(Frank, given your suggestion, I decided to deviate from my schedule and write an entry that explains the organizational structure of NCAA football as it relates to profitability).
Even the most casual sport fan is aware that the governing body of intercollegiate athletics is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, more commonly known as simply the “NCAA.” Not nearly as well known, however, is the fact that all college sports are highly organized, categorized, sanctioned and supervised by the NCAA. Football – by and large the most popular and lucrative collegiate sport – is no exception. The NCAA organizes all collegiate football programs into various divisions and categories, all of which have great economic significance.
NCAA Divisions
Like all other major college sports, football programs of all colleges across the nation are organized into three major “divisions” – Division I, Division II and Division III.
Division I (D-I) football is comprised of programs from large colleges with big budgets; almost all are from major athletic conferences, and give out numerous athletic scholarships. D-I football alone brings in more revenue than all D-II and D-III sports combined.
D-II programs are generally smaller, less competitive and not as lucrative as typical D-I programs; also, they can only hand out a limited number of athletic scholarships. D-III programs consist of typically small colleges that chose not to offer any athletic scholarships to its student-athletes. Generally, D-III programs exist not to generate revenue for the school, but rather to provide extracurricular activities for the colleges’ students. It should be noted: Given that the economic impact of D-II and D-III programs are negligible in comparison to those of gigantic D-I schools, the blog will focus primarily on D-I football.
Division I Explained Further
There are a total of 138 D-I football programs. These teams, however, are categorized into two smaller subdivisions: Division I-A and I-AA. The distinctions between the two are subtle but significant. D-1A is officially titled the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (D-I FBS), and its programs participate in the post-season “Bowl” games (which are considered cash cows for the programs, and highly lucrative for all parties involved). All programs from major conferences that get media coverage (Texas, Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Michigan State, USC, etc) are all in the FBS. It must also be noted that FBS schools do not have scholarship restrictions. D-1AA is officially titled the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (D-I FCS) and its programs participate in a 20-team single-elimination tournament to determine its champion at the end of every season. FBS schools are limited to 60 scholarships to recruit its student-athletes. Deciding whether a D-I football program belongs to FBS and FCS is very simple: If the average attendance per game is more than 15,000, then it belongs to the FBS. If it is less than 15,000, that program is in the FCS. Because of the media hype and profitability of the Bowl games are enormous, it is tremendously important for a college to have its football program be in the FBS.
Because a vast majority of the media coverage and revenues come from the participation in the Bowl games and ticket sales, it is obvious to say that FBS schools bring in more revenue, and thus are more profitable. Furthermore, because they generally can attract the best talent with more scholarships, they are more competitive and thus more popular to football fans. Therefore, the blog will primarily be focusing on FBS schools in future posts.
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