Division I Titles could soon change

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Soon, NCAA Division I-A and I-AA football may cease to exist. Sort of. The NCAA board of directors convenes today in Indianapolis, and one of the items on the agenda is the long sought after end to the often confusing nomenclature in Division I football. Schools that participate in Division I-AA have long wanted the moniker to go away, mostly because most casual football fans think that I-AA football is indeed not Division I football. It is. Division I-AA football schools compete in Division I in all sports. Division I-A schools fund 85 football scholarships. Division I-AA schools fund 63. Schools like Gonzaga, Xavier and Radford are considered I-AAA because they compete in Division I but don't field football teams. All those "A"s did was give smaller Division I schools an inferiority complex. "The more critical problem was that it wasn't football specific, and people were calling us I-AA in all sports," Big Sky Conference commissioner Doug Fullerton told The Sports Network's Matt Dougherty. "It hurt us in other sports as well, and it was really hammering us in our basketball recruiting. "There were always subtle references to Division I football, with even our own coaches referring to I-A as Division I." If the name change is approved as expected, the current Division I-A will be known as the Bowl Division and I-AA will be known as the Championship Division. (The exact names may be tweaked, though.) The vote could happen today, though the NCAA's official agenda for the meeting says "no action anticipated" on the I-AA enchancement proposals. The next board meeting is August 3. The goal for Fullerton and other I-AA conference commissioners is to have their schools recognized simply for being Division I. The rest of the story By Chris Lang Lynchburg News & Advance

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The NCAA Division I Board of Directors met recently. Today the Daily Press (Va.) has a report on some of the details from the meeting regarding the status of I-AA football: Division I-AA will still be called I-AA during the 2006 football season. I-AA teams can’t play 12 games annually just yet. And the days of seniors transferring from I-A to I-AA without sitting out a year are over. The I-AA Governance Committee wants the subdivisions to be renamed “Bowl Division (for I-A) and Playoff Division (for I-AA).” Area football coaches do not believe the name change would’ve had much affect. … The NCAA is expected to revisit the issue later this year, and the I-AA label might be extinct by 2007. The rest of the story