Someone asked me for a breakdown of the divisions and conferences. This is a “quick” reference to the conferences which participate in each division “below” FBS:
Division I FCS
Conferences with automatic bids to the FCS playoffs:
Big Sky Conference
Big South Conference
Colonial Athletic Association
Missouri Valley Football Conference
Northeast Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
Patriot League
Pioneer Football League
Southern Conference
Southland Conference
Conferences with auto-bids who choose not to utilize them:
Ivy League – chooses not to participate in post-season football
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – gave up their automatic bid following the 2014 season, preferring to send its champion to the Celebration Bowl against the SWAC champion
Southwestern Athletic Conference – opts to stage a conference championship game rather than participating in the playoffs, and also schedules regular season games into the playoff window
Note that, technically, MEAC and SWAC teams other than their league champion do remain eligible for at-large selection to the FCS playoffs, but this is incredibly unlikely unless two MEAC teams win ten games in one season. It’s essentially impossible for the SWAC to receive a berth, as multiple teams schedule games on the same weekend as the first round of the playoffs.
FCS teams, under NCAA rules, have a 63-scholarship equivalency limit for football. (As all FCS schools are members of Division I, their scholarship limits for all other sports are the same as those for schools playing FBS football.) That means the total amount of aid given to athletes can only equal the amount that would be given to 63 players receiving full rides, although the Division I football limit of 85 players receiving athletic aid still applies. For example, an FCS team might have 41 players on full scholarship and 44 players receiving 50% of a full scholarship.
Four FCS conferences have more stringent rules than the NCAA FCS rules allow. The Ivy League and Pioneer Football League do not allow athletic scholarships at all. The Patriot League didn’t used to, but they now do and allow 60 equivalencies, with a maximum of 80 players receiving aid. The Northeast Conference only allows 40 equivalencies, but the 85-counter limit still applies. Games played by FBS teams against FCS teams which do not provide at least 61 players with at least partial athletic scholarships do not count toward the FBS team’s win total when determining bowl eligibility; as a result, FBS teams virtually never schedule Ivy, Patriot, or Pioneer teams, and only schedule NEC teams if they have enough counters.
Division II
There are no automatic bids in Division II football. The division is divided into four “super-regions”, and the top seven teams in each region receive playoff invitations, with the exception that a team ranked eighth in their region and is the highest-ranked team in its conference will be invited rather than the lowest-ranked team in the top seven which is not the highest-ranked team in its conference (the “Earned Access Rule”).
All Division II conferences adhere to the standard Division II football limit of 30 scholarship equivalencies, and 10 basketball equivalencies.
Division II football conferences:
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Great American Conference
Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Great Lakes Valley Conference
Great Northwest Athletic Conference
Gulf South Conference
Lone Star Conference
Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Mountain East Conference
Northeast-10 Conference
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
South Atlantic Conference
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
On occasion, a SIAC team will defer its eligibility for the Division II playoffs in order to play the more lucrative Turkey Day Classic game against Alabama State, which conflicts with the playoff schedule.
There are currently three Division II bowl games: the Mineral Water Bowl in Excelsior Springs, MO, hosted by the MIAA and featuring an opponent from the NSIC; the LiveUnited Texarkana Bowl in Texarkana, AR, hosted by the Great American Conference, and the Heart of Texas Bowl in Copperas Cove, TX, hosted by the Lone Star Conference. All three bowl games feature the best non-playoff team from the host conference, and the NSIC likewise sends its best non-playoff team to the Mineral Water Bowl; the opponent slots in the other two bowls are generally occupied by a team from the MIAA or LSC (Texarkana) and the GAC or GSC (Heart of Texas).
Division II non-football conferences:
California Collegiate Athletic Association
Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference
Conference Carolinas
East Coast Conference
Great Midwest Athletic Conference (begins sponsoring football in 2017)
Heartland Conference
Pacific West Conference
Peach Belt Conference
Sunshine State Conference
Division III
Completely non-scholarship. Division III athletes can only receive financial aid through the same channels as non-athletes, and academic scholarships given to athletes must not exceed the percentage of athletic scholarships given to the general student body.
Division III football conferences with automatic bids (“Pool A”):
Centennial Conference
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
Eastern Collegiate Football Conference
Empire 8
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Association
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Liberty League
Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Middle Atlantic Conference
Midwest Conference
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
New England Football Conference
New Jersey Athletic Conference
North Coast Athletic Conference
Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference
Northwest Conference
Ohio Athletic Conference
Old Dominion Athletic Conference
Presidents’ Athletic Conference
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Southern Athletic Association
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
USA South Athletic Conference
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Division III football conferences with no automatic bid (“Pool B”):
American Southwest Conference (will regain automatic bid in 2017)
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
Division III football conference which would have an automatic bid, but declines post-season football:
New England Small College Athletic Conference
All of the above conferences except the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference and New England Football Conference also have automatic bids for basketball, and the Middle Atlantic (which, for basketball, divides into two separate and distinct conferences) receives two automatic bids. This includes the NESCAC, which does participate in the D-III basketball tournament.
In 2017, the New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference will begin sponsoring football, and will obtain an automatic bid in 2019. As a result of the moves which made this possible, both the Liberty League and New England Football Conference will lose their automatic bids the same year, unless the two leagues merge or add new members prior to 2017.
