Bison Fan's Guide to DI

[tony]

If the Big Sky, Gateway guys still ever come around here, maybe they could help me flesh this topic out. I just want to gather information that will give us a decent background to the world of DI-AA football and DI in general.

Long-time DIAA football fans have some preferences:

1. It's DI, not D1. I forget why this is important but seeing as how NDSU is new, best to humor them.
2. NDSU, if it follows through on things, will be a DI school not a DI-AA school.

Basic facts:

- DI-AA has been around since 1978. It is largely composed of former DII schools.
- There are currently 123 DI-AA football schools. There are 150 DII football schools.
- The Georgia Southern Eagles have six national championships and two runner-up finishes. I guess that they're the NDSU of DI-AA. They even won championships in three of the same years that NDSU did (1985, 1986 and 1990). They have an option-based attack and play in the Southern Conference (SoCon).
- The Montana Grizzlies are another strong program. They've got two national championships and two runner-ups. They're a passing offense with a strong defense.
- The Youngstown State Penguins are a very strong program too with four national championships and play in a pretty big stadium (the Icebox I think).
- Northern Iowa, Eastern Kentucky, Furman and Delaware are in the next tier.
- The big conferences are the Big Sky, SoCon, Atlantic 10, and the Gateway. I suppose I should throw in the SWAC (you can figure that one out) because their attendance is so good.
- Speaking of attendance, about 6 million people attend DI-AA games compared to 2.5 million for DII games (despite DII having quite a few more teams). Average attendance at DI-AA games is 9000, DII is around 3000.
- DI-AA has instituted a quasi-regionalized playoff structure in response to the 9/11 attacks. However, they are not slavish about it (examples: Georgia Southern played Maine in the second round; they don't have those stupid regional rankings; AND most importantly to Bison fans, they don't have those BS playoff selection criteria).

That's it for now. I'll compile all the information any of you guys think I should add before compiling a definitive "A Bison Fan's Guide to DI."

Edited: duh, Marshall.

[BisonInTexas]

I believe Marshall is now DI in the MAC. They have even been in the BCS rankings within the last couple of years.

Craig

[tony]

Lord, I knew that! I'll edit it right now.

[Guest]

Tony-
What is the average GPA at the DI-AA level. I asume it is lower thand D-II. Yes, NDSU is a good fit at the DI-AA level. Not the greatest rep. esp football.

[Guest]

The academic requirements are equal and maybe more demanding at the D1AA level than at the D2 level. You dont have to be a D1 school to forge a transcript. It happen at SDSU two years ago when a player who was to complete some summer school courses to maintain his eligiblity reported to fall camp with a forged transcript and it was accepted as valid, but when the real one came in two to three weeks later, the Player pack his bags and got out of town during the night. So these things happen all the the time at the D2 and D3 level. Many NAIA schools are notorious for violating academic schools. When it happens in D2, the publicity is not a good as when it happens at a D1AA or D1A school.

Academic deficieniecs and having to go to major cities for recruiting have been among the top red herrings raised by naysayer fans in Brookings. What they dont realize that these arguements have racial overtones.
Take a lesson from Sen Lott, shut up before you get in trouble.

[tony]

Academic requirements for DI are more stringent than they are for DII.

Graduation rates for athletes are lower in DII than in DI.

They don't keep stats on GPAs for athletes that I know of, but with grade inflation and whatnot, GPAs aren't a very useful unit of measurement, even if you take the obvious step of looking at the grade distribution at an institution.

For example, suppose the UND was giving A's to 50% of their students, B's to 25%, C's to 10%, D's to 5%, and F's to 10% and at NDSU, the distribution is 20% to each grade, does an A at UND really say much about students' work other than they paid their tuition?

Note: this isn't accurate because most students will drop a class if it's obvious that they're going down in flames.

[BisonMav]

Some interesting talk on some of the more popular D-1AA Boards. The Griz almost seam like a rival. The Gateway fans sound positive towards the Dakota's, and the Southern Conference likes the fact someone could give Montana competition for a playoff spot in the future. I know some of these links have been given out in the past, but here are my favorites. Lots of good information, trash talk etc....

