As I understand it, the SoCon, Southland, and Ivy League were the only conferences forced to 1-AA in 1982, after most of the other current conferences & teams went 1-AA in '78. If any others were, please explain the history.

This makes me curious why the MAC wasn't forced as well. I'm a new graduate student at Ball State, and their stadium doesn't look much larger or more impressive than any of the top FCS programs. For that matter, about half of the MAC averages under 20,000, some of which are averaging less than the non-enforced NCAA minimum of 15,000 (hardly comparable to what most of us know as the classic super-sized attendance of most BCS teams).

What I'm getting at is that 26 years ago, it seems like the MAC couldn't have been drawing many more people than these other conferences. They also weren't that much better, and still aren't. So why'd the MAC stay 1-A while other conferences didn't?




Side note: Last year, NDSU blew MAC champion Central Michigan out of the water by about 30 at CMU's house. Ball State, which was 3rd or 4th in the MAC, supposedly is big-time college football, yet there's no doubt in my mind that my college alma mater could march in and win easily in Muncie, as would much of the FCS top 10 or so. This isn't to put down the home of my graduate program; I'm merely pointing out that typical college football fans, BSU students included, don't understand how good the upper crest of the FCS is (i.e., MUCH better than their conference), and that's with 22 fewer schollies.