Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with larger budgets, more elaborate facilities, and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition. This level was once called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the College Division; this terminology was replaced with numeric divisions (I, II, III) in 1973.[1] In football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A (the principal football schools) and Division I-AA;.[2] Currently, Division I is divided among "Football Bowl Subdivision" (FBS) schools, "Football Championship Subdivision" (FCS) schools, and "Non-Football" schools.[3][4] For the 2012-13 school year, Division I contains 340 of the NCAA's 1,066 member institutions, with 120 in FBS, 122 in FCS, and 98 in NFS.[5] There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to D-I until 2012, after which any school desirous of moving to D-I must first be accepted for membership by a conference and must show the NCAA that it has the financial ability to support a D-I program.
All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender.[6] There are several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III.[6]
In addition to the schools that compete fully as D-I institutions, the NCAA allows D-II and D-III schools to classify one men's and one women's sport (other than football or basketball) as a D-I sport, as long as they had been sponsoring those sports prior to the latest rules change in 2011.[7]
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Scholarship limits by sport
The NCAA imposes limits on the total financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. It divides sports that it sponsors into two types for purposes of scholarship limitations:
- "Head-count" sports, in which the NCAA limits the total number of individuals that can receive athletic scholarships, but allows each player to receive up to a full scholarship.
- "Equivalency" sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a given sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport.
The term "counter" is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a "counter" as "an individual who is receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport."[8]
The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in each sport is listed below.
Head-count sports
- Basketball – 13 for men,[9] 15 for women[10]
- FBS football – 85, with an additional limit of 25 initial counters per year[11]
- Women's gymnastics – 12[12]
- Women's tennis – 8[12]
- Women's volleyball (indoor) – 12[12]
Equivalency sports
Men's
- Baseball – 11.7,[13] with the following additional limitations:
- A limit of 27 total counters.[13]
- A requirement that each counter receive athletic aid equal to at least 25% of a full scholarship.[14] The 25% rule does not apply to baseball schools that offer only need-based aid (such as Ivy League members).[15] A second exception to the 25% rule, added in 2012, is for players in their final year of athletic eligibility who have not previously received athletically related aid in baseball.[16]
- FCS football – 63, with limits of 30 initial counters per year and 85 total counters[17]
- Gymnastics – 6.3[18]
- Rifle – 3.6[18]
- Note that the NCAA classifies rifle as a men's sport, despite the fact that competitions are fully coeducational. Most rifle schools have a single coed/mixed team. Some schools have only one single-sex team for either men or women. Some other schools field multiple teams (either two single-sex teams, or a single-sex and a mixed team).
- Tennis – 4.5[18]
- Volleyball – 4.5[18]
- Wrestling – 9.9[18]
Women's
- Bowling – 5[19]
- Equestrian – 15[19]
- Field hockey – 12[19]
- Rowing – 20[19]
- Rugby – 12[19]
- Sand volleyball:
- For schools that also sponsor women's (indoor) volleyball, 4 in 2012–13. The number of scholarship equivalents will increase by 1 each year until reaching a final value of 6 in 2014–15. The number of counters is limited to 14 throughout.[20]
- For schools that do not sponsor indoor volleyball, 8 scholarship equivalents and 14 counters.[21]
- Players receiving financial aid for sand volleyball are not allowed to be on the school's indoor volleyball roster. The opposite is allowed.[22]
- Softball – 12[19]
Both sexes
- Cross-country/track & field
- Fencing – 4.5 for men,[18] 5 for women[19]
- Golf – 4.5 for men,[18] 6 for women[19]
- Ice hockey – 18, with a limit of 30 total counters, combined for both sexes[24]
- Lacrosse – 12.6 for men,[18] 12 for women[19]
- Skiing – 6.3 for men,[18] 7 for women[19]
- Soccer – 9.9 for men,[18] 14 for women[19]
- Swimming and diving – 9.9 for men,[18] 14 for women[19]
- Water polo – 4.5 for men,[18] 8 for women[19]
Rules for multi-sport athletes
The NCAA also has rules specifying the sport in which multi-sport athletes are to be counted, with the basic rules being:[25]
- Anyone who participates in football is counted in that sport, even if he does not receive financial aid from the football program. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport.[26]
- Participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football.
- Participants in men's ice hockey are counted in that sport, unless they also play football or basketball.
- Participants in both men's swimming and diving and men's water polo are counted in swimming and diving, unless they count in football or basketball.
- Participants in women's volleyball are counted in that sport unless they also play basketball.
- All other multi-sport athletes are counted in whichever sport the school chooses.
Finances
Division I athletic programs generated $8.7 billion in revenue in the 2009–2010 academic year. Men's teams provided 55% of the total, women's teams 15%, and 30% was not categorized by sex or sport. Football and men's basketball are usually the only sports that are profitable for universities, with others usually losing money.[27] The BYU Cougars, for example, in 2009 had revenue of $41 million and expenses of $35 million, resulting in a profit of $5.5 million or about 16% margin. Football (60% of revenue, 53% profit margin) and men's basketball (15% of revenue, 8% profit margin) were profitable; women's basketball (less than 3% of revenue) and all other sports were unprofitable.[28] From 2008 to 2012, 205 varsity teams were dropped in NCAA Division I - 72 for women and 133 for men, with men’s tennis, gymnastics and wrestling hit particularly hard.[29]
Overview
Men's Team Sports
Scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a decimal point. Numbers for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if needed.
