Template talk:Infobox school athletics

Some limitations
I am wondering if a college has more than one stadium or more than one arena, how to fit them into this Infobox college athletics.

Also, the colors used for each college may not be the same that defined by wiki. For example, Ohio state scarlet is not the same scarlet defined in here.--Ohho 18:36, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

More limitations
How do you fit in a stadium that has a dab in it? I'd like to use the infobox for the Kentucky Wildcats, but I want the stadium to display as "Commonwealth Stadium". The problem is that there are two Commonwealth Stadiums. The article for UK's Commonwealth is at Commonwealth Stadium (Kentucky). — Dale Arnett 03:07, 6 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, regarding the first issue, I think just listing the primary stadium and arena (i.e. the football stadium and men's basketball arena in most cases) is probably the best solution. As to the second problem...dang, didn't think of that.  I guess maybe the link tags should be removed from around the stadium and arena fields, so that the user can just put Commonwealth Stadium .  I had to do something like that for the mascot field.  I'll probably go ahead and make that change tomorrow.  As you can perhaps tell, this is my first attempt at an infobox ;) -Elmer Clark 04:50, 6 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I went ahead and made this change today. As such, it has removed the wikilinks from all pages that use it so that may need fixing. But the disambig is big enough of an issue to warrant the change.↔NMajdan &bull;talk 13:21, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Remove Arena/Stadium?
Most programs have more than 1 "stadium" as in there are football stadiums/soccer stadiums/track stadiums etc, and the same same for arenas. Most programs have more than 1 "arena" as in basketball/volleyball/... Corpx 04:24, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe these fields should be renamed "Football Stadium" and "Basketball Arena" Corpx 04:25, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Would anyone object if I change these fields? Corpx 19:59, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds fine to me. -Elmer Clark 05:12, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Reversion of previous edit
I changed the template to allow different Associations to be given instead of NCAA. A vast, vast majority of the articles that currently use this template don't have an association field because they all are NCAA schools. My edit allows the NCAA option to remain if the association parameter is left blank, which it is in nearly ever usage. But also allows it to be declared if something else is required. If there is no division, then it is blank. I really don't know why the previous editor changed this. With that change, the NCAA line is removed from nearly ever article.↔NMajdan &bull;talk 16:14, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Your revision made it a required option. I cleaned it up to make it an optional option because not all colleges are in any association or division. Some are independent and private. I reverted back. --  ALLSTAR    ECHO  16:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, all colleges are in an association whether NCAA, NAIA, or NJCAA. That should be required. Division is already optional. If you are going to make this change, can you please go and make the necessary changes to the 100+ articles that use this template?↔NMajdan &bull;talk 18:48, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Could you at least make it to where Association and Division are seperate options then because that's essentially what I did. Association would be NCAA, NAIA, NJCCA, etc and division would be like Division I, Division II,etc. The way you had it, it only output an association but no division and was redundant with the already present division option. --  ALLSTAR    ECHO  19:01, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I guess I'm not understanding you. There already is a separate parameter for association and division. Association should not be optional. Division is. If Division is blank, then nothing appears to the right of Association.↔NMajdan &bull;talk 21:45, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * OK, my brain is clear now and I see what your code did, and it was fine, although Association and Division are 2 seperate things but you had them as one with your code, which was:


 * | style="padding-right:1em;"|
 * | style="padding-right:1em;"|
 * | style="padding-right:1em;"|


 * So if it's a college in NCAA Division I and someone used the association and division options, it put it on one line as simply NCAA Division I. To see how my change affected it and broke it into seperations, check out Ole Miss Rebels. If that's not suitable for you, then I'm fine with you changing it back to your code. It just looks better aesthetically the way I broke it down into 2 seperate fields rather than assoc. and division being on one line. --  ALLSTAR    ECHO  22:08, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I understand your change, but again, my biggest concern is now the 100+ articles that use this template are missing a field. Would you mind assisting in adding the association paramater to all the articles?↔NMajdan &bull;talk 12:08, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I changed it back to your edit. Something like that would be better off to a bot since there are so many. My concern now is that since most schools don't have an Association field, that means any NAIA or NJCAA schools using this infobox will now be automatically tagged with NCAA since that's the default title of the Division field, which most DO have. Since most schools do have the Division field, maybe that field should be left alone and the Association field be put separate to default to NCAA and then when any user comes across the article and sees XYZ University showing it's in NCAA when in fact it's in NAIA, they can make the change on the spot. --  ALLSTAR    ECHO  16:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Field heading alignments
Currently the field names ("Colors", "Mascot", etc.) are centered within their column. I think they should be left-justified as in Template:Infobox University. It looks better and is easier to read. Powers T 14:31, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't be against that.↔NMajdan &bull;talk 21:47, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Added if "Symbol"
My beloved seminoles do not have a mascot but rather a symbol. I added if "Symbol" and made if "Mascot" i hope no one objects to harshly. UkrNole 485 (talk) 16:31, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Problem for universities in Georgia (US State)
There seems to be a problem for the city/state link for cities in the state of Georgia. Since the state link is Georgia (U.S. state) the infobox seems to have a problem finding the city (i.e. Savannah, Georgia would become Savannah, Georgia (U.S. state) ). Is there a work around other than creating a redirect page at Savannah, Georgia (U.S. state) to Savannah, Georgia ? Absolon S. Kent (talk) 18:57, 9 June 2008 (UTC)


