ESPNs "scorebug" strikes again with bad abbreviations

If you go by ESPN’s new “scorebug,” Kansas didn’t beat Kentucky last night, KAN beat KENT.

Earlier this week, I went on a bit of a rant about ESPN’s new graphics, including the “scorebug” (it’s not even a real scoreboard!), but I have to give them a little more grief today over their abbreviations last night. Instead of using “UK” for Kentucky, they went with “KENT,” which is the name of an actual school in England, and entirely too similar to Kent Sate. Making matters more annoying is they used “KAN” for Kansas, which is only three letters, not four, so it doesn’t match KENT and only three letters away from KANSAS. So really, it’s just lazy.

Why not use UK and KU? On Sunday vs. Vermont, Kentucky went by “UK”:

Or, if that is too confusing, KY and KS, the actual postal abbreviations for each state?

One nice thing about the “scorebug” (and it’s not that nickname): I really like how the player stats/facts roll out to the side.

Also, kudos to them for getting rid of the chevron gradient on either side. Much cleaner. Now, they need to choose a proper abbreviation for each school and bump up the size of the shot clock and we’ll be good. Maybe.

…Actually, no. There’s still A LOT of chevron, and I’m not going to even get into whatever this was:

Or the title card that might as well have been the back of my Trapper Keeper in the 90s:

Or the awful Skycam angle:

But really, though, that’s just a matter of taste. Using the right abbreviations is common sense.

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