Number | Sport | Teams | Conferences | Scholarships | Season |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Basketball | 347 | 32 | 13 | Winter |
2 | Baseball | 280 | 31 | 11.7 | Spring |
3 | Football | 242 | 24 | 85 (FBS) 63.0 (FCS) |
Fall |
4 | Soccer | 203 | 23 | 9.9 | Fall |
5 | Lacrosse | 63 | 9 | 12.6 | Spring |
6 | Ice Hockey | 59 | 5 | 18.0 | Winter |
7 | Water Polo | 42 | 3 | 4.5 | Fall |
8 | Volleyball | 23 | 3 | 4.5 | Spring |
Notes:
- Football —D-I football programs are divided into FBS and FCS. The 120 FBS programs in 11 conferences can award financial aid to as many as 85 players, with each player able to receive up to a full scholarship. The 122 FCS programs in 13 conferences can award up to the equivalent of 63 full scholarships, divided among no more than 85 individuals. Some FCS conferences voluntarily restrict scholarships to a lower level. The all-sports Ivy League and football-only Pioneer Football League totally prohibit scholarships. The Northeast Conference restricts its football members to 40 scholarship equivalents. The Patriot League prohibited football scholarships until the 2013–14 academic year; from that point on, it will allow its football programs to award 15 new scholarship equivalents per academic year.
- Soccer — The Big 12 and the SEC are the only two major traditional D-I conferences that do not sponsor soccer.
- Lacrosse — The vast majority of D-I lacrosse programs are from the northeast and mid-atlantic. There are only two D-I programs west of the Mississippi (Air Force and Denver).
- Ice Hockey — Almost all D-I ice hockey programs are in the northeast, the upper midwest, or Colorado. Since the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference dropped the sport in 2003, none of the traditional conferences have sponsored ice hockey, with all current conferences historically hockey-specific leagues. Beginning with the 2013-14 season, the Big Ten will sponsor hockey for the first time.
- Water Polo —No school outside of California has ever made the finals of the championship. All champions since 1998 have come from one of the four California based Pac-12 schools.
- Volleyball —- The number of D-I schools sponsoring volleyball has fluctuated between 20 and 24 teams since 1986.[30] None of the traditional D-I conferences sponsor volleyball. All three conferences are volleyball specific conferences.
Women's Team Sports
Football subdivisions
Subdivisions in Division I exist only in football.[4][31] In all other sports, all Division I conferences are equivalent. The subdivisions were recently given names to reflect the differing levels of football play in them.
The method by which the NCAA determines whether a school is Bowl or Championship subdivision is first by attendance numbers and then by scholarships.[32] For attendance reporting methods, the NCAA allows schools to report either total tickets sold or the number of persons in attendance at the games. They require a minimum average of 15,000 people in attendance every other year.[32] These numbers get posted to the NCAA statistics website for football each year. With the new rules starting in the 2006 season, the number of Bowl Subdivision schools could drop in the future if those schools are not able to pull in enough fans into the games. Additionally, 8 schools in the Championship subdivision had enough attendance to be moved up in 2005 (although they would need to either compete as independents or join a conference in order to do so).
Football Bowl Subdivision
Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the top level of college football, which is currently the only NCAA-sponsored sport without an organized tournament to determine its champion.[33] Schools in Division I FBS compete in post-season bowl games, with the champions of six conferences receiving automatic bids to the Bowl Championship Series to determine a national champion. This is due to many factors, including that bowl games are sanctioned by the NCAA (primarily in terms of amateurism regulations and guaranteeing a minimum payout to conferences of the participating schools), but are not under its direct administration. Starting with the 2014 season, the BCS will undergo radical change, with a four-team playoff to determine a national champion almost certain to be adopted.[34]
The remaining five conferences, often referred to as "Mid-majors",[35][36] do not receive automatic bids but their conference champions are eligible for an automatic bid if it ranks in the BCS top 12 or in the top 16 and ahead of the champion from a conference with an automatic bid. Only one "mid-major" champion can qualify for an automatic bid in any year. The one exception is Notre Dame, which only has to rank in the top eight of the BCS standings to earn an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game.[37]
FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance.[38] For competitive reasons, a student receiving partial scholarship counts fully against the total of 85. Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships.
As of 2012, there are 120 full members of Division I FBS. The most recent addition to FBS was Western Kentucky University, which ended its two-year transition period from Division I FCS in 2008 and became a full FBS member in 2009.[39] In July 2011, four schools began transitions to FBS, starting as FCS members. Under NCAA rules, these schools were ineligible for the FCS playoffs in 2011. In 2012, they will be provisional FBS members without bowl eligibility, with full FBS membership following in 2013.
- The University of South Alabama, previously an unclassified NCAA football program, played its first fully competitive season in 2011. The Jaguars, already full members of the Sun Belt Conference, joined that conference for football.
- Texas State University–San Marcos (Texas State), previously an established FCS program in the Southland Conference, joined the Western Athletic Conference in 2012, and then move to the Sun Belt in 2013.
- The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), previously a non-football member of the Southland Conference, played its first football season in 2011. It joined the WAC alongside Texas State for 2012, and then move to Conference USA (C-USA) in 2013.
- The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), a member of the non-football Atlantic 10 Conference and previously a football member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), joined the Mid-American Conference in football in 2012. The team will become eligible for the MAC championship upon attaining full FBS membership in 2013.
