scholarship vs. non-scholarship

[NDSU_grad]

Does anybody know which I-AA conferences are scholarship and which are non-scholarship. I know the Ivy and Pioneer are non-scholarship, and I think the MEAC and NEC are non-scholarship, but what about leagues like the Patriot. That conference is full of schools you normally associate with academics, but then I noticed teams like Lehigh and Colgate doing pretty well. Since we'll be playing in that division, I figured I'd better know this stuff if I want to be a knowledgable fan.

[tony]

I'll see what I can find on this...

[NDSU_grad]

Tony,
I don't expect you to spend a lot of time on this. I'm sure you're a pretty busy guy. I went over to the I-AA.org website and clicked on the conference homepage links. Most did explicitly say if the conference sponsored scholarships for football or not. Also, when they talk about I-AA "mid-major", does that mean they are non-scholarship?

[tony]

Yeah, mid-majors either don't offer scholarships or are limited to significantly less than 63.

[JACKGUY]

This is the only aspect of D1AA that I don't like or understand why they are able to field a non-scholarship program or be below the 63 scholarships.

[NDSU_grad]

I don't know. At least they seem to be more upfront about it than they are in DII. There's alot of DII programs/conferences that don't field 36 scholarships, but instead of accepting it they seem to try to bring the rest of the field down to their level. In DI-AA, they actually have a poll for the "mid-majors" only. It's almost like having a separate division.

[Bisonguy]

I don't know. *At least they seem to be more upfront about it than they are in DII. *There's alot of DII programs/conferences that don't field 36 scholarships, but instead of accepting it they seem to try to bring the rest of the field down to their level. *In DI-AA, they actually have a poll for the "mid-majors" only. *It's almost like having a separate division.

Don Hansen puts out a DII mid majors poll. The #8 team is 0-3, though ???

[tony]

I asked at anygivensaturday.org and the responses varied on what mid-major meant. It sounded subjective with the MEAC, Pioneer, and Northeast Conference definitely considered mid-majors. There was some disagreement about the Ivy League. They don't offer scholarships but they're play-off worthy - I guess Mid-Majors=Not Playoff Ready.

Some MEAC schools offer football scholarships but I can't get a handle on how many they average. None of the Pioneer league schools give any scholarships. NEC can give 10.

[JACKGUY]

What percentage of schools that play D1AA Football award the Maximum scholarships. Are all conferences playoff eligible?

[tony]

Sorry for the delay. JackGuy, it's really hard to tell which conferences offer full scholarships. I think of the 14 (?) conferences, 9 of them offer scholarships and 5 offer few or none.

Back to the original post, Lehigh and Colgate are part of the Patriot which isn't considered a mid-major even though they don't offer scholarships. Now I'm even more confused about what it means. I guess mid-major means "not competitive enough to make the playoffs."