NCAA Divisions

[Big Al]

Okay, so I've been thinking about it and I've really been wondering why doesn't the NCAA develop a relegation system for all of it's sports?

Basically, if you're a perenially bad BCS team, you'd get dropped down to FCS, if you're bad in FCS, you'd be dropped down to D2. You could do the same in other sports, as well. Let's say you took team performance over a 5 year period, so you weren't hurt by a single bad year and then the top 5% and bottom 5% in each division moved up/down accordingly. If a team at the top of their division doesn't want to move up, they can waive the jump and then it would allow the next school on the list to move up if they'd like. Moving down would be mandatory.

D3 schools would not be subject to relegation. Although, maybe they should, considering Mt. Union's continual dominance in FB...

This would be sport by sport, so you could be BCS in football but D2 in track, if you wish. Conferences could restrict their membership to certain levels so, for example, if you wanted to stay in the Big Ten, ALL programs need to be BCS level or you get the boot.

There are something like 500 D3, FCS & FBS schools in the country, so I think it makes sense to have 3 divisions in football with 100-150 per division. A sport like wrestling, which doesn't have as many participating schools might only be divided in 2 divisions. Maybe basketball would have 4 divisions.

This is just a hare-brained thought I had last night before falling asleep, but it still seems like a workable idea here in the morning. Thoughts?

[89Hen]

An interesting idea on surface, but when you start talking about conference affiliations, number of schollies, advance scheduling, etc... you quickly realize it's not possible.

[NHwildEcat]

I agree it is certainly interesting..and maybe you could put a spin on it...do this realignment every 5 years instead of yearly...that way you wouldn't have as much flucuation with in conferences etc.

However, some schools might lost out on prospects due to a concern over the program possibly moving down while they are enrolled...which could lead the given program in to more of a downward spiral...

[Cobblestone]

I could see us trading places with Mt. Union. xsmhx

[GeauxColonels]

$$$$

It's all about the money. Many of the DIII and DII schools just don't have the funds to field successful DI programs. This would almost penalize a team, financially, for doing well. I understand the point behind your proposed system (just as the European Soccer/Futbol Leagues).

[Big Al]

$$$$

It's all about the money. Many of the DIII and DII schools just don't have the funds to field successful DI programs. This would almost penalize a team, financially, for doing well. I understand the point behind your proposed system (just as the European Soccer/Futbol Leagues).

Right, money is definitely an issue. As I said, you wouldn't be forced to move up, but you could be forced to move down. I would think that teams perennially at the top of their division would be inclined to move up at some point.

Also, I think D3 schools are a different group altogether and shouldn't be subject to relegation.

[Big Al]

An interesting idea on surface, but when you start talking about conference affiliations, number of schollies, advance scheduling, etc... you quickly realize it's not possible.

Not necessarily. First, it would give the various power conferences some leeway to dump their underperforming members. Second, if the rules about scheduling up/down stay the same as current, it should have minimal effect on OOC scheduling. For example, if the Big 12 had to pick a new team because Iowa State got relegated to FCS, it would simply be a matter of slotting in the new team in ISU's old dates.

Scholarships are definitely an issue but are you saying if Delaware got a chance to move up, your alumni base wouldn't figure out how to cough up the extra dough for 22 more scholarships?

There certainly are obstacles but I don't think they're insurmountable.

[JayJ79]

Didn't the NCAA change it's rules a while back in order to force all schools to have the same division for it's sports? This would totally contradict that.

Besides, just because a team does well at one level doesn't mean that they would do well at the next level, because there are different scholarship/budget/facilities levels. And similarly, if a program struggles at one level, there is a good chance that they'd struggle at a lower level, since they would have fewer scholarships to work with.

Though it would be interesting to see some form of relegation just at the FBS level. Since the FBS is ruled by the BCS cartel, I think it would be neat to reward successful programs in non-BCS conferences by giving them the chance to earn a spot in one of the BCS conferences (and thus a share of all that moolah), where as programs that consistently suck in BCS conferences would get the boot into non-BCS FBS conferences.

[Big Al]

I agree it is certainly interesting..and maybe you could put a spin on it...do this realignment every 5 years instead of yearly...that way you wouldn't have as much flucuation with in conferences etc.

However, some schools might lost out on prospects due to a concern over the program possibly moving down while they are enrolled...which could lead the given program in to more of a downward spiral...

It could definitely have an effect on your recruits if you're a "bubble program" but then is that a bad thing? Who here really thinks Army belongs in BCS? Wouldn't they be be a better fit for FCS? Heck, they might even do better in the FCS since they wouldn't be putting their players out to be slaughtered every week but would actually be able to schedule some winnable games.

If you were talking the bottom/top 5% every year based on 5 years of trailing data, you'd only be talking about 7 teams going down from BCS. Not that many, if you think about it.