2005 Post-Season Eligibility

[Pen Guin]

I would be interested in hearing what schools and conferences are not eligible for the play-off this year. Especially if you are in a conference that has an automatic bid ...if there are any of those. I do not believe that SELU is eligible & they are in an auto-bid conference. I know the Big South and Great West have non-eligible teams. For example, CCU is predicted to win the Big South this year, but will not be post-season eligible for a while. Do you think an 8-3 (or better) Liberty club deserves consideration? Many have non-eligible UC-Davis predicted over Cal-Poly in the GWFC. Yet last year the Mustangs were ignored. Do you think games played (especially losses) to these non-eligible teams should hold a different weight when a team is considered for the post-season? I guess we should start with a list. I also think there is an NCAA/School suspension, or 2, out there as well.

Since I follow the GFC, I will start. As far as I know ... everyone in the Gateway is post-season eligible in 2005.

[ISUMatt]

way to end that discussion Ralph!!! :)

[Pen Guin]

Thanks for the info Ralph. I though that at least one team had lost their post-season eligibility. The ncaa rulebook will be a nice read for this. However, in the case of CCU ... I would think a team that plays Morehead, Newberry, Davidson, North Greenville, Charleston, and Jacksonville (not state) is not going to meet the NCAA guidelines. Athough they did a great job with the 2005 schedule. It has to be hard for the GWFC with only two of their clubs to be eligible. Also, do you know if the NCAA accepted the conference as of yet? ... if not do you think this could hurt Cal-Poly or Southern Utah come Thanksgiving?

[golionsgo]

I would be interested in hearing what schools and conferences are not eligible for the play-off this year. Especially if you are in a conference that has an automatic bid ...if there are any of those. I do not believe that SELU is eligible & they are in an auto-bid conference. I know the Big South and Great West have non-eligible teams. For example, CCU is predicted to win the Big South this year, but will not be post-season eligible for a while. Do you think an 8-3 (or better) Liberty club deserves consideration? Many have non-eligible UC-Davis predicted over Cal-Poly in the GWFC. Yet last year the Mustangs were ignored. Do you think games played (especially losses) to these non-eligible teams should hold a different weight when a team is considered for the post-season? I guess we should start with a list. I also think there is an NCAA/School suspension, or 2, out there as well.

Since I follow the GFC, I will start. As far as I know ... everyone in the Gateway is post-season eligible in 2005.


Southeastern Louisiana was playoff eligible the first year we brought football back.

[DFW HOYA]

Of course, a number of teams are not eligible as a matter of their conferences and/or the de facto means of how some teams are considered, so add these 40 to the list:

Alabama A&M University
Alabama State University
Alcorn State University
Austin Peay State University
Brown University
Butler University
Central Connecticut State University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Drake University
Duquesne University
Grambling State University
Harvard University
Iona College
Jackson State University
Jacksonville University
LaSalle University
Marist College
Mississippi Valley State University
Monmouth University
Morehead State University
Prairie View A&M University
Princeton University
Robert Morris University
Sacred Heart University
Southern University, Baton Rouge
St. Francis University
St. Peter's College
State University of New York-Albany
State University of New York-Stony Brook
Texas Southern University
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
University of Dayton
University of Pennsylvania
University of San Diego
Valparaiso University
Wagner College
Yale University

[rokamortis]

Thanks for the info Ralph. I though that at least one team had lost their post-season eligibility. The ncaa rulebook will be a nice read for this. However, in the case of CCU ... I would think a team that plays Morehead, Newberry, Davidson, North Greenville, Charleston, and Jacksonville (not state) is not going to meet the NCAA guidelines. Athough they did a great job with the 2005 schedule. It has to be hard for the GWFC with only two of their clubs to be eligible. Also, do you know if the NCAA accepted the conference as of yet? ... if not do you think this could hurt Cal-Poly or Southern Utah come Thanksgiving?

CCU was eligible - but not under much consideration due to the weak schedule. The Big South isn't eligible for an auto-bid but all of the teams are eligible for an at-large.

I don't think that the eligible GWFC schools are hurting due to only 2 of their schools being eligible - their conference is still strong.

[SDbison]

As usual, the NCAA showed it's brilliance this past week by coming down on teams that have mascots it deems offensive. In the same manner seems like the NCAA has some odd rules regarding playoff elligibility. I could agree on a one ore two year period to be non-elligible, but why have a 5 year no playoff possibility for teams coming from DII? Is it too embarassing to the existing DIAA teams if 1 in a 1000 chance happens that a 2 year transition team made it to the DIAA playoffs? Doesn't it seem odd to keep a good team down if it did achieve the near impossible? What if NDSU or some other transition team did finish in the top 10 and could not be elligible? What reasoning would justify keeping them out? I could understand if a team dropped from IA down to IAA or was serving some other kind of probation. I know the long wait for DI basketball is to keep newcomers out of tournamant revenue sharing, but for what reason DIAA football? If they are worried about DII's jumping when they have a good team couldn't the NCAA just make sure a university has done all the studies and meets minimum criteria before allowing the jump. Wouldn't that make more sense instead of punishing the teams / players in transition? Maybe Ralph or someone closer to the NCAA rules and regulations can answer some of my questions. NOTE: I know the NCAA has thrown a bone to the transition teams recently to lessen the waiting period, but it still seems too long. :( :bang:

[SDbison]

Also, anyone know of any transition teams from DII to DIAA in the past 20 years or so who would have qualified for DIAA playoffs but were not elligible?

[X-Factor]

The 5 year transition period is definately too long, but I doubt the NCAA will do a thing about it anytime soon because there are very few teams like NDSU that could even put up any sort of a case why the transition period has hindered their playoff potential. There might not even be any other team besides NDSU in the same boat. UNC was very close last year. And who knows, maybe they will make a strong comeback in the next 2 seasons and not be rewarded for it.

I think it would be much more fair to have something like a 2 year transition period, and if a team is fortunate enough to have enough depth and talent to make the playoffs than that is more power to them. After 1 year of D1 play NDSU already has more scholarships than the majority of I-AA opposition that have been around for many years.

How about Troy State? Didn't they move in the late 80's?

[rokamortis]

Well I definitely heard that Cal Poly was penalized for playing provisionals being they are less than full D-I.

I'm sure you are right - but if that is the case then I think it is pitiful. They shouldn't have been penalized for playing transition teams - especially since the conference had the 2nd best GPI in I-AA. They may be transitional, doesn't mean they aren't good. They should count like all other I-AA teams IMHO. Did they all have more than the D-II maximum scholarship allowance?.

[X-Factor]

NDSU is floating right around the 63 maximum, SDSU is in the mid-high 40's, UNC is in the 40's, UCD is just starting to add scholarships to their program, which existed on roughtly the equivelant of 5 full-rides untill they moved up but will be somewhere in the 40's this year(they were only in the 20's last season). I don't know what Cal-Poly or SUU give out, but I would think it is more than the DII max of 36 as both have been playoff eligible for a while now.

[lucchesicourt]

Even though UCD didn't give out scholarships as a D2 (5 full rides, spread over the entire team is really nothing at the d2 level) they still attracted high quality athletes. For instance, in CA, if you were not able to play D1A ball, you really had only had 2 quality schools to choose from in football, UCD and Cal Poly, though UCD definitely had the better reputation as they had the best chance to go to a national championship game. So, overall UCD was able to continue acquiring quality athletes over a long period.