Main logo used by the NCAA in Division I, II, and III.

Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-I schools are generally the major collegiate athletic powers, with larger budgets, more elaborate facilities, and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III. This level was once called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the College Division; this terminology was replaced with numeric divisions (I, II, III) in 1973.^[1] In football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A (the principal football schools) and Division I-AA;^[2] these were renamed "Football Bowl Subdivision" and "Football Championship Subdivision" in 2006.^[3][4] Division I contains 346 institutions. There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to Division I until 2012.

All Division I schools must field athletes in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with two team sports for each gender.^[5] There are several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III.^[5]

Scholarship limits by sport[link]

The NCAA imposes limits on the total financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. It divides sports that it sponsors into two types for purposes of scholarship limitations:

• "Head-count" sports, in which the NCAA limits the total number of individuals that can receive athletic scholarships, but allows each player to receive up to a full scholarship.
• "Equivalency" sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a given sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport.

The term "counter" is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a "counter" as "an individual who is receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport."^[6]

The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in each sport is listed below.

Head-count sports[link]

• Basketball – 13 for men,^[7] 15 for women^[8]
• FBS football – 85, with an additional limit of 25 initial counters per year^[9]
• Women's gymnastics – 12^[10]
• Women's tennis – 12^[10]
• Women's volleyball – 12^[10]

Equivalency sports[link]

Men's[link]

• Baseball – 11.7,^[11] with the following additional limitations:
  • A limit of 27 total counters.^[11]
  • A requirement that each counter receive athletic aid equal to at least 25% of a full scholarship.^[12]
• FCS football – 63, with limits of 30 initial counters per year and 85 total counters^[13]
• Gymnastics – 6.3^[14]
• Rifle – 3.6^[14]
  • Note that the NCAA classifies rifle as a men's sport, despite the fact that competitions are fully coeducational. Most rifle schools have a single coed/mixed team. Some schools have only one single-sex team for either men or women. Some other schools field multiple teams (either two single-sex teams, or a single-sex and a mixed team).
• Tennis – 5.0^[14]
• Volleyball – 4.5^[14]
• Wrestling – 9.9^[14]

Women's[link]

• Bowling – 5^[14]
• Equestrian – 15^[14]
• Field hockey – 12^[14]
• Rowing – 20^[14]
• Rugby – 12^[14]
• Sand volleyball:
  • For schools that also sponsor women's (indoor) volleyball, 3 in 2011–12. The number of scholarship equivalents will increase by 1 each year until reaching a final value of 6 in 2014–15. The number of counters is limited to 14 throughout.^[15]
  • For schools that do not sponsor indoor volleyball, 8 scholarships and 14 counters.^[16]
• Softball – 12^[14]
• Squash – 12^[14]

Both sexes[link]

• Cross-country/track & field – 12.6 for men, 18 for women^[14]
• Fencing – 4.5 for men, 5 for women^[14]
• Golf – 4.5 for men, 6 for women^[14]
• Ice hockey – 18, with a limit of 30 total counters, combined for both sexes^[17]
• Lacrosse – 12.6 for men, 12 for women^[14]
• Skiing – 6.3 for men, 7 for women^[14]
• Soccer – 9.9 for men, 14 for women^[14]
• Swimming and diving – 9.9 for men, 14 for women^[14]
• Water polo – 4.5 for men, 8 for women^[14]

Rules for multi-sport athletes[link]

The NCAA also has rules specifying the sport in which multi-sport athletes are to be counted, with the basic rules being:^[18]

• Anyone who participates in football is counted in that sport, even if he does not receive financial aid from the football program. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport.^[19]
• Participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football.
• Participants in men's ice hockey are counted in that sport, unless they also play football or basketball.
• Participants in both men's swimming and diving and men's water polo are counted in swimming and diving, unless they count in football or basketball.
• Participants in women's volleyball are counted in that sport unless they also play basketball.
• All other multi-sport athletes are counted in whichever sport the school chooses.

