Template:Infobox NCAA football yearly game/doc

This template is to be used on articles about yearly (or recurring) college football (American football) games. For single games (those not referenced yearly), please use Template:Infobox NCAA football single game.

Note that this template has some content that is most relevant to FBS (formerly Division I-A); it will page link to an FBS/Division I-A season, and supports the polls used to rank major college teams. For a similar template that has content specific to FCS (formerly Division I-AA), see Template:Infobox NCAA FCS football yearly game.

Usage

For the reason this template was created, changes made, and types of game articles in which it should be used, see "Reasoning for Template creation and Changes" below.

Descriptive

Template with usual (common) parameters included. For guide on how to fill in fields, see "Guide" heading below.

{{Infobox NCAA football yearly game
| Game Name          = <!-- Name of game being played (minus year at front) -->
| Optional Subheader = 
| Title Sponsor      = 
| Image              = <!-- Image can be included here -->
| Image_Size         = <!-- Fixed image size -->
| Image_Upright      = <!-- Relative image size -->
| Alt                = <!-- Alternative text for the image -->
| Caption            = <!-- Image caption -->
| Date Game Played   = <!-- Month and day only -->
| Year Game Played   = 
| Football Season    = <!-- Year of football season (note: can be different than year game played) -->
| Stadium            = 
| City               = 
| Visitor School     = <!-- Name of college or university -->
| Visitor Name Short = 
| Visitor Nickname   = 
| Visitor Record     = <!-- Field should contain record before game -->
| Visitor Conference = <!-- Athletic Conference of Visiting Team -->
| Visitor AP         = <!-- Rank before game started for all 4 rankings -->
| Visitor Coaches    = 
| Visitor BCS        = <!--1998–2013-->
| Visitor CFP        = <!--2014–present-->
| Visitor Coach      = 
| Visitor1           = <!-- 1st quarter score of visitor team -->
| Visitor2           = <!-- 2nd quarter score of visitor team -->
| Visitor3           = <!-- 3rd quarter score of visitor team -->
| Visitor4           = <!-- 4th quarter score of visitor team -->
| Home School        = 
| Home Name Short    = 
| Home Nickname      = 
| Home Record        = <!-- Field should contain record before game -->
| Home Conference    = <!-- Athletic Conference of Home Team -->
| Home AP            = <!-- Rank before game started for all 4 rankings -->
| Home Coaches       = 
| Home BCS           = <!--1998–2013-->
| Home CFP           = <!--2014–present-->
| Home Coach         = 
| Home1              = <!-- 1st quarter score of home team -->
| Home2              = <!-- 2nd quarter score of home team -->
| Home3              = <!-- 3rd quarter score of home team -->
| Home4              = <!-- 4th quarter score of home team -->
| MVP                = 
| Odds               = 
| Anthem             = <!-- National Anthem performer(s) -->
| Referee            = 
| Halftime           = <!-- Halftime performer(s) -->
| Attendance         = 
| Payout             = 
| US Network         = 
| US Announcers      = 
| Ratings            = 
| Intl Network       = 
| Intl Announcers    = 
}}

Complete

Complete blank template with all parameters shown.

{{Infobox NCAA football yearly game
| Game Name          = 
| Optional Subheader = 
| Title Sponsor      = 
| Image              = 
| Image_Size         = 
| Image_Upright      = 
| Alt                = 
| Caption            = 
| Date Game Played   = 
| Year Game Played   = 
| Football Season    = 
| Stadium            = 
| City               = 
| Visitor School     = 
| Visitor Name Short = 
| Visitor Nickname   = 
| Visitor Record     = 
| Visitor Conference = 
| Visitor AP         = 
| Visitor Coaches    = 
| Visitor BCS        = 
| Visitor Bowl Alliance= 
| Visitor Bowl Coalition= 
| Visitor CFP        =
| Visitor Coach      = 
| Visitor1           = 
| Visitor2           = 
| Visitor3           = 
| Visitor4           = 
| Visitor5           = 
| Visitor6           = 
| Visitor7           = 
| Visitor8           = 
| Visitor9           = 
| Visitor10          = 
| Visitor11          = 
| Home School        = 
| Home Name Short    = 
| Home Nickname      = 
| Home Record        = 
| Home Conference    = 
| Home AP            = 
| Home Coaches       = 
| Home BCS           = 
| Home Bowl Coalition= 
| Home Bowl Alliance =
| Home CFP           =
| Home Coach         = 
| Home1              = 
| Home2              = 
| Home3              = 
| Home4              = 
| Home5              = 
| Home6              = 
| Home7              = 
| Home8              = 
| Home9              = 
| Home10             = 
| Home11             = 
| MVP                = 
| Odds               = 
| Anthem             = 
| Referee            = 
| Halftime           = 
| Attendance         = 
| Payout             = 
| US Network         = 
| US Announcers      = 
| Ratings            = 
| Intl Network       = 
| Intl Announcers    = 
| Different Previous = 
| Different Next     = 
| game link          =
| FirstGameEverPlayed = 
| LastGameEverPlayed  = 
| Navigation 2        =
| Different Previous 2=
| Different Next 2    =
}}

