Berkeley Advancement Identity

Academic All-American or All-Academic
The Academic All-America program selects the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for an honorary sports team:

• Nine student-athletes earned spots on the All-Academic team. Ivan Sandoval and Penny Wright were named Academic All-Americans.

ACC

Cal is a member of this collegiate athletic conference, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (abbreviated as FBS; formerly Division I-A).

• First reference: ACC. No need to spell out Atlantic Coast Conference unless your audience doesn't know what it is.

All-ACC
Used to describe the best student-athletes in a specific sport in the ACC. Cal also has teams playing in other conferences, but the same protocol applies (All-MPSF, etc).

• the All-ACC football team

All-America
Use when referring to the team or a selection:

• an All-America choice

All-American
Use when referring to an individual.

Apostrophes
Don’t use apostrophes in staff titles:

• Bears football coach Justin Wilcox said...

No additional ’s in plural names or singular names ending in s:

• Bears’ last win versus USC. Gladys’ first at-bat.

Backboard
One word, along with backcourt, backfield, backhand, and backstroke.

Ballclub
One word, along with ballgame, ballpark, and ballplayer.

Cal, Berkeley, or UC Berkeley?
Use Cal or Berkeley to refer to the university in Athletics materials. (UC Berkeley is Cal Athletics' least preferred choice). Do not use Cal Berkeley.

See University References for non-Athletics communications.

Cal Athletic Hall of Fame
Singular Athletic, not Athletics with an s.

Cal family
While Athletics capitalizes family in its collateral to refer to its community of fans and donors, UDAR also uses this term to refer to alums, donors, and other constituents and does not capitalize it. To avoid confusion and inconsistency, do not capitalize it.

Director of Athletics
Not Athletics Director. But note the fund name, Athletic Director’s Excellence Fund.

Go Bears!
No comma

Golden Bears

• First reference: Golden Bears
• Subsequent references: Bears

California Golden Bears is more commonly used in the sports world, but Cal rarely uses it.

NCAA
Abbreviate on first reference. No need to spell out National Collegiate Athletic Association unless your audience doesn't know what it is.

Other examples of usage:

• NCAA Division I, NCAA Tournament

No. 1
Don’t spell out or use symbols:

• The Cal rugby team defeated the No. 1 Saint Mary’s Gaels to end the regular season on a winning note.

Oski
The campus mascot

Pan American Games, Pan Am Games
This competition is held among athletes from nations of the Americas every four years before the Summer Olympic Games.

Student-athletes
Athletes at Cal. Note the hyphen.

Team names
Don’t capitalize team names:

• Cal women’s water polo, not Cal Women’s Water Polo Team

Titles
Don’t capitalize coaching titles.

See also Titles, General Style Preferences

Follow AP style for books, television shows, movies, podcasts, and the like.

Top versus top
Use uppercase when ranking comes from a titled list:

• USA Today Top 25

Use lowercase when using generically:

• top-10 running back

Hyphenate when it modifies an object after reference:

• a top-five finish but finished among the top five.

Track & field
Use the ampersand.

Years
List as:

• 1995-98, 1999-2002, and 2002-04. Do not use 1995-1998 or 2002-2004.