Finances[link]

Division I athletic programs generated $8.7 billion in revenue in the 2009–2010 academic year. Men's teams provided 55% of the total, women's teams 15%, and 30% was not categorized by sex or sport. Football and men's basketball are usually the only sports that are profitable for universities, with others usually losing money.^[20] The BYU Cougars, for example, in 2009 had revenue of $41 million and expenses of $35 million, resulting in a profit of $5.5 million or about 16% margin. Football (60% of revenue, 53% profit margin) and men's basketball (15% of revenue, 8% profit margin) were profitable; women's basketball (less than 3% of revenue) and all other sports were unprofitable.^[21]

Subdivisions[link]

Subdivisions in Division I exist only in football.^[4][22] In all other sports, all Division I conferences are equivalent. The subdivisions were recently given names to reflect the differing levels of football play in them. Additionally, some sports, most notably ice hockey^[23] and men's volleyball, have completely different conference structures that operate outside of the normal NCAA sports conference structure.

The method by which the NCAA determines whether a school is Bowl or Championship subdivision is first by attendance numbers and then by scholarships.^[24]

For attendance reporting methods, the NCAA allows schools to report either total tickets sold or the number of persons in attendance at the games. They require a minimum average of 15,000 people in attendance every other year.^[24] These numbers get posted to the NCAA statistics website for football each year. With the new rules starting in the 2006 season, the number of Bowl Subdivision schools could drop in the future if those schools are not able to pull in enough fans into the games. Additionally, 8 schools in the Championship subdivision had enough attendance to be moved up in 2005 (although they would need to either compete as independents or join a conference in order to do so).

Football Bowl Subdivision[link]

Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the top level of college football, and is currently the only NCAA-sponsored sport without an organized tournament to determine its champion.^[25] Schools in Division I FBS compete in post-season bowl games, with the champions of six conferences receiving automatic bids to the Bowl Championship Series to determine a national champion. This is due to many factors, including that bowl games are sanctioned by the NCAA (primarily in terms of amateurism regulations and guaranteeing a minimum payout to conferences of the participating schools), but are not under its direct administration. Starting with the 2014 season, the BCS will undergo radical change, with a four-team playoff to determine a national champion almost certain to be adopted.^[26]

The remaining five conferences, often referred to as "Mid-majors",^[27][28] do not receive automatic bids but their conference champions are eligible for an automatic bid if it ranks in the BCS top 12 or in the top 16 and ahead of the champion from a conference with an automatic bid. Only one "mid-major" champion can qualify for an automatic bid in any year. The one exception is Notre Dame, which only has to rank in the top eight of the BCS standings to earn an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game.^[29]

FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance.^[30] For competitive reasons, a student receiving partial scholarship counts fully against the total of 85. Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships.

As of 2012, there are 120 full members of Division I FBS. The most recent addition to FBS was Western Kentucky University, which ended its two-year transition period from Division I FCS in 2008 and became a full FBS member in 2009.^[31] In July 2011, four schools began transitions to FBS, starting as FCS members. Under NCAA rules, these schools were ineligible for the FCS playoffs in 2011. In 2012, they will be provisional FBS members without bowl eligibility, with full FBS membership following in 2013.

• The University of South Alabama, previously an unclassified NCAA football program, played its first fully competitive season in 2011. The Jaguars, already full members of the Sun Belt Conference, will join that conference for football.
• Texas State University–San Marcos (Texas State), previously an established FCS program in the Southland Conference, will join the Western Athletic Conference in 2012, and then move to the Sun Belt in 2013. Despite playing a full Southland Conference schedule in 2011, the Bobcats were classified as an FCS independent for that season.
• The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), previously a non-football member of the Southland Conference, played its first football season in 2011. It will join the WAC alongside Texas State for 2012, and then move to Conference USA (C-USA) in 2013. The Roadrunners were also classified as an FCS independent for 2011.
• The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), a member of the non-football Atlantic 10 Conference and a football member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), will join the Mid-American Conference in football only effective in 2012. The team will become eligible for the MAC championship upon attaining full FBS membership in 2013. In 2011, the Minutemen played a full CAA schedule and were technically classified as a CAA member.

Three other schools have announced future transitions to FBS:

• Georgia State University will begin its FBS transition in 2012. The Panthers, currently full members of the CAA, started a football program in 2010. Like UMass in 2011, the 2012 Panthers will play a full CAA schedule and will be technically classified as CAA members. In July 2013, Georgia State will return to the Sun Belt Conference, which it had left in 1981, and will play a full conference schedule. Full FBS membership will follow in 2014.^[32]
• The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte) will begin its FBS transition in 2013, the same year it starts its football program and rejoins C-USA. It will play as an FCS independent in 2013 and an FBS independent without bowl eligibility in 2014 before joining the C-USA football league in 2015.^[33]
• Old Dominion University, another full member of the CAA, has announced its departure for C-USA, also effective in 2013. Unlike Georgia State, ODU will not begin its FBS transition until 2013; this means that the 2012 Monarchs will be full CAA members and eligible for the FCS playoffs. ODU will become a C-USA football member alongside Charlotte in 2015.^[34]

Any conference with at least 12 football teams may split its teams into two divisions and conduct a championship game between the division winners.^[35][36] The prize is normally a specific bowl game bid for which the conference has a tie-in, or a guaranteed spot in the BCS (depending on the conference).

