This idea is stolen from Colin Cowherd, a pinhead on ESPN Radio, but even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn. I'm going to list a bunch of abbreviations below, and you tell me which are the initials of conferences in Division I basketball, which are agencies of the US Government, and which could be either.
For example, "MVC" would be the Missouri Valley Conference, which is a basketball conference, while "NACIC" would be the National Counter-Intelligence Center, a government agency. "ACC" could be either the Atlantic Coast Conference or the Air Combat Command.
The full list of twenty abbreviations is below the fold. When making guesses, please identify the relevant agency or conference. No Googling allowed.
- AEC
- ARC
- ASC
- BARC
- BEC
- BSC
- CAA
- CUSA
- MAC
- MAAC
- MEAC
- NBAC
- NCC
- NEC
- NWC
- OAC
- OVC
- SBC
- SWC
- WCC
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1. AEC
Atomic Energy Commission
2. ARC
Atlantic Regional Conference
3. ASC
Atlantic Surface Command
4. BARC
Ballistic Animal Research Center
5. BEC
Bureau of Enlightened Canines
6. BSC
Bachelor's of Science
7. CAA
Creative Artists Agency
8. CUSA
Central United Sports Ass.
9. MAC
Media Access Control
10. MAAC
Mid Atlantic Area Canines
11. MEAC
Mid East Area Command
12. NBAC
Nuclear Ballistics Athletic Conference
13. NCC
1701
14. NEC
Nippon Electric Co.
15. NWC
Naval Warfare College
16. OAC
Operational Area Command
17. OVC
Ohio Valley Conference
18. SBC
Southwest Bell Co.
19. SWC
Surface Weapons Center
20. WCC
West Coast Conference
I think Jamie got 1, 17, and 20.
7. CAA: Central Atlantic Conference
8. CUSA: Conference USA
9. MAC: Midwest Athletic Conference
11. MEAC: Mid-East Athletic Conference
14. NEC: Nuclear Energy Commission
19. SWC: SouthWest Conference
I would assume that 5 is the Bose-Einstein Commission, but I could be wrong.
Duh, I sure got 7 wrong. I meant Central Athletic Association. But Wikipedia tells me that I'm wrong about that, too...
Not that I'm obsessed, but I went through Wikipedia on these...
Four have no relevant entry: #5, 6, 12, and 17.
Five have relevant entries on both sides: #7, 9 (though one is outdated), 14, 15, and 19.
And #8 returns one result, which is sort-of relevant, but not really.
All of which really reflects limits of Wikipedia rather than anything else. I would wager that if you dig deep enough, you could find a federal agency or site or project for every 3- and 4-letter abbreviation.
All of the Federal agency abbreviations came from a big page of them found via Google-- in fact, it's the top result for "federal agency abbreviations."
Jamie's answer for #4 is much more interesting than the real thing.
I was going for amusing, as I'm not a basketball kinda guy...I mean, I'm pretty sure SBC is the Sun Belt Conference, but where's the fun in that?
Jamie's answer for #4 is much more interesting than the real thing.
The real thing being probably "Beltsville Agricultural Research Center". Which is just a few miles down the road from my apartment.
1. Atlantic East Conference
2. Association of Retarded Citizens
3. Atlantic Sun Conference
4. Boston Area Research Corridor
5. Big East Conference
6. Big South Conference
7. Colonial Athletic Association
8. Conference USA
9. Mid-American Conference
10. Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference
11. MEAC - These are historically black schools but I have no idea what it stands for.
12. National Business Affairs Council
13. National Commerce Commission
14. NorthEast Conference
15. Naval War College
16. Office of American Capitalism
17. Ohio Valley Conference
18. Small Business Council
19. Sneaky Warfare Committee
20. West Coast Conference