In the NCAA, Division III universities are the smallest and non-scholarship. Iowa has a bunch of them (Wartburg, Luther, Simpson, Central, etc.).<\/p>\n
Division II allows for scholarships. Upper Iowa is the only one in the state, which creates the fun oddity of Fayette being a town with a university but not a high school.<\/p>\n
Division I-AA (no I will not use the Newspeak term “Football Championship Subdivision”) is made up of the smaller universities from the Division I split in 1978, and the designation is for football only. This includes UNI, of course, and Drake, which is one of a handful of non-scholarship universities in the division (they have their own conference, the Pioneer League).<\/p>\n
And then there’s Division I-A, which consists of the teams you hear about every day and their less-moneyed brethren. The top 64(ish) teams in this division are the BCS, soon to be Power Five, teams.<\/p>\n
Anyway, with all that said, my question is: If the biggest teams want to create their own division of NCAA sports, since the size and money involve increase as the number gets smaller, shouldn’t the chatter be about a “Division 0” instead of a “Division 4”<\/a>?<\/p>\n To further the Iowa angle of this post, UNI has found itself as a somewhat unintentional poster boy for the lower-tier have-nots because former UNI\/Iowa AD and current Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby remarked at media days, “Northern Iowa and Texas aren’t much alike.”<\/a> That got Dennis Dodd (linked above) to opine,<\/p>\n Northern Iowa has almost nothing in common with Texas but has the ability to vote down a stipend because it can’t afford it. What the BCS commissioners are saying: Why is Northern Iowa voting on the issue in the first place?<\/em><\/p>\n UNI may also reflect the situation at hand more than some because state demands to be self-sufficient (thanks, Big Ten Network!) have put athletics programs in something of a cash crunch. That’s why the Panthers got a paycheck from Wisconsin last year and why they’re regularly on ISU’s schedule. And that’s the reason for voting against a stipend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the NCAA, Division III universities are the smallest and non-scholarship. Iowa has a bunch of them (Wartburg, Luther, Simpson, Central, etc.). Division II allows for scholarships. Upper Iowa is the only one in the state, which creates the fun … Continue reading