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:<\/p>\n
Division I FCS<\/strong> Conferences with auto-bids who choose not to utilize them:<\/span> Note that, technically, MEAC and SWAC teams other than their league champion do<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Division II<\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/em> the highest-ranked team in its<\/em> conference (the “Earned Access Rule”).<\/p>\n All Division II conferences adhere to the standard Division II football limit of 30 scholarship equivalencies, and 10 basketball equivalencies.<\/p>\n Division II football conferences:<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n Division II non-football conferences:<\/span> Division III<\/strong> Division III football conferences with automatic bids (“Pool A”):<\/span> Division III football conferences with no automatic bid (“Pool B”):<\/span> Division III football conference which would have an automatic bid, but declines post-season football:<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/em> automatic bids the same year, unless the two leagues merge or add new members prior to 2017.<\/p>\n 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.)<\/p>\n Division III non-football conferences with automatic bids for basketball:<\/span> Division III non-football conference without automatic bids for basketball:<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n NAIA:<\/strong> NAIA Football Conferences:<\/span> NAIA Division I basketball conferences (number in parens indicates number of automatic bids to the NAIA Division I tournament):<\/span><\/p>\n American Midwest Conference (2) NAIA Division II basketball conferences (number in parens indicates number of automatic bids to the NAIA Division II tournament):<\/p>\n Appalachian 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n NAIA Division I has 16 at-large bids; Division II has 10.<\/p>\n Other: 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.)<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/em> NCAA and NAIA members are former USCAA champions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":155,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-160","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P185sV-2A","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/160\/revisions\/1790"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nConferences with automatic bids to the FCS playoffs:<\/span>
\nBig Sky Conference
\nBig South Conference
\nColonial Athletic Association
\nMissouri Valley Football Conference
\nNortheast Conference
\nOhio Valley Conference
\nPatriot League
\nPioneer Football League
\nSouthern Conference
\nSouthland Conference<\/p>\n
\nIvy League – chooses not to participate in post-season football
\nMid-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
\nSouthwestern Athletic Conference – opts to stage a conference championship game\u00a0rather than participating in the playoffs, and also schedules regular season games into the playoff window<\/p>\n
\nCentral Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
\nGreat American Conference
\nGreat Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
\nGreat Lakes Valley Conference
\nGreat Northwest Athletic Conference
\nGulf South Conference
\nLone Star Conference
\nMid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association
\nMountain East Conference
\nNortheast-10 Conference
\nNorthern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
\nPennsylvania State Athletic Conference
\nRocky Mountain Athletic Conference
\nSouth Atlantic Conference
\nSouthern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference<\/p>\n
\nCalifornia Collegiate Athletic Association
\nCentral Atlantic Collegiate Conference
\nConference Carolinas
\nEast Coast Conference
\nGreat Midwest Athletic Conference (begins sponsoring football in 2017)
\nHeartland Conference
\nPacific West Conference
\nPeach Belt Conference
\nSunshine State Conference<\/p>\n
\nCompletely 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.<\/p>\n
\nCentennial Conference
\nCollege Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
\nEastern Collegiate Football Conference
\nEmpire 8
\nHeartland Collegiate Athletic Association
\nIowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
\nLiberty League
\nMassachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference
\nMichigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
\nMiddle Atlantic Conference
\nMidwest Conference
\nMinnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
\nNew England Football Conference
\nNew Jersey Athletic Conference
\nNorth Coast Athletic Conference
\nNorthern Athletics Collegiate Conference
\nNorthwest Conference
\nOhio Athletic Conference
\nOld Dominion Athletic Conference
\nPresidents’ Athletic Conference
\nSouthern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
\nSouthern Athletic Association
\nUpper Midwest Athletic Conference
\nUSA South Athletic Conference
\nWisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference<\/p>\n
\nAmerican Southwest Conference (will regain automatic bid in 2017)
\nSouthern Collegiate Athletic Conference<\/p>\n
\nNew England Small College Athletic Conference<\/p>\n
\nAllegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
\nCapital Athletic Conference
\nCity University of New York Athletic Conference
\nColonial States Athletic Conference
\nCommonwealth Coast Conference
\nGreat Northeast Athletic Conference
\nLandmark Conference
\nLittle East Conference
\nNew England Collegiate Conference
\nNew England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (see above)
\nNorth Atlantic Conference
\nNorth Eastern Athletic Conference
\nSt. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
\nSkyline Conference
\nState University of New York Athletic Conference
\nUniversity Athletic Association
\nUpper Midwest Athletic Conference<\/p>\n
\nGreat South Athletic Conference (only sponsors women’s sports)<\/p>\n
\nConferences do not get automatic bids to the NAIA football playoffs; instead, the top 16 teams in the final NAIA poll receive invitations, with<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n
\nCentral States Football League
\nFrontier Conference
\nGreat Plains Athletic Conference
\nHeart of America Athletic Conference (North Division)
\nHeart of America Athletic Conference (South Division)
\nKansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
\nMid-South Conference (East Division)
\nMid-South Conference (West Division)
\nMid-States Football Association (Mideast League)
\nMid-States Football Association (Midwest League)
\nNorth Star Athletic Association
\nThe Sun Conference<\/p>\n
\nAssociation of Independent Institutions – Division I
\nFrontier Conference
\nGolden State Athletic Conference
\nGulf Coast Athletic Conference
\nHeart of America Athletic Conference (2)
\nMid-South Conference
\nRed River Athletic Conference (2)
\nSooner Athletic Conference (2)
\nSouthern States Athletic Conference (2)<\/p>\n
\nAssociation of Independent Institutions – Division II
\nCalifornia Pacific Conference
\nCascade Collegiate Conference (2)
\nChicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (2)
\nCrossroads League (2)
\nGreat Plains Athletic Conference (2)
\nKansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (2)
\nKentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (2)
\nNorth Star Athletic Association
\nThe Sun Conference (2)
\nWolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (2)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n