def is_allowed_conference(c1, c2, conf_names, allowed_confs):
    """
    Return True if at least one of c1/c2 is an allowed_conference
    conf_names is a list of all defined conferences (used to group things into an "other" category)
    """
    if c1 not in conf_names:
        c1 = 'other'
    if c2 not in conf_names:
        c2 = 'other'
    if c1 not in allowed_confs and c2 not in allowed_confs:
        return False
    return True