Five other schools have announced future transitions to FBS:
- Georgia State University began its FBS transition in 2012. The Panthers, currently full members of the CAA, started a football program in 2010. Like UMass in 2011, the 2012 Panthers played a full CAA schedule and were technically classified as CAA members. In July 2013, Georgia State will return to the Sun Belt Conference, which it had left in 1981, and will play a full conference schedule. Full FBS membership will follow in 2014.[40]
- The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte) will begin its FBS transition in 2013, the same year it starts its football program and rejoins C-USA. It will play as an FCS independent in 2013 and an FBS independent without bowl eligibility in 2014 before joining the C-USA football league in 2015.[41]
- Old Dominion University, another full member of the CAA, has announced its departure for C-USA, also effective in 2013. Unlike Georgia State, ODU will not begin its FBS transition until 2013; this means that the 2012 Monarchs will be full CAA members and eligible for the FCS playoffs. ODU will become a C-USA football member alongside Charlotte in 2015.[42]
- Two members of the Southern Conference, Appalachian State University and Georgia Southern University, were officially announced on March 27, 2013 as future members of the Sun Belt Conference. Both schools will begin FBS transitions in 2013 in advance of their 2014 entry into the Sun Belt. They will be counted as FBS members for scheduling purposes in 2014, and will be eligible for the Sun Belt football championship, but will not be eligible for bowl games until completing their transitions in 2015.[43][44] Georgia Southern began preparations for its FBS move in September 2012, when it announced that its students had approved increases in student fees to fund an expansion of its football stadium.[45] With GSU's invitation to the Sun Belt secured, both fees will go into effect in 2013–14.
Any conference with at least 12 football teams may split its teams into two divisions and conduct a championship game between the division winners.[46][47] The prize is normally a specific bowl game bid for which the conference has a tie-in, or a guaranteed spot in the BCS (depending on the conference).
Some conferences have numbers in their names but this often has no relation to the number of member institutions in the conference. The Big Ten Conference did not formally adopt the "Big Ten" name until 1987, but unofficially used that name when it had 10 members from 1917 to 1946, and again from 1949 forward. However, it has continued to use the name even after it expanded to 11 members with the addition of Penn State in 1990 and 12 with the addition of Nebraska in 2011. The Big 12 Conference was established in 1996 with 12 members, but continues to use that name even after the 2011 departure of Colorado and Nebraska left the conference with 10 members. On the other hand, the Pacific-12 Conference has used names (official or unofficial) that have reflected the number of members since its current charter was established in 1959. The conference unofficially used "Big Five" (1959–62), "Big Six" (1962–64), and "Pacific-8" (1964–68) before officially adopting the "Pacific-8" name. The name duly changed to "Pacific-10" in 1978 with the addition of Arizona and Arizona State, and "Pacific-12" in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined. Conferences also tend to ignore their regional names when adding new schools. For example, the Pac-8/10/12 retained its "Pacific" moniker even though its four newest members (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) are located in the inland West, and the original Big East kept its name even after adding schools (either in all sports or for football only) located in areas traditionally considered to be in the Midwest (Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame), Upper South (Louisville, Memphis) and Southwest (Houston, SMU). The non-football conference that will assume the Big East name when the original Big East splits in 2013 is another example of this phenomenon, as half of its 10 inaugural schools (Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Marquette, Xavier) are traditionally regarded as being Midwestern.
Conferences
(** BCS Automatic Qualification (AQ) Conferences; this status will end in 2014 when the BCS establishes a four-team championship playoff)
- Notes
- ^ Notre Dame, Pitt, and Syracuse will join from the Big East in 2013. Notre Dame will retain its football independence, although it has committed to play five games each season against ACC opponents. Maryland will leave for the Big Ten in 2014, with Louisville replacing them at that time.
- ^ The conference was founded in 1979, but did not sponsor football until 1991.
- ^ Of the 15 current Big East schools, only seven play football in the conference. Two schools sponsor football teams in the lower Football Championship Subdivision, and one plays football as an independent school. The rest do not play college football. Temple University, which will become an all-sports member of the conference in 2013, is an associate member in football for the 2012 season. Another associate member, Loyola University Maryland, plays women's lacrosse in the Big East, but will leave in 2013 when the school joins the lacrosse-sponsoring Patriot League.
- ^ Many changes are set for the conference in the coming years.
- In 2013:
- Notre Dame, Pitt, and Syracuse will leave for the ACC.
- The conference's seven non-FBS schools—DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova—will leave the Big East to form a new conference. The departing schools have purchased the Big East name from the remaining schools.
- The remaining schools will operate under a new name beginning in July.
- Temple, a football-only member in 2012, will become an all-sports member.
- Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF will also become all-sports members.
- Old Dominion will join for field hockey only.
- In 2014:
- East Carolina and Tulane will join for all sports. ECU had initially been announced as a football-only member, but later became an all-sports member.
- Rutgers will leave the renamed conference for the Big Ten.
- Louisville will leave the renamed conference for the ACC.
- In 2015:
- Navy will become a football-only member.
- In 2013:
- ^ Maryland will join from the ACC in 2014. Rutgers has announced its future departure from the original Big East to join the Big Ten; with the upcoming split of the Big East, it will now enter in 2014.
- ^ 26 sports in 2013 with the addition of men's ice hockey.
- ^ The conference was founded in 1995, with football competition starting in 1996.
- ^ In addition to the 12 full members, Conference USA features 11 schools that play only one sport in the conference, and one that plays more than one sport:
- FIU, Kentucky, and South Carolina play men's soccer.
- Colorado College, a Division III school with a Division I men's ice hockey team, plays Division I women's soccer in Conference USA; it filled the place left vacant by Tulane when it suspended women's soccer in 2005 due to the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina. As of the 2012 season, Tulane has not reinstated the sport.
- Seven schools participate only in women's rowing. Alabama and Tennessee compete solely as C-USA members. The five Big 12 schools that sponsor the sport—Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia—have dual membership, competing among themselves for a Big 12 championship and also contesting the C-USA championship.
- Old Dominion competes in men's and women's golf, women's rowing, and men's and women's tennis.
- ^ The following changes are set for C-USA:
- In 2013:
- Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF will leave for the renamed Big East.
- Eight schools will join as full members—Charlotte from the A10; Old Dominion from the CAA; Florida Atlantic, FIU, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas from the Sun Belt; and Louisiana Tech and UTSA from the WAC. Charlotte will not initially be a football member; it will start a football program in 2013, and will not be eligible for full FBS membership until 2015. Old Dominion, although it already has a football team, will not initially be a football member. It will begin its transition to FBS in 2013, at the same time as Charlotte, will become a football member of C-USA in 2014, and become a full FBS member in 2015.