Some conferences have numbers in their names but this often has no relation to the number of member institutions in the conference. The Big Ten Conference did not formally adopt the "Big Ten" name until 1987, but unofficially used that name when it had 10 members from 1917 to 1946, and again from 1949 forward. However, it has continued to use the name even after it expanded to 11 members with the addition of Penn State in 1990 and 12 with the addition of Nebraska in 2011. The Big 12 Conference was established in 1996 with 12 members, but continues to use that name even after the 2011 departure of Colorado and Nebraska left the conference with 10 members. On the other hand, the Pacific-12 Conference has used names (official or unofficial) that have reflected the number of members since its current charter was established in 1959. The conference unofficially used "Big Five" (1959–62), "Big Six" (1962–64), and "Pacific-8" (1964–68) before officially adopting the "Pacific-8" name. The name duly changed to "Pacific-10" in 1978 with the addition of Arizona and Arizona State, and "Pacific-12" in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined. Conferences also tend to ignore their regional names when adding new schools. For example, the Pac-8/10/12 retained its "Pacific" moniker even though its four newest members (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) are located in the inland West, and the Big East kept its name even after adding schools (either in all sports or for football only) located in areas traditionally considered to be in the Midwest (Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame), Upper South (Louisville, Memphis), Southwest (Houston, SMU) and Far West (Boise State, San Deigo State).

Conferences[link]

(** BCS Automatic Qualification (AQ) Conferences; this status will end in 2014 when the BCS establishes a four-team championship playoff)

Notes

Football Championship Subdivision[link]

The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, determines its national champion on the field in a 20-team, single-elimination tournament.^[37] With the expansion of the tournament field in 2010 from 16 teams to 20, the champions of 10 conferences receive automatic bids, with 10 "at-large" spots; and the top 12 teams receive first-round byes. A team must have at least seven wins to be eligible for an at-large spot.^[38][39]

The tournament traditionally begins on Thanksgiving weekend in late November, and during the era of the 16-team field ran for four weeks, ending with the championship game in mid-December. Since 2010, the tournament has run for four weeks (for seeds 13–20) to determine the two finalists, who play for the FCS national title in early January in Frisco, Texas, the scheduled host through the 2012 season. For thirteen seasons, the title game was played in Chattanooga, Tennessee, (1997–2009), preceded by five seasons in Huntington, West Virginia, where host Marshall advanced to the title game in four of the five years.^[40]

When I-AA was formed in 1978, the playoffs included just four teams for its first three seasons, doubling to eight teams for one season in 1981. From 1982 to 1985, I-AA had a 12-team tournament, with each of the top four seeds receiving a first-round bye and a home game in the quarterfinals.^[41] The I-AA playoffs went to 16 teams in 1986, and the FCS playoffs expanded to 20 teams starting in 2010. After 28 seasons, the "I-AA" was dropped by the NCAA in 2006, although it is still informally and commonly used.

Abstainers[link]

The Football Championship Subdivision includes several conferences which do not participate in the eponymous post-season championship tournament. The Ivy League was lowered to I-AA (FCS) following the 1981 season,^[42] and plays a strict ten-game schedule. It has yet to participate in the post-season tournament, despite an automatic bid, citing academic concerns. The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has its own championship game in mid-December between the champions of its East and West divisions. Also, three of its member schools traditionally do not finish their regular seasons until Thanksgiving weekend. Grambling State and Southern play each other in the Bayou Classic, and Alabama State plays Tuskegee University (a Division II team) in the Turkey Day Classic. SWAC teams are eligible to accept at-large bids if their schedule is not in conflict. The last SWAC team to participate in the I-AA playoffs was Jackson State in 1997; the SWAC never achieved success in the tournament, going winless in 19 games in twenty years (1978–97).

