Time to rant

[arkstfan]

#1. Off with the heads of all those schools and conferences willing to go to the Division I Basketball Tournament with its fat check and TV appearance but can't pull the players away from the books to go to the break-even (or lose money if irresponsible) first round games not nationally televised I-AA playoffs.
-Ok maybe not off with their heads but how about taking away their auto bids in other sports so those athletes are treated fairly and not pulled from class.

#2. Off with the heads of every idgit who says Division I meaning I-A and Division II meaning I-AA and makes any reference to I-A basketball or being I-AA in any other sport.
-Ok maybe not off with their heads... let's just take away their computers, microphones or their phones if they call into a sports show and say that.

#3. Let's stretch out the playoffs. Not more teams, but it'd be nice to start a week later. As a student it created havoc. The dorms are closed at many places and I knew a lot of students who just couldn't get back and if they could they had to go through a ton of hoops to be able to get in the dorms. I was lucky. My in-laws and my brother's in-laws celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday and my family on Saturday. When we were in playoffs we had a Thanksgiving tailgate. The change might also create some TV opportunities for regular season games on Thanksgiving Day, Friday and Saturday.

Even more critical, to the game is a bye week between the semis and the championship. You win on Saturday and depending on where you live you then get to work on Monday and tell the boss you have to have Friday off or Thursday and Friday off to go. Yeah you could work that out before winning your semi but we all know that's bad ju-ju. An extra week would make it easier to get more fans to travel to the title game. It's a special event and it could be more fan friendly. Obviously its not feasible to make it so fans can book 21 day advance air fare but it could be more travel friendly.

#4. The current divisional structure stinks. You know a I-A offers as many as 85 ships and has to have a 2 year average of at least 76.5. You know Division III have between zero and none. But Division II and I-AA could be any place between the max and zero.

I see three solutions.
SOLUTION 1.
Create I-AAA or Division IV or whatever and make it for open for programs that are sub-25 or so equivalencies regardless of where they play other sports.
SOLUTION 2.
Drop the numbers in football Division and don't tie it to other sport classification. A, B, C, D or AAAA, AAA, AA, A or High, Medium, Low, None or whatever. One group use the current I-A criteria, next group 65 to 50 equivalents, next 45 to 25, next zero.
SOLUTION 3.
Tell Division III and to a lesser degree Division II to get it over it and go back to letting the non-scholie II's and I-AA's play in Division III football and the lower scholarship I-AA's play in Division II.

Dem's my two cents don't spend them in one place.

[DFW HOYA]

I would disagree with each of the "solutions" regarding division membership.

The divisions should not be split on scholarship money--that was never the intent nor the focus to allocate these schools. The financial disparity between private and public schools makes this unrealistic--for example if you gave North Texas $90,000 a year for football scholarship aid, that may provide as many as 18 football scholarships. At Georgetown, it would provide two.

Divisions were originally set up on the number of sports sponsored in Div. I. ASU sponsors the minimum of 14 sports, for example, while a school like Brown sponsors 40, yet there are some on this board who would say Brown lacks "commitment". Providing opportunities for 800 student athletes to play NCAA sports is a major commitment that is not easily calculated in equivalencies.

One suggestion: there is no need for a separate low-major subdivision for the MAAC, NEC, and Pioneer. There are really only 22 schools that qualify and that number has decreased over the last decade. Given these three conferences a play-in role in the I-AA playoffs and give these leagues the same kind of representation provided to the low majors of the D-I basketball tournament--they won't get past the first round but they are still invited. And if Dayton beat a Western Illinois or a Northeastern every five or ten years, good for them, and good for I-AA.

[yomama]

#1. Off with the heads of all those schools and conferences willing to go to the Division I Basketball Tournament with its fat check and TV appearance but can't pull the players away from the books to go to the break-even (or lose money if irresponsible) first round games not nationally televised I-AA playoffs.


You're a funny man.

The NCAA needs the Ivy League much more than it needs Arkansas State.

Isn't you're school I-A? Why are you making bitchy posts on a I-AA forum?

[DFW HOYA]

I disagree with a "gift" play-in role. What does that accomplish and why shouldn't other conferences get one too? No, earning your place in the NCAA's highest football playoffs should be a reward for building a strong program and not be charity.

It's no gift, it's a condition of membership. If you have a I-AA conference so recognized by the NCAA, you should be in the mix.

And if "earning your place in the NCAA's highest...playoffs should be a reward for building a strong program and not be charity", would you also propose dropping autobids in the NCAA basketball tournament, effectively ending the post season basketball hopes for almost all I-AA conferences?

[yomama]

It's no gift, it's a condition of membership.

Unfortunately, not in I-AA football.

Could it be this whole dismal little football ghetto has become irrelevant? Not only has control of I-AA been ceded to eight conferences, those on the outside don't seem to care. Or at least many of the outsiders' solutions steer clear of the D-II horde that has invaded the past 25 years (now I-AA).

This is way beyond the NCAA's ability to make repairs.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

One suggestion: there is no need for a separate low-major subdivision for the MAAC, NEC, and Pioneer. There are really only 22 schools that qualify and that number has decreased over the last decade. Given these three conferences a play-in role in the I-AA playoffs and give these leagues the same kind of representation provided to the low majors of the D-I basketball tournament--they won't get past the first round but they are still invited. And if Dayton beat a Western Illinois or a Northeastern every five or ten years, good for them, and good for I-AA.