- New Mexico will join for men's soccer only.
- Sacramento State and San Diego State will join for women's rowing only.
- In 2014:
- Tulane and East Carolina will both leave for the renamed Big East.
- In 2013:
- ^ a b C-USA and the MW initially announced plans to merge for football only, creating a single league originally slated to have 22 teams. After further defections from both leagues, the conferences initially announced plans to merge, but backed away, opting instead for an alliance set for a 2013 launch in which they will retain separate identities.
- ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference; it is simply a designation used for schools whose football programs do not play in any conference. All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports.
- ^ Idaho and New Mexico State, the only two football schools left in the Western Athletic Conference beyond the 2012 season, will play as FBS independents in 2013 before becoming football-only members of the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. Navy football will leave the independent ranks to join the renamed Big East in July 2015.
- ^ In addition to the 12 full members, the Mid-American Conference features nine members which only participate in one sport each: Chicago State in men's tennis; Evansville and Southern Illinois in men's swimming and diving; Florida Atlantic, Hartwick, and West Virginia in men's soccer; Missouri and Northern Iowa in wrestling; and UMass in football. Missouri State fields MAC teams in women's field hockey and men's swimming and diving. Old Dominion will become a wrestling affiliate in 2013.
- ^ As of 2012, Hawaiʻi is a football-only associate member, with most of its remaining teams in the non-football Big West Conference.
- ^ San Jose State and Utah State will both join from the WAC in 2013.
- ^ The charter of the Pac-12 dates only to the formation of the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959. However, the Pac-12 claims the history of the Pacific Coast Conference, which was founded in 1915 and began competition in 1916, as its own. Of the nine members of the PCC at the time of its demise in 1958, only Idaho never joined the Pac-12. The PCC's berth in the Rose Bowl passed to the AAWU.
- ^ The Pac-12 also includes several associate members which compete in one or two sports in the conference. San Diego State plays men's soccer. Boise State, Cal State Bakersfield, and Cal Poly compete in wrestling. Cal Poly also participates in men's swimming and diving, which the NCAA considers a single sport. UC Santa Barbara only competes in men's swimming and diving.
- ^ Ten Sun Belt Conference members currently sponsor FBS football teams. South Alabama was classified for 2012, its first season as a Sun Belt football member, as a transitional FBS school without bowl eligibility. South Alabama's FBS transition will be completed in 2013.
- ^ The following changes are set for the Sun Belt:
- In 2013:
- Georgia State will join from the CAA. It began a transition to FBS football in 2012, will start playing a full Sun Belt football schedule in 2013, and become a full FBS member in 2014.
- Texas State will join from the WAC; the 2013 season will be its first as a full FBS member.
- UT Arlington, a non-football school, will also join from the WAC.
- Florida Atlantic, FIU, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas will leave for Conference USA.
- In 2014:
- Appalachian State and Georgia Southern will both join from the FCS Southern Conference. Both schools will begin FBS transitions in 2013 and will become Sun Belt football members upon arrival, but will not be eligible for bowl games until 2015.
- Idaho and New Mexico State will join for football only.
- In 2013:
- ^ As of July 2012, the WAC has seven football members, with three incoming members, Denver, Seattle, and UT Arlington, not sponsoring the sport.
- ^ The future of the WAC was in serious doubt due to a rash of departures set for July 2013. Denver, Texas State, UT Arlington, and UTSA, all of which joined the WAC in July 2012, will only spend one year in the conference, with Denver leaving for The Summit League, Texas State and UT Arlington leaving for the Sun Belt, and UTSA departing for C-USA. Louisiana Tech will also leave for C-USA, while San Jose State and Utah State will join the Mountain West. Boise State, which had initially planned to place its non-football sports in the WAC in 2013, opted instead for the Big West, and still later chose to remain in the MW. With only two football schools left, the WAC announced it would drop the sport after the 2012 season. The conference will add six non-football schools in 2013: Cal State Bakersfield, Chicago State, Grand Canyon, Utah Valley, Texas-Pan American and UMKC. In 2014, Idaho will return to the Big Sky Conference (as a non-football member) after an 18-year absence.
- ^ In addition to the full members, the WAC currently has eight associate members that house one or two sports in the conference:
- Boise State and Southern Utah participate in women's gymnastics.
- Cal State Bakersfield, which will become a full WAC member in 2013, already has its baseball and women's swimming and diving teams in the conference.
- Dallas Baptist, a Division II member, participates in baseball as a Division I member, but will leave for the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013.
- North Dakota, Northern Arizona, and Northern Colorado participate in women's swimming and diving.
- Sacramento State participates in baseball and women's gymnastics.
- ^ 18 sports in 2013 with dropping of football.
Football Championship Subdivision
The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, determines its national champion on the field in a 20-team, single-elimination tournament.[48] With the expansion of the tournament field in 2010 from 16 teams to 20, the champions of 10 conferences receive automatic bids, with 10 "at-large" spots; and the top 12 teams receive first-round byes. A team must have at least seven wins to be eligible for an at-large spot.[49][50]
The tournament traditionally begins on Thanksgiving weekend in late November, and during the era of the 16-team field ran for four weeks, ending with the championship game in mid-December. Since 2010, the tournament has run for four weeks (for seeds 13–20) to determine the two finalists, who play for the FCS national title in early January in Frisco, Texas, the scheduled host through the 2015 season. For thirteen seasons, the title game was played in Chattanooga, Tennessee, (1997–2009), preceded by five seasons in Huntington, West Virginia, where host Marshall advanced to the title game in four of the five years.[51]
When I-AA was formed in 1978, the playoffs included just four teams for its first three seasons, doubling to eight teams for one season in 1981. From 1982 to 1985, I-AA had a 12-team tournament, with each of the top four seeds receiving a first-round bye and a home game in the quarterfinals.[52] The I-AA playoffs went to 16 teams in 1986, and the FCS playoffs expanded to 20 teams starting in 2010. After 28 seasons, the "I-AA" was dropped by the NCAA in 2006, although it is still informally and commonly used.
