Time To Bring Back I-A and I-AA

A quote from a Carlisle Sentinel story about a local Pennsylvania player who will continue his football career in the Ivy League:

"Originally I wanted to play some Division I football but I’m a little small (6-foot-1, 255 pounds) to be playing at that level in some coaches’ minds."

A sentence from the writer of the story:

But that’s not saying Moore couldn’t have thrived on the Division I level.

This not a knock on the player or the paper, but the Ivy League is not Division II football. And the Ivy League is not Division III football.

The Ivy League is Division I football.

It's understandable why the kid and the newspaper put it the way they did. A year ago the NCAA abandoned the familiar Division I-A and I-AA labels in favor of the clumsy Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision labels.

FBS and FCS.

Confession time. Almost every time I write the abbreviations I have to pronounce them to myself to make sure I get them right: "Let's see. FCS ... Football Championship Subdivision. FBS ... Football Bowl Subdivision. OK."

I'm absolutely certain I've gotten it wrong a few times.

But here's the deal. No one says "The FBS level of Division I." Or, "Division I FCS." At least when there was I-A and I-AA, the "I" was written and spoken. Now any mention of "I" is absent.

The NCAA made the change largely because while Ivy and Patriot and CAA and other schools played I-AA football, they played Division I basketball with no letters attached. But because they played I-AA football, their hoop (and some other) programs were often considered as, and described as, I-AA. The NCAA got that one fixed. Rest assured, no one refers to Montana or Appalachian State as playing FCS basketball.

But at at what cost did the fix come? Now Ivy-bound football players in central PA and writers at their local newspapers no longer refer to Penn or Lafayette or Dartmouth as Division I of any flavor.

Think this through: A change was made in football nomenclature that benefited basketball and other sports -- at the cost of doing harm to football programs. How much sense does that make?

It's time to drop the charade. The NCAA recognized it made a mistake when it changed the rules to shorten college football games a couple of years ago and made a quick about face on that issue last fall. It should do the same thing and bring back the I-A and I-AA tags.

---

The College Sporting News has a look back at the year in the FCS (got it right that time). For each of the leagues, including the Ivies, the writer offers a:

• Game of the Year
• Highest Moment
• Biggest Disappointment
• Player of the Year
• Unsung Player of the Year
• What If
• A Peek Towards 2008

It's worth checking out but be forewarned. The word Dartmouth doesn't appear anywhere.

A writer at the Baltimore Sun takes a looking at coaching candidate Jason Garrett, the former Princeton standout who will be an NFL head coach in the not-too-distant future.

And finally ... it got down to 12-below last night up here on the mountain. Winter has officially arrived!