Ralph's Rag

As anyone who has read my work over the past decade knows, I have a pet peeve with the used naming of the FCS and it's related topics. Often, in my opinion, the mistakes are either purposefully done to demean the division or worse, a company directive. Although I will admit that the confusion was even present on NCAA official material and that fanned the flames of confusion.

For years I battled with my writings, phone calls, emails, messageboard posts, radio show, and any other method I could about people referring to what was then NCAA Division I-AA, as Division II.

Then there was the constant barrage of people misspelling the correct nomenclature of I-AA. They would (and still do) write is as 1aa, 1AA, 1-aa, etc. I don't know how many times I have said "the NCAA uses roman numerals and the A's are capitalized."

When the I-AA moniker was dropped in 2006 in favor of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, everyone felt the need to add "(formerly I-AA)" whenever they mentioned the FCS. Of course the misspelling continues and some people even ignore the new name completely.

Finally is the reference to the championship.

Everyone should know that the NCAA has Division I for all its sports but only in football they split it in two subdivisions. One of the biggest difference between the subdivisions are their postseason. The FCS plays a tournament for the NCAA Division I Football Championship, and the other subdivision plays in bowl games. This leads to people mistakenly calling the game the I-AA Championship or the FCS Championship.

HELLO!!?! It is the NCAA Division I Football Championship and before that it was I-AA!!! It says so on the trophy! Look for yourself:


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rophiesASU.jpg

So in closing, the NCAA uses roman numerals for its division. It has been five years since the I-AA name was discontinued so you can stop using "formerly I-AA." It is the NCAA Division I Football Championship, not the FCS Championship.

Geez.