Abstainers
The Football Championship Subdivision includes several conferences which do not participate in the eponymous post-season championship tournament. The Ivy League was lowered to I-AA (FCS) following the 1981 season,[53] and plays a strict ten-game schedule. It has yet to participate in the post-season tournament, despite an automatic bid, citing academic concerns. The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has its own championship game in mid-December between the champions of its East and West divisions. Also, three of its member schools traditionally do not finish their regular seasons until Thanksgiving weekend. Grambling State and Southern play each other in the Bayou Classic, and Alabama State plays Tuskegee University (a Division II team) in the Turkey Day Classic. SWAC teams are eligible to accept at-large bids if their schedule is not in conflict. The last SWAC team to participate in the I-AA playoffs was Jackson State in 1997; the SWAC never achieved success in the tournament, going winless in 19 games in twenty years (1978–97).
From 2006 through 2009, the Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference champions played in the Gridiron Classic, though all conference teams technically remained tournament eligible. If a league champion was invited to the national championship, the second-place team would play in the Gridiron Classic. That game was scrapped after the 2009 season when its four-year contract ran out; this coincided with the NCAA's announcement that the Northeast Conference would get an automatic bid to the tournament starting in 2010. The Big South Conference also received an automatic bid in the same season.
Schools in a transition period after joining the FCS from a lower division (or from the NAIA) are also ineligible for the playoffs.
Scholarships
Division I FCS schools are currently restricted to giving financial assistance amounting to 63 full scholarships. As FCS football is an "equivalency" sport (as opposed to the "head-count" status of FBS football), Championship Subdivision schools may divide their allotment into partial scholarships. However, FCS schools may only have 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football—the same numeric limit as FBS schools. Because of competitive forces, however, a substantial number of players in Championship Subdivision programs are on full scholarships. Another difference is that FCS schools are allowed to award financial aid to as many as 30 new players per season, as opposed to 25 in FBS.
A few Championship Subdivision conferences are composed of schools that offer no athletic scholarships at all, most notably the Ivy League and the Pioneer Football League, a football-only conference. The Ivy League allows no athletic scholarships at all, while the PFL consists of schools that offer scholarships in other sports but choose not to take on the expense of a scholarship football program. The Northeast Conference also sponsored non-scholarship football, but began offering a maximum of 30 full scholarship equivalents in 2006, which grew to 40 in 2011 after a later vote of the league's school presidents and athletic directors. The Patriot League does not currently give football scholarships, but permits them in other sports (athletes receiving these scholarships are ineligible to play football for Patriot League schools). Starting with the class entering in the 2013 season, the Patriot League will allow its members to offer football scholarships; when the transition to scholarship football is complete, member schools will be allowed up to 60 full scholarship equivalents.[54] The Pioneer Football League will earn an automatic bid beginning in 2013.
Conferences
- Notes
- ^ Cal Poly and UC Davis, both full members of the non-football Big West Conference, are football-only affiliates.
- ^ In July 2014, Idaho will return its non-football sports to the Big Sky after an 18-year absence.
- ^ The Big South has six full members that compete for its football championship. Stony Brook of the non-football America East Conference is an associate member for that sport, but its football team will leave for the CAA in July 2013. Although Campbell became a full member of the Big South in July 2011, its football program remains in the Pioneer Football League. Monmouth will become a football-only member in 2014.
- ^ The CAA football conference was only founded in 2007, but has a continuous history dating to the late 1930s (although not under the same charter):
- The New England Conference was formed by five New England state universities, plus one private university in that region (Northeastern), in 1938. Four of the public schools—Maine, UMass, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island—were in the CAA football conference through the 2011 season. However, UMass football left for the MAC in 2012. URI football initially planned to leave for the Northeast Conference in 2013, but decided to remain in the CAA.
- In 1946, after the departure of Northeastern, the remaining members of the New England Conference affiliated with the University of Vermont to form the Yankee Conference under a separate charter, with athletic competition starting in 1947.
- In 1997, the Yankee Conference was absorbed by the Atlantic 10 Conference. The A10 inherited the Yankee Conference's automatic berth in the Division I-AA (now FCS) playoffs. In addition to the four charter New England Conference members mentioned above, five other members of the Yankee Conference at the time of the A10 merger are still in the CAA football conference.
- After the 2006 season, all of the A10 football teams left for the new CAA football conference. The CAA inherited the A10's automatic berth in the FCS playoffs.
- ^ The CAA has 11 full members, but after Hofstra and Northeastern dropped football following the 2009 season, only four of the full members were part of the CAA football conference. The number of full CAA members that play football in that conference increased to five in 2011 with the addition of the Old Dominion football program. Georgia State began CAA competition in 2012 after starting an FCS program in 2010, but did not compete for the conference championship—it began an FBS transition that season, and will leave for the Sun Belt Conference in 2013. Old Dominion will not start its FBS transition until it leaves for C-USA in 2013. Currently, five associate members fill out the ranks of the CAA football conference. This latter group will increase to seven in 2013 when Albany and Stony Brook move their football programs into the CAA. The conference will add and lose non-football schools in 2013, with Charleston entering and George Mason leaving.
- ^ In addition to the football associates, the CAA has nine other associate members that participate in one or two sports:
- Binghamton and Rider participate in wrestling.
