(01-10-2019 10:29 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(01-10-2019 10:04 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(01-10-2019 03:24 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-10-2019 03:13 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(01-10-2019 03:04 PM)stever20 Wrote:  in 1978, there were 138 teams. so in a lot of ways, we're back to where it was after the split. now there was a thinning of course after that.....

Depending on whether you count the MAC as being FBS (they were initially relegated to FCS, but successfully clawed their way back via a lawsuit) there were closer to 90-100 schools in the FBS at the time of the split. Most AAC and MWC teams were FBS from the start. Only a small number from the other G5 conferences started out as FBS.

nope. back in 78 you had even the Ivy as FBS. They dropped after year 1981.

it really wasn't until 1982 that the number really dropped- to 113.

The number never dropped below 104 teams in 1987 and 1988(both years with the SMU death penalty).

There are 130 teams in the FBS today. 29 of them have been added since 1987. Another, Idaho, moved up in 1996, and subsequently moved back down. The period from 1978 until around 1982 was a transitional period between the decision to subdivide and the ultimate sorting out in which conferences like the Ivy League decided to move down.

Of the 24 schools in C-USA and the Sunbelt, 20 were either new startups or moveups from FCS since 1989. Two more schools, UMass, and Liberty, haven't got a conference home yet.

The Ivy League didn't decide to move down. All the Ivies but Yale were demoted to I-AA. Only Yale actually decided to move down.

We could debate the semantics of how conferences or schools were sorted out between FBS and FCS all day. At the end of the day, though, some accepted relegation and others (like MAC schools) fought it through the courts (or threat of lawsuits). The split occurred in the first place because there was some recognition that not all football playing schools were equal, and they shouldn't be competing regularly against clearly inferior or superior teams.

We could have gone either way since that initial recognition was formalized as a D-I subdivision. We could have further reduced the size of the top level, or we could have allowed it to expand. There being a lot more schools with inferior resources than with superior ones, the NCAA allowed the latter.

Politics and egos have always been a major part of this process. The NCAA members could have decided to call FBS Division I and FCS Division II. But who doesn't want to be considered a part of the top division? Especially if the cost of doing so is minimal. Too many schools want to be able to say we play in the big boy league, even though they really don't belong there.

Around the same time as the subdivision occurred, another sea change was emerging in college sports - the rise of all sports cable channels. Ultimately that took what was mainly a regional sport and made it national, because that's the way to make the business of sport more profitable. The massive infusion of money from outside sources like ESPN have taken control of college football away from the schools. Football is no longer just the "front porch" to the university. It's a separate business, with its own mission.

The presidents of D-I univerities are still struggling to exercise control over football (and men's basketball as well). But they are fighting a losing battle. Entertainment and sports have always been valued more highly by the masses than education. That's not only likely to be true in the future, it is even more likely to be the case. The perceived value of a college education is shrinking at an alarming rate.

In the next 20 years, many universities are going to fail, and close their doors. Perhaps part of the motivation to increase emphasis on football is to avoid becoming one of those failed schools.