Guide

In example, <ref>s are not shown.

Field	Instructions	Example
Game Name	Name of the game. (bowl, conference championship, national championship, etc.) Typically this should also be the name of the article minus the year the game is played. (which is auto-added later) (NO wikilinking!)	Sugar Bowl
Optional Subheader	Subheading that will be displayed below heading. (Optional)	BCS Bowl Game
Title Sponsor	The sponsor of the game (optional) which will be displayed in the sub-heading. Type only the name of the sponsor. (wikilink discouraged unless you want a link in the title of the infobox)	Allstate
Image	Name of the image that will be displayed. (optional) This can be a logo of the bowl/championship game, photo from the game, or any other appropriate image. Make sure brackets ([[ ]]) are added, with size of image if it should be changed from current (native) size.	Example.png
Image_Size	Fixed size for the image, generally in pixels.	200px
Image_Upright	Scaling factor for the image.	yes or 1.25
Alt	Alternative text for the image, describing it for the sight-impaired.	A brochure on a yellow background with a darker yellow border, with the words "This is just an example." below it.
Caption	Caption that will appear under the image. (only use field if there is an image) Whatever typed will appear small and italicized under logo or image.	Sugar Bowl logo
Date Game Played	Type in the date of the game. (month and day only, not year)	January 1
Year Game Played	Type in the year the game is played. (NOT the year of the football season if they are different; For instance, for a January 1, 2008 bowl game you would use 2008.) Sometimes both "Year Game Played" and "Football Season" will be the same year, sometimes not. Do NOT wikilink or it will screw up formatting.	2008
Football Season	Type in the year of the football season. (NOT the year that the game is being played in if they are different; For instance, for a January 1, 2008 bowl game you would use 2007.) Sometimes both "Year Game Played" and "Football Season" will be the same year, sometimes not. Do NOT wikilink or it will screw up formatting.	2007
Stadium	Type the name where the game is played. You are allowed to wikilink the name of the stadium, if you want.	[[Louisiana Superdome]]
City	Type in the location where the game took place. The parameter is titled city, but please enter both city and state; preferably the City-state template to allow automatic wikilink to both city and state. (shown in example)	[[New Orleans]]
Visitor School (& Home School)	Type the full correct name of the college or university. (same for both "Visitor School" and "Home School") (NO wikilinking!)	University of Georgia
Visitor Name Short (& Home Name Short)	Type the short name of the teams competing in the game. University of Oklahoma would be Oklahoma, Louisiana State University would be LSU. This is used to create link to the team's specific article page. (NO wikilinking!)	Georgia
Visitor Nickname (& Home Nickname)	Type the nickname or mascot of the school. USC would be Trojans, and Nebraska would be Cornhuskers. (NO wikilinking!)	Bulldogs
Visitor Record (& Home Record)	The overall wins-losses (-ties if applicable) of the Visitor (or Home) team playing in the game, prior to the start of the game.	10-2
Visitor Conference (& Home Conference)	The athletic conference of the Visiting or Home team. It is best to display the short name of the conference. (ie. "SEC" instead of "Southeastern Conference")	[[Southeastern Conference|SEC]]
Visitor AP, Coaches, BCS, Bowl Alliance, Bowl Coalition (& Home AP, Coaches, BCS, Bowl Alliance, Bowl Coalition)	The AP, Coaches and BCS rankings (or Bowl Alliance or Bowl Coalition) of the competing teams, if applicable. These rankings should be accurate for the week before the teams played, not the week after or the end of the season.	4
Visitor Coach (& Home Coach)	Type the name of the head coach of the team playing. Wikilinking encouraged in this field.	[[Mark Richt]]
Visitor1-11 (and Home1-11)	The scores by quarter of the competing teams. 1 through 4 are for the regulation four quarters; 5 through 11 are for overtime quarters. (do not include OT #'s unless they are filled in with a number; they will mess up the table otherwise)	14
