Top misnomers in sports.

greenminer · June 5, 2012

For fun. Some mild pet peeves of mine.

Mid-major is a term used in American Division I college sports, especially men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the major six conferences (theACC, SEC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac-12, the programs of which are sometimes referred to as "high majors" by comparison). While many believe the term "mid-major" was originally coined by the sports media in order to distinguish between BCS and non-BCS conference teams, it was actually coined in 1977 (more than two decades before the development of the BCS) by Jack Kvancz, head coach of Catholic University's mens basketball team.^[1] Indeed, such a distinction is not officially acknowledged by the National Collegiate Athletics Association, nor does the NCAA use the terms "major" and "mid-major" to differentiate between Division I athletics conferences.

"non-BCS" (quote from BCS wiki)

[note this term is used erroneously in the above example]

An Automatic Qualifying conference (AQ conference) is an athletic conference in NCAA Division I FBS (highest level of collegiate athletics in the United States) whose champion receives an automatic berth in one of the five Bowl Championship Series bowl games. While the number of AQ conferences is variable and not permanently set, the BCS has always had six AQ conferences since its inception in 1998. AQ conferences are sometimes called BCS conferences but that usage is not technically correct according to the BCS. These conferences are often referred to as power conferences especially for sports other than football.

Anyone else have any?

Edited June 5, 2012 by greenminer