ESPN Option to Use I-AA or FCS?

[TexasTerror]

One of our fans got upset with the misuse of the nomenclature on the Houston sports radio show featuring Texans voice Marc Vandemeer and Andre Ware, who has called quite a few FCS games.

Ware apparently said..."I hate to burst your bubble, but I am going to a meeting next week at my employer ESPN and he said that the NCAA has given ESPN (and I guess other sports broadcast entities the right to go back to utilizing the nomenclature of 1-AA or Division 1-FCS at their option on broadcasts of games involving opponents from this division (Div. 1-FCS)".

This was posted on KatFans.com at http://www.katfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=49108. I responded that this was the first I heard of it and that in the Southland media guide, there's a whole page devoted to the change in nomenclature.

Any word on this?

[Mr. C]

One of our fans got upset with the misuse of the nomenclature on the Houston sports radio show featuring Texans voice Marc Vandemeer and Andre Ware, who has called quite a few FCS games.

Ware apparently said..."I hate to burst your bubble, but I am going to a meeting next week at my employer ESPN and he said that the NCAA has given ESPN (and I guess other sports broadcast entities the right to go back to utilizing the nomenclature of 1-AA or Division 1-FCS at their option on broadcasts of games involving opponents from this division (Div. 1-FCS)".

This was posted on KatFans.com at http://www.katfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=49108. I responded that this was the first I heard of it and that in the Southland media guide, there's a whole page devoted to the change in nomenclature.

Any word on this?
Haven't heard anything about it, but I would be stunned if the NCAA told ESPN this, considering how much the name change was played up at EVERY media event I was at this summer. Also, I don't have a lot of respect for Andre Ware as a broadcaster and I doubt he is all that clued in to this. He did some of the Appalachian State games that were on ESPN last season and, frankly, wasn't very good. My hunch is that Ware was basically just spouting off and really doesn't know anything.

[TexasTerror]

I agree with you, Mr C. The NCAA wouldn't give them an option on this one considering how much it has been drummed up. While the schools probably have not done as much as they could in each case, there's quite a few schools and of course, conferences like the Southland Conference who are very adamant about getting this message across.

All that matters is that at the end of the season, two teams go into Chattanooga, TN and play it out for the Division I national title.

[Seat16Demon]

I agree with you, Mr C. The NCAA wouldn't give them an option on this one considering how much it has been drummed up. While the schools probably have not done as much as they could in each case, there's quite a few schools and of course, conferences like the Southland Conference who are very adamant about getting this message across.

All that matters is that at the end of the season, two teams go into Chattanooga, TN and play it out for the Division I national title.

Preach brother, preach it!

[PaladinFan]

I just really wish people would stop being anal about this issue. I correct people if they say Furman is a DII school (some even say DIII), but it just seems a bit overboard to get bent out of shape about this name change.

Reality is we arent the FBS. We don't have the funding, our schools are typically smaller, and our stadiums not as big, we can't fund as many scholarships. So what? I pull for and love my university just the same. I continue to be more convinced that this is more of an issue of pride among our fans and less about football. It seems as though people want to be considered the same, when in actuality we are not. That's just reality.

If there are many many people in the Southeast who do not know that Furman (debateably one of the more successful IAA programs in history) is an FCS football school, then I am not suprised some ESPN announcer, innundated with big college football, can't get his head around it. It is what it is.

[appfan2008]

why would they do such a thing?