15,000 Rule Dead?

[rcajun90]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7672198/

Lots of room for some creative numbers.

[Bluedawg]

On the face of it I'd say that any program with attendance concerns can pretty much unconcern themselves as far as IA status goes.

[Designated Hitter]

I dislike them allowing the combination of 12 games and allowing for a I-AA win to count towards bowl eligibility. There will be some sacrificial lambs playing on the road at the lower BCS schools so those lower BCS schools make a little extra money and count towards bowl eligibility. The attendance rule was nothing more than throwing scraps to non-BCS schools after enhancing more BCS schools bowl chances.

[TechDawgMc]

The NCAA can shovel it better than almost any organization. Playoffs are bad because they'd cause the student athletes to play too many games, but we'll add a 12th game for every team. The notion that eliminating the bye week has no effect on students is just absurd.

Hypocrisy is apparently spelled N-C-A-A

[KSDAWG]

Like it or not, this means ULM will stay within the 1A Ranks. I think that sucks!!!

[hookdown]

The NCAA can shovel it better than almost any organization. Playoffs are bad because they'd cause the student athletes to play too many games, but we'll add a 12th game for every team. The notion that eliminating the bye week has no effect on students is just absurd.

Hypocrisy is apparently spelled N-C-A-A

I could not agree with you more! I wonder if they allowed the 12th game to help defuse the momentum toward a playoff?

[Jetstorm]

That is part of it, but the primary motivation is money (short-sighted, in my opinion, since a playoff could make a lot more money, if done right).

The 15K rule was never intended to kick anyone out of D1-A to begin with, just intended to make it harder for current D1-AA programs to make the move up.

[PawDawg]

It's simply a BCS thing. In 11 game years a team that plays eight conference games and loses four of them must have three other wins against 1A teams to be Bowl eligible. Or, if they lose only three conference games the OOC games must still be easy wins to get to seven. What do they do?

1. Change the rules as often as neccessary to accomodate the BCS.

2. Assure themselves that there are plenty of easy wins in the 1A ranks outside of the BCS conferences. They need more ULMs to replace the 1AA games. Not less.

Bottom Line........with so many teams or entire conferences losing 1A status, they had to change the rules or lose bowl spots to the non-BCS guys.