Should NCAA Division 1 contract?

[T_Schroll]

If they are ever going to get to a playoff system for Division 1, they need to get rid of some of the also ran programs. Presently there are 117 programs at Division 1 level, but do some deserve to be there? Judge for yourself.

Sunbelt
----------
La-Lafayette
New Mexico State
North Texas
Idaho
Arkansas State
Middle Tennessee
La-Monroe

any one want to make a case for any of these guys staying in with the big boys? Schedule fodder, every last one of them.

Mid-American
-----------------
Ohio
Miami, Ohio
Central Florida
Buffalo
Akron
Kent State
Marshall
Western Michigan
Northern Illinois
Toledo
Ball State
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan

UCF and Marshall for sure, Toledo and Akron have decent programs and would be on the bubble. The rest need to go.

Rutgers or Temple don't deserve to be in Division 1 with the product they put on the field. Scratch two more.

That knocks out 19 teams, you'd only need 2 more to get down to 96 teams for Division 1. That would allow for consolidation into 8 conferences of 12 teams each. I'd even settle for 7 conferences with 12 independants. Other schools I'd look at for axing would be either UTEP, SMU, Houston, New Mexico, Tulsa, or San Jose State. After the regular season is complete, you have a 16 team field (either with 8 conference championship games or 7 with the top 2 indies in a play in game). Round One of the playoffs are the conference championships(16 teams to 8 teams), Round Two are the early bowl games(8 to 4), Round Three are the New Year's day games (4 to 2), and the Championship is the following week.
The Championship would be rotated between the Rose, Fiesta, Orange, and Sugar Bowls.

[Big Mark]

What do you base the cuts on? Winning percentage? Cant do it on student population, that would cut out Wake and possibly (just guessing) Duke. contraction is always a scary proposition.

[T_Schroll]

It's about competition in the long run. Some of these schools aren't even decent in their own weak conferences. To play with the big boys, you should be able to beat them every once in awhile. Some of these schools would probably thrive in Division 1A where they'd at least have a shot at winning a few games, building a bigger fan base in doing so, and brining in more money for other programs in the process.

[AppState]

You should study the NCAA nomenclature.

[DaveW]

New Mexico St plays decent ball. Toledo went to a bowl game last year, right? one of those 2 ohio schools spanked UNC's ass a couple of years ago. Marshall shouldnt even be on that list.

[T_Schroll]

Marshall isn't on the list to be contracted. Toledo I have on the bubble. Take those four (Marshall, UCF, Toledo, and Akron) out of the Mid American and there isn't anything left to write home about. The Sunbelt is a joke plain and simple. It was Miami-Ohio who beat UNC a couple of years ago. About every one beat them that year. Those two conferences are the weakest overall against top competition.

[Panther_Fanatic]

Unfortunately, D-I is already being contracted, with the line separating the ''haves'' and ''have nots'' becoming more and more clearer with each passing day.

The culprit? The damned BCS, where the likes of Duke, Vanderbilt, Temple, Baylor, and Rutgers are deemed more worthy to compete for a national championship than a Fresno State, BYU, Louisville, or East Carolina.

When $109 of $114 million is distributed to schools within the 6 BCS conferences and Notre Dame, it won't be long before everyone outside of the BCS is marginalized to the outskirts of major college football.