Template talk:Mid-American Conference navbox

NIU name
So there's obviously a disagreement about how to refer to "Northern Illinois University" on this template. The problem is, this isn't the only template/article that references the "NIU Huskies". This is a larger question that should be discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject College football, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject College basketball and probably Talk:Northern Illinois Huskies. There are many factors involved, most notable WP:COMMONNAME, which says articles should be named according to how they are commonly referenced. Based on my quick analysis, the only place that refers to the school as the "NIU Huskies" is the school itself. Other media outlets refer to it as "Northern Illinois Huskies". — X96lee15 (talk) 18:52, 18 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Those have been my findings so far as well. ESPN, the Associated Press, and other media outlets consistently refer to it as "Northern Illinois". Heck, even on the Mid-American Conference website, while the small logo uses "NIU", the drop-down menu says "Northern Illinois". On televised sporting events, the score uses "N. Illinois". It's in marked contrast to Brigham Young University, which is consistently referred to as "BYU" over "Brigham Young". Perhaps at a future date "NIU" will be used more frequently, but that is not the case now. --JonRidinger (talk) 16:27, 19 November 2014 (UTC)