MVP	The MVP(s) of the game. Wikilinking encouraged if the person has a Wikipedia article about them.	[[John Doe]] (offense)<br/>[[Jane Doe]] (defense)
Odds	The odds or point spread of the game. Be sure to cite source.	Georgia by 9½
Anthem	The person/group who sang the national anthem prior to the game.	[[Bonerama]]
Referee	The referee(s) for the game. (Can wikilink if the person has a Wikipedia article.) Cite source if available.	John Doe
Halftime	Whoever (person/group/etc.) performed during halftime of the game. (Wikilinking acceptable if they have a page.)	Both school bands, AllState Sugar Bowl Band
Attendance	The official attendance of the game. (Cite source if available.)	74,383
Payout	List the current payout for each team, if known. Currency formatting is already applied to the front, so no need to do that. Preferred that whole numbers are used instead of words. (e.g. 17,500,000 instead of 17.5 million) Provide source for amount, if available.	17,500,000 per team
US Network	The network that aired the game in the United States. Wikilinking encouraged.	[[Fox Sports (USA)|FOX]]
US Announcers	The announcers for the game on the US network. Wikilinking encouraged.	[[Thom Brennaman]] and [[Charles Davis (defensive back)|Charles Davis]]
Ratings	The Nielson Ratings of the game. Cite source, if available.	7.9
Intl Network	The network that aired the game outside the United States. Wikilinking encouraged.	[[The Sports Network|TSN]]
Intl Announcers	The announcers for the game on the international network. (Wikilink to person if they have a Wikipedia article.)	Jose Jesus
Different Previous	ONLY use one of these fields when the previous or next game in the series is named differently than the current game. For example, the Peach Bowl changed names to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in 2006; thus, the 2005 Peach Bowl article specifies a different next game, and the 2006 Chick-fil-A Bowl article specifies a different previous game. Must provide wikilink and year, as it overrides a default link (see examples). TAKE CAUTION: These fields will VERY RARELY be used; if you use them when not needed, it will mess up the infobox.	[[2005 Peach Bowl|2005]]
Different Next		[[2006 Chik-fil-A Bowl|2006]]
game link	ONLY use this field if the overall bowl series name has changed AND a redirect would produce incorrect results. (For example, "Cheez-It Bowl" has been the name of two unrelated bowl series; this template as used on the page 2019 Cheez-It Bowl would try to link to "Cheez-It Bowl" by default, but it needs to link to "Cactus Bowl".) Do not wikilink, simply provide the name of the bowl series. TAKE CAUTION: This field will ALMOST NEVER be used; if you use it when not needed, it will mess up the infobox.	Cactus Bowl
FirstGameEverPlayed	ONLY use this field if this is the first ever game played in the series. (the inaugural game) Type "Yes" if so, otherwise leave blank. TAKE CAUTION: This field will VERY, VERY RARELY be used; if you use it when not needed it will mess up the infobox.	Yes
LastGameEverPlayed	ONLY use this field if this is the last ever game played in the series. (the series/bowl/championship/etc. is now defunct) Type "Yes" if so, otherwise leave blank. TAKE CAUTION: This field will VERY, VERY RARELY be used; if you use it when not needed it will mess up the infobox.	Yes
Navigation 2	This field is only used if there is a game which falls into two different game classifications. For example, the 2006 Rose Bowl was both the Rose Bowl Game and simultaneously the BCS National Championship Game for that year, so it needs two navigational boxes. Whatever is included here will show up as the heading for the second navigational box. (NOTE: If this field is used, then "Different Previous 2" and/or "Different Next 2" MUST be used, or nothing will show as navigation.)	[[BCS National Championship Game]]
Different Previous 2, & Different Next 2	These are used in the same way as the originals above, but in the second navigational box, if present. These will only be utilized if "Navigation 2" is utilized. (see above)
Required field

Example

In example, <ref>s are not shown.