Montana Grizzlies
http://www.egriz.com/GrizBoard/index.php

Georgia Southern (Southern Conference)
http://www.southern-connection.com/phpBB2/index.php

The Gateway Conference
http://www.thegatewayconnection.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

[100_proof_grizzly]

Here is one fan's views and observations about the I-AA world to help you out. I have followed I-AA for about 20 years and the following observations are just my opinion.

First, the "power" conferences. In no order they are the A-10, Big Sky, Gateway, Southland, and Southern Conferences.

The A-10 (we had a hell of a discussion about this on the Griz board a few weeks back) is a very solid and competitive conference with a lot of schools that have a similar mission. The problem with the A-10 is that familiarity breeds contempt and it makes it difficult to make noise on a national level. Teams to be wary of are Deleware, Villanova, UMass, Hofstra and Maine.

The Big Sky (of which I am most familiar) has one horse that makes serious noise on the national level (Montana) and one school every year (no school does it two years in a row), makes a good run, qualifies for the playoffs and burns out. I believe that over the last 6 years that the Big Sky has 1 win that didn't come from Montana. Teams to be wary of are of course Montana (We have more business being I-A than most of the MAC and Sun Belt conferences (note we're 3-1 against I-A schools in the past 3 years) but we're content to be a rather large fish in a small pond), Portland State (early in the season before they lose their train of thought), Idaho State (great athletes, not the best results but I think that that will change), and Montana State (Coach Kramer has got the program turned around including a fluke win over the Griz).

The Gateway conference has my vote for being year to year the toughest top to bottom conference in I-AA. The games are always heated (see W. Kentucky-W. Illinois "sledgehammer" game) but with only a few exceptions, most of the schools get too banged up to make noise but one every year scares the bejeezus out of the rest of us. The schools to be wary of are of course Youngstown State (with 4 national championships, 2 runner up finishes), with its tradition and excellent coaching not to mention the "Ice Castle", W. Kentucky (national champs this year), W. Illinois (the bunch of thugs they are), and N. Iowa (although other than a semi-final finish 2 years ago they haven't done much lately).

The Southland conference has my respect in that the colleges in that conference show more class than any of the others. This group has been together for a long time but you don't usually hear of things getting out of hand. The Southland has the classiest fans of all of football (and they throw one hell of a tailgate). Teams in this league you need to be wary of are McNeese St (with the best fans of the bunch), Northwestern State (even if they "backed" their way into the playoffs the past 2 years), and historically Stephen F. Austin (however they haven't done much lately).

The SoCon (Southern Conference) is where arguments usually start. I will not say that they are the best overall conference, but they can boast one thing that none of the others can, EVERY year they have 3 teams that have a legitimate shot at the national championship. It is not unusual for the SoCon to have 3 teams in the top 5 at any moment. However the conference shows a downslide slide after the big three. The big three are of course Georgia Southern (with 6 national championships and the most vocal fans in football) Appalachian State (which places several players into the NFL each year and just recently plugged 32 million into their athletic facilities) and Furman.

There are weaker conferences, mainly the Ohio Valley (which offers E. Illinois and E. Kentucky but any conference that has Tennessee-Martin in it can't have a good RPI) and the MEAC which is a HBCU conference. The Ivy League (which prides itself on academics and tradition over athletic prowess) and another HBCU conference the SWAC choose not to participate in the playoffs.
To close, believe it or not, there are schools that offer fewer scholarships than NAIA schools (not all schools offer the full monte of 63). These are the schools of the Pioneer and NEC. They aren't worth mentioning. Division I-AA is the most splintered and diverse division in ALL of the NCAA's membership so keep that in mind as you peruse the internet in search of knowledge of the highest level of championship football in the world. I hope that this is of some help and if there's any other questions just ask. I have also included a link for a message board that is used by most fans of I-AA.

http://64.139.33.21/sports/football/I-AA/bb/index.html