Awesome historical info Mr. Ouija.
Thanks.

Siena announced within the last year that they are dropping football. So the MAAC FB league is down to 5 (Iona, Marist, St. Peters from the MAAC and two A-10 guests - Duquesne and LaSalle).

Have you heard anything about consolidation ?

I think Quinn posted something about Duquesne looking to jump to the Patriot, perhaps....

Duquesne wants the Patriot League and access to an automatic bid to the I-AA Playoffs, but the PL has apparently not been interested thus far...Georgetown left the MAAC for the PL...detractors against Duquesne's membership to the PL would likely cite academic standing and facilities, among other things...Greg Gattuso (DU coach, 1993-2004) recently left the program to become one of Wannstedt's assistants at Pitt...for the moment, Duquesne might be better suited to seek PFL membership...

Why did the NCAA decide to move to unilateral classification?

What harm is there in having a D1 basketball team and a D3 football team?


Were teams allowed to have a D1 football team and a D3 basketball team?

Maybe some people think there is no harm.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say the rule was implemented, once the established Div I schools say everybody and his brothere moving up to Div I to grab a piece of the basketball pie. And they wanted to implement a rule to discourage some of that.

That's be my guess, and it's just a really strong hunch. But generally if you follow the money distribution, it explains a lot of things.

That sounds about right.

But, in that case, what harm is there in having D1aa football and D2 basketball?

If I read the rule correctly, I think you can have this, just as some D2 teams compete at D1 in hockey, and a couple (Johns Hopkins lacrosse, Colorado College hockey and women's soccer) are D3 and compete at the D1 level (though they are now grandfathered in, no ofther D3 sports can play D2 or D1. I believe the main contention point is if your basketball team is D1, the rest of your athletics have to be D1. I think school can be D2 in most sports and D1-AA in football, however if a D2 program were to try to grab a bowl bid I'm sure there would be rule change coming very quickly. I'm not totally sure on this, so if anyone knows this better feel free to correct any errors.

Actually, if you have DI basketball, DIa football, or DIaa football, then your entire athletic department must be DI.

I'd like to see that change for DIaa football.

I see, and that's a valid argument.

But I don't see it for DIaa football. Most DIaa football programs don't make money. And if they do, not much.

You're on the right track Tarkio, just a couple corrections:
1) The D-III schools using their play up waiver (they only get one per gender) were grandfathered in order to keep issuing scholarships, but D-III schools can still add one D-I sport but play it on a nonscholarship level. This is actually just a reaffirmation of the previously established standard, by which schools like Colorado College, Clarkson, Rensselaer, and St. Lawrence offer scholarships in hockey, but Union, who moved up over a decade ago, cannot. The latest D-III school to move up to D-I hockey is RIT, who only made the move this season. RIT will never be allowed to offer scholarships while they remain D-III in their other sports, however, so they have begun to study the possibility of a department-wide move to D-I or D-II.

D-II schools cannot play I-AA football. Play-up waivers may be used for any sports except football and men's and women's basketball.

I don't beleive there is any mechanism by which a D-III school can play D-II, although I know they used to be in the 80's, when several D-III hockey conferences played D-II hockey (the old ECAC-West and the forerunner of the NCHA were the most prominent, IIRC).

Expansion high on list for new SoCon boss (Fri., Jan. 20, 06):

Coastal Carolina to the Southern Conference?

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/13670618.htm

This is an interview with Doug Fullerton concerning the upcoming NCAA divisional meetings in April. The link is at the bottom. Its a pod cast. Items covered:

1) Playoff enhancement money, increasing party travel size, more money to create better bowl atmosphere at title game, guarantee a playoff team doesn't lose money

2) No playoff expansion movement expected

3) Name change likely. DI-AA is a football classification only but some people insist on using it incorrectly for Basketball and other sports. Its widely felt this is a negative. Expect BCS and Playoff Championship Divisions. Di-AA will be dropped

4) expansion to 12 games has given DI-AA a lot more opportunity with DI-A teams and a lot of schools are stepping up with 1, 2 or even 3 DI-A games. its a money issue for the most part.

5) Playoff selection and strength of schedule have to be examined. It might mean expanding auto qualifying conferences if they have a quality assurance like 50 grants. There could be a criteria for at large births to be guaranteed if a school meets them. Doesn't like the idea of the top 16 teams being selected because ranking is too subjective.

http://homedir_a.libsyn.com/podcasts/iaawaves/20060228show.mp3

If Coastal moves to the SoCon, Big South football would only have four members!

That indeed is a good point, wbyeager. The Big South may not find replacements if it happened.

Coastal Carolina began as one of the USC branch campuses and is in the growing Conway-Myrtle Beach area. The school has had rapid growth.

Though its composition has frequently changed over the years, the Southern Conference is one of the oldest and more respected conferences offering 1-AA. Fellow all-sports So. Carolina colleges The Citadel, Furman, and Wofford are members. Among others outside So. Carolina, are frequent 1-AA powers Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. Davidson College is a bb member. In all sports, Elon, Western Carolina, and Chattanooga are members. The College of Charleston and the Univ. of NC - Greensboro are also non-fb members.

VMI who went to the Big South a few years ago, did so to ease their competition. In 2004, Coastal Carolina went 10-1 and had a top 25 ranking, but missed out on an at-large 1-AA playoff bid. Having only five fb-playing members, the Big South did not get an automatic bid.

There is a lot of talk about Georgia Southern and Appalachian State going 1-A and joining conferences such as the Sun Belt. Georgia Southern has expressed content in staying at 1-AA. Appalachian State seems to have pondered a future move seriously, but appears to be staying put for now. What happened at East Tennessee in terms of fb certainly has influenced conservative decision-making.

There's talk out of MEAC country of FAMU, SCSU, Hampton, and BCC bolting if the MEAC tries to institute an HBCU "National Championship" game. The Big South might very well look like this if that happens:

North: Hampton, VMI, Liberty, Gardner-Webb, Radford*, UNCA*, High Point*
South: Florida A&M, BCC, Charleston Southern, SCSU, CCU, BSC*, Winthrop*

*denotes non-football member

Alternatively, we could have a mass reconfiguration of the Southern Conference, Big South, and MEAC:

SoCon (all institutions sponsor football)

North - App State, Elon, WCU, UTC, Hampton, SC State
South - Furman, Ga Sou, Wofford, The Citadel, FAMU, BCC

MEAC (all institutions sponsor football):

CCU, CSU, G-W, VMI, Liberty, DSU, Norfolk St, NC A&T, Howard, Morgan State

Big South (would no longer sponsor football, and probably lose its automatic bid for basketball under the 6/5 rule, unless if one school sticks around a few years longer before leaving for the MEAC or SoCon):

UNCG, Davidson, C of C, Winthrop, Radford, High Point, Birmingham Southern, UNCA, Coppin St, UMES

Savannah State gets to sit back and wait for someone to go to I-A, or for the SWAC or MEAC to add schools.