The stats behind women’s college basketball teams’ nicknames
On November 27, the Bucknell Bison beat the Howard Bison, 70–60. That game was one of eight Division I women’s basketball games in November alone that featured two teams with the same nickname, and one of 30 that will take place during the 2019–20 regular season.
Based on that information, you might be wondering, how common is it for women’s college basketball teams to share nicknames? What are the most popular nicknames? Today, I’m answering those questions for the 351 teams in Division I.
(Please note that teams sometimes have mascots and unofficial nicknames that differ from their official nicknames. This data will focus solely on their official nicknames. If you’re interested in mascots, check out this chart.)
Most common nicknames
There are 222 different nicknames for the 351 Division I teams, and 56 of those nicknames are used by at least two teams. Nine nicknames are used by at least five teams, and three — Bulldogs, Wildcats, and Eagles — are used by at least ten. The most common nicknames are listed below:
There are also several teams with nicknames that include “Lady,” such as the reigning national champion Baylor Lady Bears. Because “Lady Bears” and “Bears” are not identical, I counted them as different nicknames. The same is true for nicknames that include colors, such as the Marquette Golden Eagles, Maine Black Bears, and Niagara Purple Eagles.
If you instead group all the types of bears together and so on, Eagles (15 teams), Bulldogs (13), Tigers (12), Hawks (10), and Wildcats (10) are the most common nicknames.
Nicknames by conference
Three of the 32 Division I women’s basketball conferences have three teams with the same nickname, and five more have two teams with the same nicknames. In total, 19 teams share a nickname with a team in their own conference.
This guarantees 14 regular-season games between teams in the same conference with the same nickname each year, if the teams only play each other once. But many conferences have every team play each other twice, plus there are many possible nonconference pairings that can increase the total number of games each season that feature teams with the same nickname.
Nickname-on-nickname matchups
As previously mentioned, there are 30 games this season that feature teams with the same nickname. Eight have been played already, a ninth is on December 18 (Princeton Tigers vs. Missouri Tigers), and 21 will be in conference play. Matchups between two Tigers or between two Lady Tigers account for a whopping 12 of the same-nickname games. Here is the full rundown of the 11 nicknames that will be part of same-nickname games:
Last season, there were 28 same-nickname games in the regular season, plus three in the postseason: Fordham vs. VCU (Rams) in the championship game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, Texas Southern vs. Grambling (Lady Tigers) in a SWAC Tournament quarterfinal, and Northwestern vs. Arizona (Wildcats) in the championship game of the WNIT.
Categories of nicknames
I placed each nickname into one of ten categories: animals, colors, devils, historical references, indigenous references, military references, people, pirates, nature, or other. There is some overlap between categories, but I opted for the most specific category possible. For example, Vikings (the nickname of Cleveland State and Portland State) are both people and historical references, but I categorized them as the latter.
Animal nicknames are predominant in Division I: 204 teams, or 58% of all Division I teams, have animal nicknames. You may have noticed earlier that eight of the nine most common nicknames in Division I, and ten of the 11 nicknames that will be part of same-nickname games, are animals.
Combined, the next three most common categories — people, historical references, and military references — represent just 28% of teams. Only eight teams have nicknames that are indigenous references, which reflects decades of efforts to eliminate indigenous and Native American mascots and nicknames in sports. It’s also worth noting that some of the teams that still have indigenous nicknames have received approval from the referenced tribes.
Animal nicknames are also the most common type in nearly every conference, and in the America East, all nine teams have animal nicknames. The exception to that rule is the Big West, which has four teams with nicknames that reference people and two teams with animal nicknames. That also ties the Big West with Conference USA for the most nicknames that reference people.
A few other highlights: the Patriot League leads the way with four teams with military nicknames, which is unsurprising given that Army and Navy are both Patriot League schools. The ACC is the only conference with multiple teams with devil nicknames (Duke Blue Devils, Wake Forest Demon Deacons), while the Big South is the only conference with multiple teams with pirate nicknames (Charleston Southern Buccaneers, Hampton Lady Pirates). And the Ivy League boasts three of the nation’s six teams with colors as nicknames (Cornell Big Red, Dartmouth Big Green, Harvard Crimson).
Top ten nicknames
Some teams’ nicknames deserve a separate mention for being especially unique or unexpected. Without further ado, here are my top ten nicknames in Division I women’s basketball:
10. Saint Louis Billikens (explanation here)
9. Canisius Golden Griffins
8. Kansas City Kangaroos
7. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (explanation here)
6. Central Arkansas Sugar Bears
5. Austin Peay Governors
4. Long Beach State Beach
3. Loyola Chicago Ramblers (explanation here)
2. Presbyterian Blue Hose (explanation here)
1. Youngstown State Penguins
Honorable mentions: Jacksonville Dolphins, Tulane Green Wave, Portland Pilots, Niagara Purple Eagles
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