- Buffalo competes in women's rowing.
- Boston University competes in both wrestling and women's rowing.
- Dayton and Xavier compete in women's golf. Richmond, a football affiliate, also houses its women's golf team in the CAA.
- UMass, Penn State, and Saint Joseph's play men's lacrosse.
- ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference; it is simply a designation used to indicate schools whose football programs do not play in any conference. All of these schools have conference memberships for other sports.
- ^ Charlotte and Old Dominion, both transitioning to FBS and moving to Conference USA in 2013, and Monmouth, moving to the non-football Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 2013 and remaining in FCS, will play the 2013 season as independents. Charlotte and Old Dominion will not he eligible for the 2013 FCS playoffs. In the 2014 season, both will be counted as FBS members for scheduling purposes; Old Dominion will become a football member of C-USA at that time, while Charlotte will be counted as an FBS independent before joining C-USA football in 2015. Monmouth football will join the Big South in 2014.
- ^ The football conference currently consists of 11 of the 13 member schools following the 2010 addition of North Carolina Central University.
- ^ The football conference dates to 1985, but the conference charter was established in 1982. See History of the Missouri Valley Football Conference for more details.
- ^ The conference has seven full members that sponsor football. Two schools from non-football conferences are associate members for football—Albany of the America East Conference and Duquesne of the Atlantic 10.
- ^ In addition to the football associates, the NEC has six other associate members that participate in one sport:
- Adelphi and Kutztown, both Division II institutions; New Jersey City, a Division III member; and Saint Peter's participate in women's bowling..
- Rider and Siena participate in field hockey.
- ^ The following changes are set for 2013:
- Two full members, football-sponsoring Monmouth and non-football Quinnipiac, will leave for the MAAC. Monmouth will play as an FCS independent in 2013 before becoming a football-only member of the Big South in 2014.
- Albany football will leave for the CAA.
- ^ The football conference consists of 9 of the 12 member schools. Morehead State plays non-scholarship football in the Pioneer Football League, while Belmont and SIU Edwardsville do not sponsor football.
- ^ In addition to the 12 full members, Columbus State, otherwise a Division II institution, houses its rifle program in the OVC. (Rifle has a single championship for all divisions.)
- ^ The Patriot League was founded as the football-only Colonial League in 1986. In 1990, it became an all-sports conference and adopted its current name.
- ^ Two non-football schools with no plans to add the sport, Boston University and Loyola University Maryland, will join the Patriot League in 2013.
- ^ Three of the full members, plus future full members Boston University and Loyola (Maryland), do not sponsor FCS football. American, Boston University and Loyola do not sponsor football at all, while Army and Navy are FBS independents. Fordham and Georgetown are associate members in football. However, Fordham became ineligible for the conference title starting in 2010 when it started offering football scholarships, although it committed to keep playing a full Patriot League schedule until at least 2012. The league has since announced that it will allow its members to award football scholarships starting with the 2013 season.
- ^ In addition to the football associates, MIT, otherwise a Division III institution, is an associate in women's rowing.
- ^ The PFL will expand to 12 members in July 2013 when Mercer and Stetson join. Both are reinstating football.
- ^ The football conference consists of 9 of the 12 member schools. Although Davidson competes as a full member of the SoCon, its football program remains in the Pioneer Football League.
- ^ In addition to the full members, the SoCon has four associate members, all of which compete only in wrestling—Campbell, Gardner–Webb, SIU Edwardsville, and VMI.
- ^ The following changes are set for the SoCon:
- In 2013, non-football member Charleston will leave for the CAA, and football members Appalachian State and Georgia Southern will begin FBS transitions and will not be eligible for the FCS playoffs.
- In 2014, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern will leave for the Sun Belt Conference. Appalachian State will keep its men's soccer and wrestling programs in the SoCon; those sports are not sponsored by the Sun Belt.
- ^ The football conference currently consists of 8 of the 10 member schools. In 2013, four schools—two current Division I members, and two that will upgrade from Division II—will join the Southland. The incoming Division I schools are Houston Baptist and New Orleans, neither of which currently has a football program. Houston Baptist has announced it will start a football program in 2013, and will begin playing a full Southland schedule in 2014. The incoming Division II schools are Abilene Christian (a charter Southland member that had left in 1973) and Incarnate Word. Both have football teams, and will start playing full Southland football schedules in 2014.
Division I non-football schools
Several Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision conferences have member institutions that do not compete in football. Such schools are sometimes unofficially referred to as I-AAA.[55] For example, the Big East Conference, a Bowl Subdivision conference in football, has five members that discontinued their football programs (DePaul, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John's), plus an additional two members who play football in Championship Subdivision conferences (Georgetown and Villanova); conference member Notre Dame plays football as a Bowl Subdivision independent. All eight of these schools will leave the Big East in July 2013—Notre Dame to join the ACC in non-football sports, and the others to form a new conference that will carry on the Big East name.
Bowl Subdivision football independents Army and Navy compete in the Patriot League, a FCS conference, in all other sports sponsored by that league.
In addition, some schools officially affiliated with conferences that do not sponsor football do, in fact, field football teams. For example:
- UC Davis and Cal Poly, members of the non-football Big West Conference, both have FCS football teams in the Big Sky Conference.
- Hawaiʻi left the WAC in 2012 to become a member of the Big West Conference, with its football program joining the Mountain West Conference.
- BYU and San Diego are members of the West Coast Conference, but still participate in football—respectively as an FBS independent and a member of the FCS Pioneer Football League.
- Two members of the non-football America East Conference—Albany and Stony Brook—are associate football members of FCS conferences, with Albany in the Northeast Conference and Stony Brook in the Big South Conference. Both football teams will move to the Colonial Athletic Association in 2013.
