Name Change

[89rabbit]

The I-AA name change is coming, it is only a matter of time .  .  .

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/...607230310/1001

I-AA football nears the end
Name change could come as soon as 2007.

July 23, 2006

By Scott Ferrell

When Southland Conference football coaches go to Lake Charles on Wednesday for the conference's annual media days, it will likely be the last time they go as members of NCAA Division I-AA.

"I do believe this will be the last year that we'll be called I-AA," Southland Conference commissioner Tom Burnett said. "I'm not exactly sure if that means the I-As won't be known as the I-As. We have been concentrating solely on our own label and trying to market it."


The I-AA label was almost shed this spring. During the NCAA's April meetings, a name change for I-AA was on the agenda. It didn't pass, but not because of lack of interest. Instead, there was concern over getting the right name for the group.

If you're wondering just why Division I-AA schools want to change their name, there are several reasons. First, and perhaps foremost, is a perceived image of inferiority during recruiting.  .  .  .

The biggest differences between Division I-A football and Division I-AA football are scholarships and postseason structure. Division I-A schools have 85 scholarships while I-AA schools have 63. Division I-A schools play in a postseason bowl system while I-AA has a 16-team playoff.  .  .  .

"What we're striving for is, let's just call it what it is -- Division I football," Burnett said. "We're Division I in everything, including football, we're just slightly different. It seems we get too caught up in the As and not the 1. . . .  (read more)



Go State!  

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: Name Change

The article talks of designations of "Bowl Championship Series" and "Playoff Championship Series" to differentiate the current classes. What do you think of those names? Any others?

[filbert]

Re: Name Change

The article talks of designations of "Bowl Championship Series" and "Playoff Championship Series" to differentiate the current classes. What do you think of those names? Any others?

That's the problem. Everybody agrees "I-AA" needs to be changed, but nobody can agree on what to change it to. Personally, I'd like something simple like the "D-I Bowl group" and the "D-I Playoff group" ("group" not capitalized) but that's probably a non-starter due to its excessive clarity and obviousness.

[Luckylucky]

Re: Name Change

Holy crap when is the season gunna start so we can talk about what's really important. What a tragic loss of time no one is ever going to get back - talking about changing names. Good Greif. You gotta explain it either way, who the F really cares.

How about just calling one division "85" and the other division "63" and see what that gets ya?

[RodentiaX1]

Re: Name Change

The 63 and the 85 are the important labels. If it were primarily about bowls vs. playoffs, that would be different. A name change will confuse people, but will be unlikely to change people's perception of what is now called I-AA.

Now, if the scholarship limit across D-I were raised to 85, then you could have a bowl division and a playoff division, and it would mean something.

[89rabbit]

Re: Name Change

I have to respectfully disagree. The point of the name change is not to blur the line between football schools that offer 63 scholarships and football schools that offer 85, it is in fact a effort to sharpen the line between D-I schools and D-II schools.

Too many times people think that I-AA is a classification that transcends football into the other sports and it does not. There is no such thing as I-AA basketball, or I-AA track (fill in your favorite non-football sport). That is what the name change in about.


Go State!

[Luckylucky]

Re: Name Change

D1-85 and D1-63, that says football only to me.

[Luckylucky]

Re: Name Change

NCAA to rename college football subdivisions
Posted 8/3/2006 9:59 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this



By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
The NCAA is doing a little re-labeling, eliminating the Division I-A and I-AA tags that officially separate college football's major and more modest programs.
Acknowledging frustration that the classification often brands an entire university as big-time or non-big-time, the association's Division I Board of Directors moved Thursday to rename the subdivisions. Beginning in December, they'll be known by their respective postseason formats.

What now are I-A programs — the Texases, Notre Dames and others vying for bowls — will play in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Georgia Southerns, Montanas and others now known as I-AA will play in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, alluding to the 16-team playoff that settles its national title.

Only the names will change. Individual school affiliations, postseason formats, scholarship guidelines and other divisional specifics will remain the same.

Conference commissioners and other officials who came up with the new monikers sought the action "to move away from using those terms (I-A and I-AA) more broadly than what they were intended for," said David Berst, the NCAA's vice president for Division I.

"We'll attempt" to drop them, Berst said, in conjunction with the Dec. 22 I-AA championship, which will become the "Division I football championship."

• As many as 120 or so academically deficient college sports teams could be subject to toughened NCAA penalties scheduled to go into effect during the 2007-08 school year.

The NCAA board drew up guidelines Thursday requiring teams to post four-year average Academic Progress Rates (APRs) of 900 or better to avoid facing recruiting, scholarship and practice restrictions or, if problems persist, postseason bans.

That's slightly lower than the 925 threshold applied to initial scholarship penalties that are designed as warnings in advance of the potentially stiffer sanctions. The latter are aimed at teams that consistently underperform in the classroom, what University of Hartford President and NCAA Executive Committee chairman Walt Harrison called "the worst of the worst."

[Jacks99]

Re: Name Change

I like that a lot!!!!! ;D

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: Name Change

My ONLY problem with this is that it seems to entrench the BCS system for the current 1-A schools. I think a playoff system for 1-A would, in a short amount of time, bring in a great deal more money than the bowls systems currently do.

[Jacks99]

Re: Name Change

I've always thought that, but I don't think the name change will make a difference. The BCS, like it or not is here to stay.

[filbert]

Re: Name Change

As I mentioned above, I would have preferred the more neutral "group" to the rather cumbersome "subdivision" but the bottom line is that SDSU will be playing for the Division I Football Championship starting in 2008 . . .

[thebluehatman]

Re: Name Change

how bout chuck norris division and will ferrell division? ;D college students will be able to recognize the better division, the chuck norris division of course.

[Haldersham]

Re: Name Change

The Fargo Forum is reporting this morning that the NCAA passed the name change proposal and all D1 schools will be D1. It makes sense and most administrators already know who has no scholarshsips, who offers only 63 and who offers 85. It helps NDSU and SDSU image in both of the Dakotas as some want to create a preception that D1AA is weak. Not so.


Here is the link;

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/ind...section=Sports