2008 Allstate Sugar Bowl
BCS Bowl Game.
Hawaii Warriors Georgia Bulldogs (12-0) (10-2) Mountain West SEC 10 41 Head coach:  June Jones Head coach:  Mark Richt AP Coaches BCS 10 10 10 AP Coaches BCS 4 4 5
1 2 3 4 Total Hawaii 3 0 0 7 10 Georgia 14 10 14 3 41
Date	January 1, 2008
Season	2007
Stadium	Louisiana Superdome
Location	New Orleans
MVP	Georgia DE Marcus Howard
Favorite	Georgia by 9½
National anthem	Bonerama
Referee	John Doe
Halftime show	Both school bands, AllState Sugar Bowl Band
Attendance	74,383
Payout	US$17,500,000 per team
United States TV coverage
Network	FOX
Announcers	Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis
Nielsen ratings	7.9
International TV coverage
Network	TSN
Announcers	Jose Jesus

{{Infobox NCAA football yearly game
| Game Name          = Sugar Bowl
| Optional Subheader = BCS Bowl Game.
| Title Sponsor      = Allstate
| Image              = Example.jpg
| Caption            = Sugar Bowl logo.
| Date Game Played   = January 1
| Year Game Played   = 2008
| Football Season    = 2007
| Stadium            = [[Louisiana Superdome]]
| City               = [[New Orleans]]
| Visitor School     = University of Hawaii at Manoa
| Visitor Name Short = Hawaii
| Visitor Nickname   = Warriors
| Visitor Record     = 12-0
| Visitor Conference = [[Mountain West Conference|Mountain West]]
| Visitor AP         = 10
| Visitor Coaches    = 10
| Visitor BCS        = 10
| Visitor Coach      = [[June Jones]]
| Visitor1           = 3
| Visitor2           = 0
| Visitor3           = 0
| Visitor4           = 7
| Home School        = University of Georgia
| Home Name Short    = Georgia
| Home Nickname      = Bulldogs
| Home Record        = 10-2
| Home Conference    = [[Southeastern Conference|SEC]]
| Home AP            = 4
| Home Coaches       = 4
| Home BCS           = 5
| Home Coach         = [[Mark Richt]]
| Home1              = 14
| Home2              = 10
| Home3              = 14
| Home4              = 3
| MVP                = Georgia [[defensive end|DE]] Marcus Howard
| Odds               = Georgia by 9½
| Anthem             = [[Bonerama]]
| Referee            = John Doe
| Halftime           = Both school bands, AllState Sugar Bowl Band
| Attendance         = 74,383
| Payout             = 17,500,000 per team
| US Network         = [[Fox Sports (USA)|FOX]]
| US Announcers      = [[Thom Brennaman]] and [[Charles Davis (defensive back)|Charles Davis]]
| Ratings            = 7.9
| Intl Network       = [[The Sports Network|TSN]]
| Intl Announcers    = Jose Jesus
| Different Previous =
| Different Next     =
| FirstGameEverPlayed=
| LastGameEverPlayed =
}}

Reasoning for Template creation and Changes

This template is basically an updated version of the {{NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader}} template. It adds concepts borrowed from the {{Collegebowl}} template and the {{NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament}} template. The NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader was really designed for single games, not recurring games that are played on a (normally) yearly basis, and therefore it was being asked to do too much. I could have added a number of if/then/else statements to NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader to parse out if it was a recurring type game, and work differently in those cases, but it was already getting messy and it would have gotten very complex and hard to understand very quickly if I had done so. Therefore, this template should be used for recurring games, such as bowl games, conference championships, national championships, and other games that are played on a (usually) yearly basis. (The NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader template can still be used for single games, as it was originally designed.)

Additions/deletions to this template from NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader:

Type parameter removed

This was the parameter in the NCAAFootballSingleGameHeader template that was used to distinguish between types of games. I could have used this parameter in that template to distinguish between normally recurring games (conference championships, bowls, and national championships) and normally single games (conference and non conference games) which were described in this parameter, but it gets messy because 1) One then has to make significant changes to the other template to bring in line (and then might as well make a new template instead), 2) the if/then/else parameters would have gotten pretty crazy to try to distinguish if the game was a single game or a recurring game, and act differently in the 2 situations, and 3) even if everything else had been remedied, there are still odd situations in which single games would have been classified as recurring, or (probably more frequently) recurring conference or non conference games would have been classified as single games even though they were recurring. For these (and other) reasons, this new template was created, and the need for such a parameter was rendered fairly obsolete, and so removed. (It could have still been used for a sub-heading creation, but 1) the title of the game should distinguish what type of game it is, and 2) the sponsor information is now used as a subheading, and multiple subheadings would have gotten crowded at the top.)