- The Northeast Conference has a second associate football member from a non-football conference in Duquesne, a full member of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football. These conferences still compete in Division I for all sports that they sponsor.
Conferences
Conference | Nickname | Founded | Members | Sports | Headquarters |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
America East Conference | America East | 1979 | 9 [NF 1][NF 2] | 22 | Boston, Massachusetts |
Atlantic Sun Conference | A-Sun | 1978 | 10 [NF 3] | 19 [NF 4] | Macon, Georgia |
Atlantic 10 Conference | A-10 | 1975 | 16 (13 by July 2013)[NF 5][NF 6] | 21 | Newport News, Virginia |
Big West Conference | Big West | 1969 | 10 (9 by July 2013)[NF 7][NF 8] | 16 | Irvine, California |
Great West Conference | Great West | 2004[NF 9] | 5 (1 by July 2013)[NF 10][NF 11] | 15 | Elmhurst, Illinois |
Horizon League | Horizon | 1979 | 9 | 19 | Indianapolis, Indiana |
Independents [NF 12] | Independents | 2 (none by July 2013)[NF 13] | |||
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference | MAAC | 1980 | 10 (11 by July 2013)[NF 14][NF 15] | 25 | Edison, New Jersey |
Missouri Valley Conference | MVC / Valley | 1907 | 10 (9 by July 2013)[NF 16][NF 17] | 19 | St. Louis, Missouri |
The Summit League | The Summit | 1982 | 9[NF 18][NF 19] | 19 | Elmhurst, Illinois |
West Coast Conference | WCC | 1952 | 9 (10 by July 2013)[NF 20][NF 21] | 13 [NF 22] | San Bruno, California |
- ^ In 2013, Boston University will leave the America East for the Patriot League, while UMass Lowell will join from Division II.
- ^ In addition to the full members, the America East has two associate members that each participate in one sport: Fairfield in field hockey and Providence in women's volleyball. The latter situation is unusual in that Providence's current all-sports conference, the original Big East, sponsors women's volleyball. It has not yet been announced whether Providence women's volleyball will join the new Big East on its formation in 2013.
- ^ In addition to the full members, the A-Sun has two current and five future associate members, all of which play (or will play) lacrosse in the conference. Detroit and Howard currently play women's lacrosse. High Point, Richmond, VMI (all men), Elon (women), and Furman (both) will join in 2013.
- ^ 20 sports in 2013 with the addition of men's lacrosse.
- ^ In July 2013, the A10 will lose Butler and Xavier to the new Big East, Temple to the renamed Big East, and Charlotte to Conference USA, while gaining George Mason from the CAA.
- ^ In addition to the full members, Lock Haven, otherwise a Division II institution, is an associate member in field hockey.
- ^ In July 2013, Pacific will leave for the West Coast Conference.
- ^ In addition to the full members, the Big West has two associate members that each participate in one sport. Sacramento State plays men's soccer, and San Diego State, which had planned to become a full member in 2013 before deciding to stay in the Mountain West Conference, plays women's water polo.
- ^ The Great West Conference began as a football-only conference. In 2008, it became an all-sports conference.
- ^ The conference dropped to 5 full members when North Dakota went to the Big Sky Conference in 2012. In 2013, four of the remaining schools will leave for other conferences; Houston Baptist will depart for the Southland Conference, and Chicago State, Texas–Pan American and Utah Valley will join the WAC. The football conference disbanded after the 2011 season, with four of its football programs moving to the Big Sky and the other to the Missouri Valley Football Conference. With only NJIT without a conference home after 2012–13, the all-sports conference is now all but certain to disband following that school year, since the NCAA requires member conferences to have 6 schools.
- ^ In addition to the full members, the Great West has seven associate members that participate in one or two sports:
- Cal State Bakersfield competes in men's and women's swimming and diving. Both teams will join the bulk of the school's athletic program in the WAC in 2013.
- Delaware State, Howard, and South Carolina State play women's soccer.
- North Dakota and Northern Colorado, plus Division II New York Tech, compete in baseball. Northern Colorado will move its baseball program to the WAC in July 2013.
- ^ Note that "Independents" is not a conference, it is simply a designation used to indicate schools which are not a member of any conference.
- ^ The current D-I independents are Cal State Bakersfield and New Orleans, the latter of which announced in March 2012 that it would halt its transition to Division II and return to Division I. Both schools have since accepted invitations to join D-I conferences in 2013—Cal State Bakersfield to the WAC and New Orleans to the Southland Conference.
- ^ The following changes are set for 2013:
- Loyola (Maryland) will leave the MAAC for the Patriot League.
- Monmouth and Quinnipiac will join from the Northeast Conference.
- ^ In addition to the full members, 12 other schools are MAAC affiliates in one sport, and a 13th has multiple sports in the conference:
- Detroit and VMI participate in men's lacrosse. VMI will leave for the A-Sun in 2013.
- St. Francis (NY), Villanova, and Wagner participate in women's water polo.
- Drake, Robert Morris, and Sacred Heart participate in women's rowing.
- Albany, Boston University, Butler, and Hartford participate in women's golf.
- Jacksonville participates in men's lacrosse and women's rowing, plus the non-NCAA sport of men's rowing.
- ^ Creighton will leave for the new Big East in 2013..
- ^ In addition to the full members, Central Arkansas and SIU Edwardsville are associate members in men's soccer. Division II Dallas Baptist will move its Division I baseball program to the MVC in July 2013.
- ^ In 2013, UMKC will leave for the WAC, and Denver will join from the WAC.
- ^ In addition to the full members, Eastern Illinois is an associate member in swimming and diving and men's soccer.
- ^ Pacific, a charter member of the WCC that left in 1971, will rejoin the WCC in July 2013.
