (2020)
Research Article

Geographical Accuracy of Place-Based Collegiate Athletic Conference Names in the United States

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  • Michael D. Sublett
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2020.1791674

Published 2020-10-09

Keywords

  • United States,
  • surnames,
  • family roles,
  • marriage,
  • socioeconomic status anthroponymy

Copyright (c) 2020 American Name Society

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

College athletic competition constitutes a significant aspect of life in the United States. Virtually, every institution of higher learning fields intercollegiate teams in a multitude of sporting activities. Most colleges and universities join an organization, a conference of similar institutions, to enhance competition. Some also join single-sport conferences in order to participate in sports that their principal conferences do not accommodate. All conferences have names, often place-based names. Many place-based names convey their conference locations well; others fail in this regard. This essay examines the names of all 184 baccalaureate-level conferences in the United States, excludes those conference names that do not have a place basis, and divides the remaining conferences into two categories: those whose names are place appropriate and those that are not.

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