The trouble with this is there are such a limited number of seats in the I-AA football playoffs. In basketball, it's no problem to ask kids to potentially play 7 games in 3 weeks and include 65 teams. In football, it's 4 weekends and 16 teams.

The only way to possibly do this is to expand the playoffs, since keeping at-large teams like Delaware, UNH, JMU or Lehigh home would never fly. Expanding the playoffs to include the non-autobid conferences would make it 5 weekends. The only way to do that is to reduce the number of regular-season games to 10 - athletes can't play a NFL season's worth of games to win a championship!

Furthermore, it's not like Albany (or another mid-major team) go 11-0, 10-1 or 9-2 and wouldn't qualify for the playoffs. That's what Florida Atlantic did in 2003 and made the playoffs (even though they lost to a D-II team). They'd just have to earn it on the playing field.

[henfan]

Could it be this whole dismal little football ghetto has become irrelevant? Not only has control of I-AA been ceded to eight conferences, those on the outside don't seem to care. Or at least many of the outsiders' solutions steer clear of the D-II horde that has invaded the past 25 years (now I-AA).

This is way beyond the NCAA's ability to make repairs.

Wow!!! Looks like Yo's mama forgot to put the sugar in his oatmeal this morning. What a bitter, bitter Patty Vivfanboy.

Well, the "dismal little football ghetto" obviously isn't as bad as some would like to believe or the division wouldn't have as many schools as it has. Schools like Delaware, Georgia Southern, JMU, McNeese, Montana, ect. wouldn't be making money on the sport.

I wasn't aware that 8 conferences "controlled" the division? I-AA representation on the NCAA Board of Directors is maintained by reps from schools like Dayton, Alcorn & American U. Management Council has reps from MAAC, NEC (2 reps), Ivy, SWAC, OVC, MEAC, SoCon, Big Sky and Patriot. D-I FB Issue Committee has equal reprentation for each of the 13 I-AA conferences. In addition, all 13 conferences had reps on the I-AA Playoff Regional Advisory Committee in '04.

Coming from a school who was part of the D-II invasion, I'd say we've been good for I-AA and the division's been good to us. I'm also happy the UCD, UNC, NDSU and SDSU "horde" invaded our division.

[AmsterBison]

You're a funny man.

The NCAA needs the Ivy League much more than it needs Arkansas State.

Isn't you're school I-A? Why are you making bitchy posts on a I-AA forum?

Huh? I thought he made sense even if I didn't agree with everything solution he proposed.

Anyway, your posts have a troll-like quality. For example, at least I know what school arkstfan is from. If you think that a fan of a DI-A school shouldn't be posting in a DI forum then, following your logic, why should I pay attention to anything posted by a person who has never identified himself/herself beyond a nickname-slash-insult?

[arkstfan]

You're a funny man.

The NCAA needs the Ivy League much more than it needs Arkansas State.

Isn't you're school I-A? Why are you making bitchy posts on a I-AA forum?

Well, the NCAA doesn't need the Ivy League at all or much of anyone else outside the richest 6 to 10 conferences. The one and done appearance of the Ivy the past 7 years in the NCAA Tournament means that just 7 of the 446 games included in the NCAA's $550 million per year TV contract featured Ivy League teams. I doubt the Ivy represents much of that TV value.

I suppose I could deem I-AA irrelevant and stay off here, but I think the health of of high level scholarship football is essential to Division I athletics in general.

Division I membership requires awarding a minimum level of aid to student-athletes, it is only because of a grandfather clause that the Ivy even remains Division I, which is really too bad because the name value and tradition they have could provide a nice boost to Division III making that level more attractive and appealing.

[yomama]

Division I membership requires awarding a minimum level of aid to student-athletes, it is only because of a grandfather clause that the Ivy even remains Division I, which is really too bad because the name value and tradition they have could provide a nice boost to Division III making that level more attractive and appealing.

You have some fundamental misunderstandings about the Ivy League. It does not belong in D-III, nor would the D-III membership allow such a move. Enough said on that.

Ivy League schools sponsor more sports than anyone else. I believe Harvard sponsors every sport that has an NCAA championship at the highest level. Should we exclude Arkansas State from NCAA championships because it doesn't have a water polo team?

Should we exclude Gonzaga from NCAA championships because it not only doesn't participate in the I-AA playoffs, it doesn't even field a team? The nerve!

More replies than the thread deserved...

[colgate13]

not taking sides here, but if there are any schools that "deserve" to be in Division I it would be the Ivy League. They sponsor more D-I sports than anyone.

[arkstfan]

not taking sides here, but if there are any schools that "deserve" to be in Division I it would be the Ivy League. They sponsor more D-I sports than anyone.

Which is a big factor (along with tradition) as to why they were grandfathered in despite not meeting current Division I membership criteria.

[colgate13]

Which is a big factor (along with tradition) as to why they were grandfathered in despite not meeting current Division I membership criteria.

What criteria are people referring to? What doesn't the Ivy League do that they need to be grandfathered in for???

[arkstfan]

What criteria are people referring to? What doesn't the Ivy League do that they need to be grandfathered in for???

Award the minimum amount of athletic aid as provided by 20.9.1.2 which led to the adoption of this:

20.9.1.2.7 Exemptions—No Institutional Athletics Aid. Member institutions that do not award any athletically related financial aid in any sport as of January 11, 1991, shall be exempted from the minimum requirements.