From 2006 through 2009, the Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference champions played in the Gridiron Classic, though all conference teams technically remained tournament eligible. If a league champion was invited to the national championship, the second-place team would play in the Gridiron Classic. That game was scrapped after the 2009 season when its four-year contract ran out; this coincided with the NCAA's announcement that the Northeast Conference would get an automatic bid to the tournament starting in 2010. The Big South Conference also received an automatic bid in the same season.

Schools in a transition period after joining the FCS from a lower division (or from the NAIA) are also ineligible for the playoffs.

Scholarships[link]

Division I FCS schools are currently restricted to giving financial assistance amounting to 63 full scholarships. As FCS football is an "equivalency" sport (as opposed to the "head-count" status of FBS football), Championship Subdivision schools may divide their allotment into partial scholarships. However, FCS schools may only have 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football—the same numeric limit as FBS schools. Because of competitive forces, however, a substantial number of players in Championship Subdivision programs are on full scholarships. Another difference is that FCS schools are allowed to award financial aid to as many as 30 new players per season, as opposed to 25 in FBS.

A few Championship Subdivision conferences are composed of schools that offer no athletic scholarships at all, most notably the Ivy League and the Pioneer Football League, a football-only conference. The Ivy League allows no athletic scholarships at all, while the PFL consists of schools that offer scholarships in other sports but choose not to take on the expense of a scholarship football program. The Northeast Conference also sponsored non-scholarship football, but began offering a maximum of 30 full scholarship equivalents in 2006, which grew to 40 in 2011 after a later vote of the league's school presidents and athletic directors. The Patriot League does not currently give football scholarships, but permits them in other sports (athletes receiving these scholarships are ineligible to play football for Patriot League schools). Starting with the class entering in the 2013 season, the Patriot League will allow its members to offer football scholarships; when the transition to scholarship football is complete, member schools will be allowed up to 60 full scholarship equivalents.^[43]

Conferences[link]

Notes

Division I non-football schools[link]

Several Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision conferences have member institutions that do not compete in football. Such schools are sometimes unofficially referred to as I-AAA.^[44] For example, the Big East Conference, a Bowl Subdivision conference in football, has five members that discontinued their football programs (DePaul, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John's), plus an additional two members who play football in Championship Subdivision conferences (Georgetown and Villanova); conference member Notre Dame plays football as a Bowl Subdivision independent.

Bowl Subdivision football independents Army and Navy compete in the Patriot League, a FCS conference, in all other sports sponsored by that league.

In addition, some schools officially affiliated with conferences that do not sponsor football do, in fact, field football teams. For example:

• UC Davis and Cal Poly, members of the non-football Big West Conference, both have FCS football teams which will leave the Great West Conference for the Big Sky Conference in 2012.
• Hawaiʻi will join the Big West Conference in 2012. Its football program will join the Mountain West Conference at the same time. The following year, San Diego State will join the Big West, while its football program joins the Big East.
• BYU and San Diego are members of the West Coast Conference, but still participate in football—respectively as an FBS independent and a member of the FCS Pioneer Football League.
• Two members of the non-football America East Conference—Albany and Stony Brook—are associate football members of FCS conferences, with Albany in the Northeast Conference and Stony Brook in the Big South Conference.
• The Northeast Conference has a second associate football member from a non-football conference in Duquesne, a full member of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football. These conferences still compete in Division I for all sports that they sponsor.

Conferences[link]

Of these, the two that most recently sponsored football were the Atlantic-10 and the MAAC. The A-10 football league dissolved in 2006 with its members going to the Colonial Athletic Association. In addition, four A-10 schools (Dayton, Fordham, Duquesne, and Temple) play football in a conference other than the new CAA, which still includes three full-time A-10 members (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Richmond; only Richmond will remain in 2013). The MAAC stopped sponsoring football in 2007, after most of its members gradually stopped fielding teams.

Other non-football conference schools that sponsor football include six of the Missouri Valley schools (Drake, Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, and Southern Illinois) and three of the Horizon League schools (Butler, Valparaiso, and Youngstown State). The Missouri Valley Football Conference is a separate entity from the Missouri Valley Conference, despite sharing a name (from 2008).

