Every discerning musician knows that SLO stands for Super Lead Overdrive, the front half of the name of the finest guitar amplifier conceived in the modern era - the Soldano SLO100. Interestingly enough it hails from Seattle, not anywhere near central CA.

Context is key. "Cal" refers to "The University of California, Berkeley", even though Davis, Los Angeles, Irvine, Santa Barbara, San Diego, etc etc

"Cal Poly" is shorthand for the SLO campus. It's the original, and the most established one. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/13/ca...

Cal Poly Humboldt was only renamed three years ago. It's going to take a few generations to get the same cache as SLO.

Funny thing: I met a German physician who works in California now. His degree is from Humboldt University, an old and incredibly prestigious university in Berlin. He found it "funny" (provincial) that people so often register "Humboldt University" as "Humboldt State". One of these things is not like the other!