The ECAC, an all-sport umbrella organization in the northeast, annually hosts a series of bowl games known as the ECAC Bowls for teams which do not make the NCAA playoffs. These were previously held at campus sites, but beginning in 2015 the event is now a three-day bonanza with two games each day held at Arute Field on the campus of Central Connecticut State University. Only teams from the ECFC, Empire 8, Liberty League, MASCAC, NEFC, NJAC, Presidents’, and eventually the NEWMAC are eligible. (Teams from the Centennial and Middle Atlantic are also “eligible”, but those conferences have chosen not to submit their teams for selection due to travel reimbursement issues.)
Division III non-football conferences with automatic bids for basketball:
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
Capital Athletic Conference
City University of New York Athletic Conference
Colonial States Athletic Conference
Commonwealth Coast Conference
Great Northeast Athletic Conference
Landmark Conference
Little East Conference
New England Collegiate Conference
New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (see above)
North Atlantic Conference
North Eastern Athletic Conference
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Skyline Conference
State University of New York Athletic Conference
University Athletic Association
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
Division III non-football conference without automatic bids for basketball:
Great South Athletic Conference (only sponsors women’s sports)
As with football, the ECAC hosts a series of post-season tournaments for teams which do not make the NCAA tournament field. The same football conferences which are eligible for the ECAC Bowls are eligible for the ECAC basketball tournaments, with the exception of the ECFC and NEFC, whose members are members of non-football conferences for basketball. The Centennial and Middle Atlantic have not opted out of the basketball tournament. In addition, teams from the AMCC, Capital, CUNYAC, CSAC, Commonwealth, GNAC, Landmark, Little East, NECC, North Atlantic, NEAC, Skyline, and SUNYAC are also eligible, as are Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, and NYU from the UAA.
NAIA:
Conferences do not get automatic bids to the NAIA football playoffs; instead, the top 16 teams in the final NAIA poll receive invitations, with the stipulation that if any conference champions are ranked #17-20, they’ll supplant the lowest-ranked at-large teams as necessary. For this purpose, the separate divisions of the HAAC, MSC, and MSFA count as separate conferences.
NAIA Football Conferences:
Central States Football League
Frontier Conference
Great Plains Athletic Conference
Heart of America Athletic Conference (North Division)
Heart of America Athletic Conference (South Division)
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
Mid-South Conference (East Division)
Mid-South Conference (West Division)
Mid-States Football Association (Mideast League)
Mid-States Football Association (Midwest League)
North Star Athletic Association
The Sun Conference
NAIA Division I basketball conferences (number in parens indicates number of automatic bids to the NAIA Division I tournament):
American Midwest Conference (2)
Association of Independent Institutions – Division I
Frontier Conference
Golden State Athletic Conference
Gulf Coast Athletic Conference
Heart of America Athletic Conference (2)
Mid-South Conference
Red River Athletic Conference (2)
Sooner Athletic Conference (2)
Southern States Athletic Conference (2)
NAIA Division II basketball conferences (number in parens indicates number of automatic bids to the NAIA Division II tournament):
Appalachian Athletic Conference (2)
Association of Independent Institutions – Division II
California Pacific Conference
Cascade Collegiate Conference (2)
Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (2)
Crossroads League (2)
Great Plains Athletic Conference (2)
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (2)
Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (2)
North Star Athletic Association
The Sun Conference (2)
Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (2)
The number of automatic bids held by each conference is solely dependent on the number of teams in the conference, regardless of level of competition or prior tournament success. The automatic bids in each conference are given first to the conference’s tournament champion, then — depending on the conference’s rules and whether the tournament champion was also the regular-season champion — to the tournament runner-up, regular-season champion, or regular-season runner-up.
Additionally, the host conference receives an automatic bid to the tournament, given to its best team which does not receive an automatic bid on its own merit. This applies to both NAIA-I and NAIA-II. In NAIA-I, this is the Heart of America Conference. In men’s NAIA-II, with the demise of the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference, this bid simply goes to College of the Ozarks; for the women, the bid belongs to the Great Plains Athletic Conference.
NAIA Division I has 16 at-large bids; Division II has 10.
Other:
The NCAA and NAIA have (finally) ruled that games played by their members against any school which is not accredited by a nationally-recognized accreditor do not count in their official records. As a result, there are only three football-playing schools which are not members of either organization whose games currently count: the Newport News Apprentice School in Newport News, VA; Concordia University in Selma, AL; and Trinity Bible College in Ellendale, ND. The list is somewhat larger for basketball.
There are two organizations which sponsor sports outside the NCAA and NAIA for four-year colleges. Those are the United States College Athletic Association, whose members are primarily (but not overwhelmingly) state institutions, and the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association, whose members are obviously small Christian colleges and bible schools. Neither organization has strict accreditation guidelines, although the USCAA membership is mostly accredited. The NCCAA, on the other hand, has many unaccredited institutions. (Note that this does not imply they are fly-by-night operations, and even the NCCAA refuses membership to the rash of “fake” schools which have cropped up in recent years such as the various iterations of College of Faith.)
The NCCAA hosts both a post-season bowl game in football (the Victory Bowl) and two post-season basketball tournaments (Division I and Division II) for both men and women. The Division I field often includes several NCAA Division II and/or NAIA Division I programs which did not make their respective tournament fields; the Division II tournament generally includes NCAA Division III and NAIA Division II schools.
The USCAA sanctions football, but does not host any specific competiton; they do, however, also hold a post-season tournament in basketball. Generally speaking, NCAA and NAIA schools do not participate, although there is an occasional exception and several schools which are now NCAA and NAIA members are former USCAA champions.