Division I in ice hockey[link]

As ice hockey is limited to a much smaller number of almost exclusively Northern schools, there is a completely different conference structure for teams.^[23] These conferences feature a mix of teams that play their other sports in various Division I conferences, and even Division II and Division III schools. With the exception of the Ivy League's hockey-playing schools being members of the ECAC, there is no correlation between a team's ice hockey affiliation and its affiliation for other sports. For example, the Hockey East men's conference consists of one ACC school, one Big East school, four schools from America East, one from the A-10, one CAA school, and two schools from the D-II Northeast Ten Conference, whereas the CCHA and WCHA both have some Big Ten representation, plus Division II and III schools. Also, the divisional structure is truncated, with the Division II championship abolished in 1999.

Starting with the 2013–2014 season, Division I men's hockey will experience a major realignment. The Big Ten Conference will become the first regular all-sport Division I conference to sponsor hockey since the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ceased its sponsorship of the sport in 2003,^[45] with the remaining members forming Atlantic Hockey. Existing Big Ten schools will withdraw their membership from the WCHA and CCHA.^[46] Additionally, six other schools from those conferences are withdrawing to form the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference at the same time,^[47] and several other schools are expected to change conferences to replace the schools which are leaving.

Conferences[link]

Controversy[link]

In the early 21st century, a controversy arose in the NCAA over whether schools will continue to be allowed to have one showcased program in Division I with the remainder of the athletic program in a lower division, as is the case of, notably, Johns Hopkins University lacrosse as well as Colorado College and University of Alabama in Huntsville in ice hockey. This is an especially important issue in hockey, which has no Division II national championship and has several schools whose other athletic programs compete in Division II and Division III.

This controversy was resolved at the 2004 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee when the members supported Proposal 65-1, the amended legislation co-sponsored by Colorado College, Clarkson University, Hartwick College, the Johns Hopkins University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rutgers University-Newark, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY Oneonta.^[48][49] Each school affected by this debate is allowed to grant financial aid to student-athletes who compete in Division I programs in one men's sport and one women's sport. It is still permitted for other schools to place one men's and one women's sport in Division I going forward, but they cannot offer scholarships without bringing the whole program into compliance with Division I rules. In addition, schools in Divisions II and III are allowed to "play up" in any sport that does not have a Division II championship, but only Division II programs and any Division III programs covered by the exemption can offer scholarships in those sports.

The Division I programs at each of the eight "waiver schools" which were grandfathered with the passing of Proposal 65-1 were:

• Clarkson University – men's and women's ice hockey
• Colorado College – men's ice hockey, women's soccer
• Hartwick College – men's soccer, women's water polo
• Johns Hopkins University – men's and women's lacrosse
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – men's ice hockey (women's ice hockey moved up to Division I in 2005)
• Rutgers University-Newark – men's volleyball
• St. Lawrence University – men's and women's ice hockey
• SUNY Oneonta – men's soccer (dropped down to Division III in 2006)

See also[link]

• List of NCAA Division I institutions
• List of Division I athletic directors
• List of schools reclassifying their athletic programs to NCAA Division I
• National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• List of Division I schools at NCAA.org

v t e National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA Awards Hall of Champions Conferences Division I sports and championships Institutions Athletic directors Baseball (Championship, CWS) Basketball (Men, Women) Women's bowling Boxing Cross country (Men, Women) Fencing (Team, Individual) Women's field hockey Football (FBS / BCS, FCS) Golf (Men, Women) Gymnastics (Men, Women) Ice hockey (Men, Women) Lacrosse (Men, Women) Rifle Rowing (Women's Championship) Skiing Soccer (Men, Women) Softball (Championship, CWS) Swimming and diving (Men, Women) Tennis (Men, Women) Track and field (Men's indoor and outdoor, Women's indoor and outdoor) Volleyball (Men, Women) Water polo (Men, Women) Wrestling (Championship) Division II Institutions Baseball (CWS) Basketball (Men, Women) Football (Championship) Soccer (Men) Softball (CWS) Division III Institutions Baseball (CWS) Basketball (Men, Women) Football (Championship) Soccer (Men) Softball (CWS)

A college football national championship in the highest level of collegiate play in the United States, currently the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various third-party organizations to their selection(s) of the best college football team(s). Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football is the only NCAA sport in which a yearly champion is not determined by an NCAA sanctioned championship event.

