Way back in May, I posted about the desire of schools with 1-AA football to remove the perceived second class citizen status of that classification. They didn’t like that they were being treated like Division 1-AA in basketball and other sports when it came to recruiting and public perception. They were talking about changing the names to something more representative of their respective post-season approaches: “Bowl Division” and “Playoff Division” or the slightly less simple such as the “Playoff Championship Group” and “Bowl Championship Group.”
Fine, I guess. I kind of understand the whole stigma argument. I’m sure A-10 schools just get sick of it in trying to recruit against the ACC and Big East and treated like some also-ran group. The important thing would be to keep the names simple and short so they can be easily adopted and understood. Thank goodness the NCAA and the schools pushing the change understand that.
For the first time since they were created 28 years ago, the top divisions of NCAA football could get new names next week.
Division I-A would become the “Football Bowl Subdivision” and Division I-AA the “NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.”
The 16-team postseason tournament in Division I-AA would be called the “NCAA Division I Football Championship.”
That’s catchy.
Here’s a tip from fans that never stopped calling Pitt, Pitt. You can make it official. You can send out the press releases. You can insist on news and media outlets using the offical names. It won’t make a bit of difference.
If you make the name more cumbersome, it is less likely and harder to be accepted. It will be mocked and derided instead. The differences will be accentuated, not minimized. The name isn’t the stigma. Any stigma is from the fact that you can’t bring b-ball recruits to big football games, the football games aren’t on TV to further promote the school, and show the fanbases. And even that hasn’t stopped Kentucky, Duke and Kansas from still doing pretty well in basketball despite little evidence of real football programs.
It’s expected that this will be adopted at meetings on August 3.
The 1-AA schools are using another approach to get the 1-A schools to go along with this. Trying to increase the palatability of bringing in a 1-AA patsy for a home game.
Another reason for changing the I-AA name and including everyone in Division I is scheduling. Currently Division I-A teams can count one game against I-AA opponents each season toward bowl eligibility. Removal of the I-AA moniker could make scheduling easier for all schools in Division I.
“It wouldn’t be a conflict in scheduling if everybody was Division I,” LaFleur said. “It would be a huge gap between the schools that are I-AA and I-A. I would go for having one moniker.”
There would also be benefits to the Division I-A schools. Currently, Division I-A schools have to meet minimum football attendance requirements (average 15,000 fans in actual or paid attendance per home game).
With all schools in Division I, the attendance requirement would no longer be necessary.
Temple would be happy.
