NCAA Division 1 Basketball Mascot Taxonomy

As of the 2017-2018 college basketball season, there are 351 NCAA Division 1 basketball schools. Each of these schools have mascots that fall into three main categories: Animals, People, and Things. This article classifies the sports mascots of Division 1 NCAA basketball schools into taxonomic subcategories. The most common mascot category is "animals," of which there are 206 in college basketball. The second most common category is "people," consisting of 120 mascots, while "things" constitute the remaining 25 basketball mascots.

Animals

Of the 206 animal mascots, 138 are mammals. These mammals consist of 58 cats, 34 dogs, 23 hooved mammals, and 23 other mammals (e.g. Wolverines, Bears, and Kangaroos). Birds account for 55 mascots, while insects and arachnids total five mascots. Fictional animals (e.g. the Canisius Golden Griffins and Elon Phoenix) represent four schools, reptiles three schools (Gators, Terrapins, Rattlers), and amphibians one school (TCU Horned Frogs).

People

Humans or human-like characters make up 34% of all college basketball mascots. The most common type of "people" mascot has to do with affiliations. Examples of these 54 affiliations include the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Indiana Hoosiers, or the Cal State-Long Beach 49ers. Human occupations like the Wyoming Cowboys, Seton Hall Pirates, and the LaSalle Explorers number 50 schools. Fictional characters like the Duke Blue Devils or Wake Forest Demon Deacons make up ten schools, and Native Americans still represent six schools (Florida State, San Diego State, Bradley, Alcorn State, Central Michigan, and William and Mary.

Things

The category of things makes up 25 schools. "Things" can be further broken down into the subcategories natural phenomena, objects, colors, and other. Natural phenomena include things like Crimson Tide, Hurricanes, Golden Hurricanes, Red Storm, Cyclones, and Waves (seven total schools). Colors is the category for five schools, including the Dartmouth Big Green, Cornell Big Red, Stanford Cardinal, Harvard Crimson, and North Texas Mean Green. Examples of "other" things are Boilermakers, Buckeyes, Flames, Hawkeyes, Rockets, and Zips (13 total).

Most Common Mascot Names

Fourteen schools use "Bulldogs" as their mascot. In second place, 13 schools use "Tigers" as their mascot. "Eagles" and "Wildcats" are used by ten schools, but if you combine the names "Eagles" and "Golden Eagles," fourteen schools use "Eagles" as their mascot. There are also eight Panthers, seven Bears, six cougars, five Spartans, five Huskies, and five Aggies.

References

www.sports-reference.com

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