Because the championship team is not determined by an NCAA championship or tournament event, it is sometimes unofficially referred to as a "mythical national championship".^[1][2][3][4] Since the NCAA, the sport's governing body, does not determine or declare a national champion in this field, determination of such has often engendered controversy.^[5] A championship team is independently declared by various individuals and organizations, often referred to as "selectors".^[6][7] These choices are sometimes at odds with each other.^[5] While the NCAA has never officially endorsed an annual championship team, it has documented the choices of several selectors in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records.^[8] In addition, various third party analysts have independently published their own lists of what they have determined to be the most legitimate selections for each season. These are also often at odds with each other as well as individual school's claims on national championships, which, for any particular season, may or may not correlate to the selections published elsewhere.

Currently, two widely recognized national champions selectors are the Associated Press, which conducts a poll of football sportswriters, and the USA Today Coaches' Poll, a poll of American Football Coaches Association active coaches that is contractually obligated to name the winner of the Bowl Championship Series championship game as its national champion.

History[link]

The concept of a national championship in college football dates to the early years of the sport in late 19th century,^[9] and the earliest contemporaneous polls can be traced to Caspar Whitney, Charles Patterson, and The Sun in 1901.^[10] Therefore, the concept of polls and national champions predated mathematical ranking systems, but it was Frank Dickinson's math system that was one of the first to be widely popularized. His system named 10–0 Stanford the national champion of 1926, prior to their tie with Alabama in the Rose Bowl. A curious Knute Rockne, then coach of Notre Dame, had Dickinson backdate two seasons, which produced Notre Dame as the 1924 national champion and Dartmouth in 1925.

A number of other mathematical systems were born in the 1920s and 1930s and were the only organized methods selecting national champions until the Associated Press began polling sportswriters in 1936 to obtain rankings. Alan J. Gould, the creator of the AP Poll, named Minnesota, Princeton, and SMU tri-champions in 1935, and polled writers the following year, which resulted in a national championship for Minnesota. The AP's main competition, United Press, created the first poll of coaches in 1950. For that year and the next three, the AP and UP agreed on the national champion. The first "split" championship occurred in 1954, when the writers selected Ohio State and the coaches chose UCLA. The polls also disagreed in 1957, 1965, 1970, 1973, 1974, and 1978, the latter of which was followed by eleven years of agreement. The Coaches' Poll would stay with United Press (UP) when they merged with International News Service (INS) to form United Press International (UPI) but was acquired by USA Today and CNN in 1991. The poll was in the hands of ESPN from 1997 to 2005 before moving to its present sole ownership by USA Today.

Though some of the math systems selected champions after the bowl games, both of the major polls released their rankings after the end of the regular season until the AP polled writers after the bowls in 1965, resulting in what was perceived at the time as a better championship selection (Alabama) than UPI's (Michigan State). After 1965, the AP voted before the bowls for two years, permanently returning to a post-bowl vote in 1968. The coaches did not vote after the bowls until 1974, in the wake of awarding their 1973 championship to Alabama, who lost to the AP champion, undefeated Notre Dame, in the Sugar Bowl.

The AP and Coaches' polls remain the major rankings to this day, alongside the Bowl Championship Series, considered the modern math giant. The BCS was the successor of the Bowl Alliance (1995–1997), which was itself the successor of the Bowl Coalition (1992–1994). Besides the many adjustments it undergoes each season, including a large overhaul following the 2004 season that included the replacement of the AP Poll with the Harris poll, the BCS has remained a mixture of math and polls since its inception in 1998, with the goal of matching the best two teams in the nation in a national championship bowl game which rotated yearly between the Sugar, Fiesta, Rose, and Orange from 1998 to 2005, and later a standalone game titled the BCS National Championship Game (2006 to present). The winner of the BCS Championship Game is awarded the national championship of the Coaches' Poll thus winning the AFCA National Championship Trophy. The BCS winner also receives the MacArthur Trophy from the National Football Foundation. Neither the AP Poll, nor other current selectors, have contractual obligations to select the BCS champion as their national champion.^[11][12] The BCS has resulted in a number of controversies, most notably those that followed the 2003 season.

