Division I (or D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States.

D-I schools are generally the major collegiate athletic powers, with larger budgets, more elaborate facilities, and higher numbers of athletic scholarships in comparison to Division II and III. This level was once called the University Division of the NCAA in contrast to the College Division; this terminology was replaced with the current numeric (I, II, III) divisions in 1973.^[1] In football only, Division I was further subdivided into Division I-A (the principal football schools) and Division I-AA in 1978;^[2] these were renamed to "Football Bowl Subdivision" and "Football Championship Subdivision" in 2006.^[3][4] Subsequently, the term "Division I-AAA" has been used by some to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all.^[5] Currently Division I contains 346 Institutions. There currently is a moratorium on any additional movement up to Division I that is in effect until 2012.

All Division I schools must field athletes in at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each sex.^[6] There are several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Division II and III.^[6]

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."^[7]

The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in each sport is listed below.

Head-count sports

• Basketball – 13 for men,^[8] 15 for women^[9]
• FBS football – 85, with an additional limit of 25 initial counters per year^[10]
• Women's gymnastics – 12^[11]
• Women's tennis – 12^[11]
• Women's volleyball – 12^[11]

Equivalency sports

Men's

• Baseball – 11.7,^[12] with the following additional limitations:
  • A limit of 27 total counters.^[12]
  • A requirement that each counter receive athletic aid equal to at least 25% of a full scholarship.^[13]
• FCS football – 63, with limits of 30 initial counters per year and 85 total counters^[14]
• Gymnastics – 6.3^[15]
• Rifle (coeducational, but classified as a men's sport) – 3.6^[15]
• Tennis – 4.5^[15]
• Volleyball – 4.5^[15]
• Wrestling – 9.9^[15]

Women's

• Bowling – 5^[15]
• Equestrian – 15^[15]
• Field hockey – 12^[15]
• Rowing – 20^[15]
• Rugby – 12^[15]
• Softball – 12^[15]
• Squash – 12^[15]

Both sexes

• Cross-country/track & field – 12.6 for men, 18 for women^[15]
• Fencing – 4.5 for men, 5 for women^[15]
• Golf – 4.5 for men, 6 for women^[15]
• Ice hockey – 18, with a limit of 30 total counters, combined for both sexes^[16]
• Lacrosse – 12.6 for men, 12 for women^[15]
• Skiing – 6.3 for men, 7 for women^[15]
• Soccer – 9.9 for men, 14 for women^[15]
• Swimming and diving – 9.9 for men, 14 for women^[15]
• Water polo – 4.5 for men, 8 for women^[15]

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:^[17]

• 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.
• 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.

Subdivisions

Subdivisions in Division I exist only in football.^[4][18] 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. Additionally, some sports, most notably ice hockey^[19] and men's volleyball, have completely different conference structures that operate outside of the normal NCAA sports conference structure.

The method by which the NCAA determines whether a school is Bowl or Championship subdivision is first by attendance numbers and then by scholarships.^[20]

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.^[20] 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

NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, college football is the only NCAA-sponsored sport without an organized tournament to determine its champion.^[21][22] Schools in Division I FBS compete in post-season bowl games, with the champions of six conferences receiving automatic bids to the highly lucrative 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.

The remaining five conferences, often referred to as "Mid-majors",^[23][24] 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 has to rank in the top eight of the BCS standings to ensure a spot in a BCS bowl game. ^[25]

FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance.^[26] 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. The service academies—in this context, Army, Navy, and Air Force—are exempt from this rule, as all of their students receive full scholarships through the U.S. government and paid for by taxpayers.

As of 2010, 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.^[27]

Any conference with at least 12 football teams may split its teams into two divisions and conduct a championship game between the division winners.^[28][29] 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).

Conferences

Notes

Football Championship Subdivision

A national championship team for this level of football is determined annually "on the field" in a 20-team tournament. The #1-ranked Championship Subdivision mid-major team is awarded The Sports Network Cup on the eve of the overall Championship Subdivision championship game.

The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, determines its champion in a 20-team, single-elimination tournament.^[30] With the expansion of the tournament field from 16 teams to 20 starting in 2010, the champions of 10 conferences receive automatic bids, with 10 "at-large" spots; 12 teams will receive first-round byes in the new tournament format. A team must have at least seven wins to be eligible for an at-large spot. ^[31][32]

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. Starting in 2010, the tournament will run for four weeks (for seeds 13-20) to determine the two finalists, who will play for the FCS national title in early January in Frisco, Texas, the scheduled host through the 2012 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.^[33]

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 1982-85, I-AA changed to a 12-team tourney, with each of the top four seeds receiving a first-round bye and a home game in the quarterfinals.^[34] The I-AA playoffs went to 16 teams in 1986, and the FCS playoffs will expand 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,^[35] 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).

The Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference champions play in the Gridiron Classic, though all conference teams technically remain tournament eligible. If a league champion is invited to the national championship, the second-place team plays in the Gridiron Classic. The Northeast Conference will get an automatic bid to the tournament starting in 2010, as will the Big South Conference.

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. Unlike Bowl Subdivision schools, Championship Subdivision schools may divide their allotment into partial scholarships, but Championship Subdivision schools are limited to 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football. Because of competitive forces, however, a substantial number of players in Championship Subdivision programs are on full scholarships.

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 will grow to 40 by 2011 after a later vote of the league's school Presidents and Athletic Directors). The Patriot League does not give football scholarships, but permits them in other sports (athletes receiving these scholarships are ineligible to play football for Patriot League schools).

Conferences

Notes

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.^[5] 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.

Bowl Subdivision football independents Army and Navy compete in the Patriot League, a FCS conference, in all other sports.

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, currently participate in football under the FCS Great West Conference. Both football programs will move to the Big Sky Conference, most likely in 2013.
• San Diego is a member of the non-football West Coast Conference, but still participates in football in the FCS Pioneer Football League. BYU will join the WCC in 2011 when its football program becomes an FBS independent.

The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football. These conferences still compete in Division I for all sports that they sponsor.

Conferences

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, four A-10 schools (Dayton, Fordham, Duquesne, and Temple) play football in a conference other than the new CAA, which still includes three full-time A-10 members (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Richmond). The MAAC stopped sponsoring football in 2007, after most of its members gradually stopped fielding teams.

Other non-football conference schools that sponsor football include six of the Missouri Valley schools (Drake, Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, and Southern Illinois) and three of the Horizon League schools (Butler, 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

As ice hockey is limited to a much smaller number of almost exclusively Northern schools, there is a completely different conference structure for teams.^[19] 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 Division II competition in the sport abolished in 1999.

Conferences

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 competition 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.^[36][37] 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.

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

Notes

External links

• List of Division I schools at NCAA.org