 * That's one good reason to leave the "location" (city/state/country) linkage in the article, as is the norm in most infoboxes, as well as most of the fields in this infobox. Another is that forcing editors to use the two-letter state abbreviation, and omit the country, makes for overly US-centric infoboxes. The "homepage" linkage should also be in the article, not the template, to facilitate adding Flash warnings and the like. Shawisland (talk) 03:19, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I just came here to report the same problem. It does need to be fixed. DuncanHill (talk) 20:11, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Club sports
What's the opinion on club sports? There doesn't seem to be a place for them in the infobox, and though I've seen them listed using the "teams" parameter, that produces the heading "Varisty sports", which can be confusing. Are we suggesting they're not notable enough for the infobox, or is there another issue with them?-- Patrick {o Ѻ ∞} 18:57, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think club teams are notable enough for wikipedia.—NMajdan &bull;talk 01:20, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, they can be, but it'd be rare. Club teams by their very nature tend to come and go much more frequently than varsity sports, and the existence of a club team is not particularly indicative of institutional support for the team.  Club teams also do not get much media coverage, if any.  Still, I wouldn't be averse at all to including a new parameter labeled "Club teams", parallel with the varsity parameter.  Powers T 15:35, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Four Official School Colors
The University of Maryland has 4 official school colors. All 4 are used as part of the regalia and uniform of the university's athletic teams and student groups (e.g. Marching Band). Here are the sources... I propose adding the option for a fourth color. Amit (talk) 14:13, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * | Official Athletics page
 * | School Traditions
 * | UMD Web-design Guidelines with official hex-values


 * UPDATE -- I've made the change and tested it for all combinations of number of colors. Things are looking good.  If there is any issue, please post on my talk page.  Amit (talk) 14:49, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Other arenas
I believe the "other arenas" label is not the best name for what it's intended to describe. I think "other venues" is a more appropriate label. I interpret an arena to be an enclosed venue. I interpret the term venue to encompass all athletic facilities where competition takes place. For example, I don't think golf courses, track and field venues, and softball fields fit the "other arena" description. Is there consensus support to change the "Other arenas" label to read "Other venues"? Thanks for your input! -AllisonFoley (talk) 05:56, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

City/state deprecated?
The code implies that city and state are deprecated parameters (and even the existence of the bracketed-out comment about "or province" is enough to trigger a warning) - but there's nothing about that in the documentation - what's the story? Le Deluge (talk) 04:16, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Adding the ability to use "college" instead of "university"
Right now, this template is only able to use either "university" or "school". There are many undergraduate colleges, such as most liberal arts colleges, that do not identify as universities but that also don't really refer to themselves as "schools". Could someone with better programming skills than me change the template to allow pages in this category to use "college" instead? Thanks! - Sdkb (talk) 05:13, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Oh, I forgot I'd requested this! I'm pleased to inform my past self that I now know how to fix this on my own and have done so. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 07:12, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

Colors all capitalized, and leading to duplicate refs
This template seems to populate the colors automatically based on Module:College color. It's not all that clear that it does this, so I'm going to update the documentation. But there are a few snags I've encountered using it at Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. First, it capitalizes all the colors, which goes against our style guide. Second, it means there's a duplicate reference, since I also want to use the style guide as the citation for the colors in the body text (which I imagine is a common occurrence). Could these things be fixed? Courtesy pinging. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 07:16, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

Optional labels
What is the process for adding some optional labels to this template such as these?

blank_data  = blank_label1 = blank_data1 = blank_label2 = blank_data2 = blank_label3 = blank_data3 =

Thanks in advance. PhillyHarold (talk) 12:34, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Parameters such as these tend to be abused for all sorts of unsourced trivia that does not comply with WP:INFOBOXPURPOSE. What article or articles need these suggested new parameters? – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:53, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the question. For high school sports teams this is the only infobox available, but it lends itself primarily to the school or district level, not an individual team level. For large high schools with robust sports programs in California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, and others, something similar to a college team infobox would be helpful, but not nearly as complicated. The article Allen Eagles Football is an example. Currently the template does not have a Head coach parameter. Just looking for some flexibility. Thanks. PhillyHarold (talk) 17:37, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I would probably just use Infobox college football team, as Manual Crimsons football does. I was able to find only three or four articles about US high school football teams, so I understand the lack of a dedicated infobox. This infobox seems to be intended to cover all sports teams at a given school, not just one team. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:40, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that info on Manual. I'll mimic their format. Thanks much. PhillyHarold (talk) 19:16, 8 November 2023 (UTC)