National championships in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records[link]

The NCAA maintains an official records book of historical statistics and records for football. In the records book, with consultation from various college football historians, it has created and maintains a list of "major selectors" of national championships throughout the history of college football along with their championship picks for each season.^[8]

Major selectors[link]

A variety of selectors have named national champions throughout the years. They generally can be divided into three categories: those determined by mathematical formula, human polls, and historical research. The selectors below are listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records as having been deemed to be "major selectors" for which the criteria is that the poll or selector be "national in scope either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online".^[6] The former selectors, deemed instrumental in the sport of college football, and selectors presently included for the calculation of the BCS standing, are listed together.^[13]

Math[link]

The mathematical system is the oldest systematic selector of college football national champions. Many of the math selectors were created during the "championship rush" of the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with Frank Dickinson's system, or during the dawn of the computer age in the 1990s. Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics.^[14][15]

*The BCS uses a mathematical system that combines polls (Coaches' and Harris) and multiple computer rankings (including some individual selectors listed above) to determine a season ending matchup between its top two ranked teams in the BCS Championship Game. The champion of that game is contractually awarded the Coaches' Poll and National Football Foundation championships.

Poll[link]

The poll has been the dominant national champion selector since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936. It is notable that the NFF merged with UPI from 1991 to 1992 and USA Today from 1993 to 1994. Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics.

For many years, the national champion of various polls were selected prior to the bowl games. The national champion was selected before bowl games as follows: AP (1936–1964 and 1966–1967), Coaches' Poll (1950–1973), FWAA (1954), and NFF (1959–1970). In all other latter-day polls, champions were selected after bowl games.^[8]

Presently the winner of BCS Championship Game is automatically awarded the national championship of the Coaches' Poll and the National Football Foundation.

^aServed as the AFCA Coaches' Poll during the designated years. The 2004 AFCA National Championship awarded to USC in conjunction with the BCS was vacated by the BCS and the AFCA Coaches' Trophy was returned.^[16]

^bThe UPI Poll conducted the Coaches' Poll through the 1990 season, which was subsequently taken over by the CNN/USAToday. UPI then conducted a poll of National Football Foundation members in 1991 and 1992, the winner of which received the NFF's designation as the national champion and its MacArthur Trophy.

^cCNN/USAToday conducted its own poll of college football sportswriters until it took over the Coaches' Poll starting with the 1991 season.

^dUSA Today took over the poll of the National Football Foundation's members in 1993 from the UPI, and its winner received the NFF's designation as the national champion and its MacArthur Trophy. The poll was conducted by USA Today through the 1996 season, although national championship selections in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records do not distinguish the NFF from the USAToday/NFF poll in 1995 and 1996. USA Today conducted this poll separately from the CNN/USAToday Coaches' Poll, and the two should not be confused.

In addition to these, since 2005 the BCS has commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a poll of former college football players, coaches, and administrators. This human poll is used to help calculate the BCS standings. No final poll is taken after the BCS championship game and no national championship is awarded or named by Harris Interactive.^[17]

Research[link]

College football historian Parke H. Davis is the only selector considered by the NCAA to have primarily used research in his selections.^[6] Davis did all of his work in 1933, naming retroactive national champions for most of the years from 1869 to 1932 and naming Michigan and Princeton (his alma mater) co-champions at the end of the 1933 season.

Yearly national championship selections from major selectors[link]

Below is a list of the national champions of college football from 1869–present (with the exception of 1871, in which no games were played) deemed to be chosen by "major selectors" as listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records.^[8] Many teams did not have coaches as late as 1899. "Consensus" selectors in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records correspond to the period from 1950 to present which began with the introduction of the two poll system upon the appearance of the Coaches Poll in 1950. Selectors used to determine teams listed as "Consensus National Champions" in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records include the AP Poll, Coaches' Poll, Football Writers Association of America, and the National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame.^[18]

The first contemporaneous poll to include teams across the country and selection of a national champions can be traced to Caspar Whitney in 1901.^[10] The last retroactive selection was made by Clyde Berryman in 1989 (Notre Dame). The tie was removed from college football in 1995 and the last consensus champion with a tie in its record was Georgia Tech in 1990. The 1947 Michigan Wolverines are often credited with a national championship on the basis of a "free poll" conducted by an AP sportswriter after the 1948 Rose Bowl, though that poll was unofficial and it is not recognized in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records.^[6]

Note that the Harris Interactive Poll (2005–present) is contracted by the BCS to help formulate its standings, and although its final ranking which occurs prior to the bowl games is listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records, it does not conduct a final poll or award or name a national champion on its own and so has been eliminated from the following table.^[17]

As designated by the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records, the table below shows:

• Teams listed in italics indicate retroactive-applied championships.
• Teams listed in bold indicate "consensus" championships according to official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records designation, 1950 to present.