Game Name parameter

Parameter changed from "Name" to "Game Name" to indicate that the game played is what is required. (e.g. Cotton Bowl instead of 2008 Cotton Bowl) This parameter is used to define the title of the infobox (after the year it is played) and the before/after links. (discussed later) Basic concept borrowed from NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament template.

Optional Subheader parameter

Can display something below the name of the game, if that is desired. Some games like to have "presented by (a sponsor)" (as opposed to the sponsor in the title) or "Conference Championship game", or something else displayed below the name of the game, and this is the place to type it in.

Title Sponsor parameter

Parameter used in heading to display who the sponsor of the game is. (only if filled in) Basic concept borrowed from Collegebowl template, but added to title instead.

Caption parameter

Added caption for image. This is widely used in other infobox templates.

Date Game Played and Date Game Played parameters

Used date and year separately so that the year can be used both in heading that is displayed (e.g. 2008 Cotton Bowl) and the before/after link to the previous/next in the series. (discussed further down)

Visitor/Home School parameter(s)

Added parameter(s) to list the university/college name to be used in embedded Cfb template link. (discussed further down)

Payout parameter

Since a large number of bowl games will use this, I added the optional Payout parameter to list the amount of money paid out to each school for an appearance. This was used already in the Collegebowl template, but since that template is not for yearly bowl articles (only the main bowl page), the amount changes every year or so. On this infobox template, however, it will be the one time sum paid out for that particular bowl game.

Different Previous and Different Next parameters

If there is an adjustment that needs to be made to the before/after links (discussed further down) to override the automatically generated links, these parameters are used. I thought of the idea for this when thinking that certain bowls sometimes change names, and so the automatically generated name would not be correct without a change. ONLY should be used when a game changes names from one year to the next.

FirstGameEverPlayed and LastGameEverPlayed parameters

If this is the first game ever played (inaugural game), or the last game ever played (now defunct), these parameters are vitally important. This is used in the before/after links to the previous/next series (discussed further down). I thought of this when I realized that the way the NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament template used the before/after links was nice, but it would cause problems if it was the very first or very last game in a series. I will likely go and change the NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament template after this, so it might be fixed by the time this statement is read, but am documenting the reason for inclusion for future reference. "Yes" (without the quotation marks) is all that is needed to activate these.

Cfb link template concept

Using the above mentioned parameters, this conceptual change uses the {{Cfb link}} template to create a tiered linking system to the teams playing in the game. (Where the team names are displayed.) First choice is if there is a specific year article for the team (e.g. 2008 Tennessee Volunteers football team), it will link to that; Second choice is if there is not a year article but there is a football article for the team (e.g. Tennessee Volunteers football); Third choice is if there neither of the previous two choices, and just a link to the sports teams are used (e.g. Tennessee Volunteers); The Fourth and final choice is if there is none of the other choices available, it will link to the school page. (e.g. University of Tennessee) It does all of this AUTOMATICALLY. (AMAZING, right?) This is especially useful in older articles where there may or may not be specific articles for each tier, but they may be added later. (in which case the link would be automatically updated) The Cfb link template could likely be used in a wide variety of other ways, but for this template, it makes the team linking easy. (in order from most desirable to least desirable)

Before/after links to the previous/next games in the series concept

This concept came from the NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament template which uses before/after links to the previous/next game in the series very efficiently. The 2 additions to the concept that I added, using the above mentioned parameters, were 1) the ability to override the auto-generated link and link to a differently named game (to be used when bowls change names, such as when the Peach Bowl changed its name to the Capital One Bowl), and 2) the ability to not display a previous game (in the case of the inaugural game) or not display the next game (in the case of defunct games).

Conference of teams participating

The conferences of the teams participating were added below the record field to provide more information.

Microformat

The HTML mark-up produced by this template includes an hCalendar microformat that makes event details readily parsable by computer programs. This aids tasks such as the cataloguing of articles and maintenance of databases. For more information about the use of microformats on Wikipedia, please visit the Microformat WikiProject.

Classes used

The HTML classes of this microformat include:

• attendee
• contact
• description
• dtend
• dtstart
• location
• organiser
• summary
• url
• vevent

Please do not rename or remove these classes
nor collapse nested elements which use them.

See also

• {{Infobox college football game}}
• {{Infobox college football bowl game}}
• {{Infobox college football single game}}
• {{Infobox NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament}}