What exactly does 'It's all academic' mean when referring to the closing moments of a sports game? You'll often hear 'This one's academic!' or 'It's all academic from this point forward' or 'It's all academic.' Does it mean anything, or is it purely meaningless jargon?
Learn English – “It’s all academic”
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Best Answer
It's the bottom of the 9th inning, the Yankees are winning 15 to 0, and the other team's at bat. The sportscaster says "It's all academic now" because there's an almost zero probability that the team at bat is going to score 15 or 16 runs and tie or win the game.
"Academic" refers to formal study. Formalities are motions that people go through because they have to, whether they want to or not. They're often meaningless. Playing the last three outs at the bottom half of the 9th inning in this game is strictly a formality. The Yankees will certainly win and the other team will certainly lose. But no one can stop the game because the 15-0 gap is too large to overcome. That's why spectators at sporting events frequently leave before the game's over, despite Yogi's wise observation that "It ain't over till it's over". I've seen at least one game in which a team scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 9th and won the game in front of a half-empty stadium. It was a long time ago.
It's not meaningless jargon; rather, it's resignation, defeatism, and pessimism. It's understandable, of course.