- ^ In addition to the full members, three schools are associate members in one sport each:
- ^ 14 sports in 2013 with the addition of softball.
Of these, the two that most recently sponsored football were the Atlantic 10 and the MAAC. The A-10 football league dissolved in 2006 with its members going to the Colonial Athletic Association. In addition, six A-10 schools (Butler, Dayton, Fordham, Duquesne, Massachusetts, and Temple) play football in a conference other than the new CAA, which still includes two full-time A-10 members (Rhode Island and Richmond). The MAAC stopped sponsoring football in 2007, after most of its members gradually stopped fielding teams. The only full MAAC member that still sponsors football is Marist; Monmouth will become the second full MAAC member with football when it joins in 2013.
Other non-football conference schools that sponsor football include seven of the Missouri Valley schools (Drake, Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois); four Summit League members (North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State and Western Illinois); and two Horizon League schools (Valparaiso and Youngstown State). The Missouri Valley Football Conference is a separate entity from the Missouri Valley Conference, despite sharing a name (from 2008).
Division I in ice hockey
Some sports, most notably ice hockey[56] and men's volleyball, have completely different conference structures that operate outside of the normal NCAA sports conference structure.
As ice hockey is limited to a much smaller number of almost exclusively Northern schools, there is a completely different conference structure for teams.[56] These conferences feature a mix of teams that play their other sports in various Division I conferences, and even Division II and Division III schools. With the exception of the Ivy League's hockey-playing schools being members of the ECAC, there is no correlation between a team's ice hockey affiliation and its affiliation for other sports. For example, the Hockey East men's conference consists of one ACC school, one Big East school, four schools from America East, one from the A-10, one CAA school, and two schools from the D-II Northeast Ten Conference, whereas the CCHA and WCHA both have some Big Ten representation, plus Division II and III schools. Also, the divisional structure is truncated, with the Division II championship abolished in 1999.
Starting with the 2013–2014 season, Division I men's hockey will experience a major realignment. The Big Ten Conference will become the first regular all-sport Division I conference to sponsor hockey since the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ceased its sponsorship of the sport in 2003,[57] with the remaining members forming Atlantic Hockey. Existing Big Ten schools will withdraw their membership from the WCHA and CCHA.[58] Additionally, six other schools from those conferences are withdrawing to form the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference at the same time,[59] and several other schools are expected to change conferences to replace the schools which are leaving.
Conferences
Conference | Nickname | Founded | Members (Men/Women) |
---|---|---|---|
Atlantic Hockey | AHA | 1997 | 12 (12/none) (11/none in July 2014) [H 1] |
Central Collegiate Hockey Association | CCHA | 1972 | 11 (11/none) (disbanding in July 2013) [H 2] |
College Hockey America | CHA | 1999 | 6 (none/6) |
ECAC Hockey | N/A | 1962 | 12 (12/12) |
Hockey East | N/A | 1984 | 11 (10/8) (12 [11/8] in July 2013, 12 [12/8] in July 2014)[H 3] |
Independents | 3 (2/1) (1 [0/1] in July 2013)[H 4] | ||
Western Collegiate Hockey Association | WCHA | 1951 | 13 (12/8) (16 [10/8] in July 2013) [H 5] |
- ^ Connecticut will leave for Hockey East, already home to the school's women's team, after the 2013–14 season.
- ^ All of the CCHA's members will join other conferences after the 2012–13 season. Five will join the WCHA, three Big Ten members will join that conference's new hockey league, two will become charter members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and one will join Hockey East.
- ^ The Notre Dame men's team will join in July 2013. Connecticut, whose women's team is already a member, will move its men's team to Hockey East in 2014.
- ^ Both independent men's teams in the 2012–13 season—Penn State and Alabama–Huntsville (UAH)—will join conferences in 2013. Penn State will join the new Big Ten hockey conference, and UAH will join the WCHA.
- ^ In July 2013, eight schools will leave the men's side of the WCHA for other conferences, and six other schools will join. The women's side of the conference will remain intact.
Controversy
In the early 21st century, a controversy arose in the NCAA over whether schools will continue to be allowed to have one showcased program in Division I with the remainder of the athletic program in a lower division, as is the case of, notably, Johns Hopkins University lacrosse as well as Colorado College and University of Alabama in Huntsville in ice hockey. This is an especially important issue in hockey, which has no Division II national championship and has several schools whose other athletic programs compete in Division II and Division III.
This controversy was resolved at the 2004 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee when the members supported Proposal 65-1, the amended legislation co-sponsored by Colorado College, Clarkson University, Hartwick College, the Johns Hopkins University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rutgers University-Newark, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY Oneonta.[60][61] Each school affected by this debate is allowed to grant financial aid to student-athletes who compete in Division I programs in one men's sport and one women's sport. It is still permitted for other schools to place one men's and one women's sport in Division I going forward, but they cannot offer scholarships without bringing the whole program into compliance with Division I rules. In addition, schools in Divisions II and III are allowed to "play up" in any sport that does not have a Division II championship, but only Division II programs and any Division III programs covered by the exemption can offer scholarships in those sports.
The Division I programs at each of the eight "waiver schools" which were grandfathered with the passing of Proposal 65-1 were:
- Clarkson University – men's and women's ice hockey
- Colorado College – men's ice hockey, women's soccer
- Hartwick College – men's soccer, women's water polo
- Johns Hopkins University – men's and women's lacrosse
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – men's ice hockey (women's ice hockey moved up to Division I in 2005)
- Rutgers University-Newark – men's volleyball
- St. Lawrence University – men's and women's ice hockey
- SUNY Oneonta – men's soccer (dropped down to Division III in 2006)
See also
- List of NCAA Division I institutions
- List of Division I athletic directors
- List of schools reclassifying their athletic programs to NCAA Division I
- National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship
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External links
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