Year: | 1978 |
Number Of Teams: | 43 |
Regular Season: | August–November |
Playoffs: | December 9–December 16 |
Nc Date: | December 16, 1978 |
Championship: | Memorial Stadium Wichita Falls, Texas |
Champions: | Florida A&M |
The 1978 NCAA Division I-AA football season was the first season of Division I-AA college football. Division I-AA was created in January 1978 when Division I was subdivided into Division I-A and Division I-AA for football only.[1] It was anticipated that 65 Division I football schools would transition to Division I-AA.[2] Instead, just eight programs (seven teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which had just joined Division I a year before, plus independent Northwestern State) voluntarily opted for Division I-AA for the 1978 season. They were joined by 35 schools that had reclassified from Division II.
The season began in August 1978 and concluded with the Division I-AA Football Championship Game, played on December 16 at Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Florida A&M Rattlers won the first I-AA championship, defeating the UMass Minutemen 35–28 in the Pioneer Bowl.[3] Florida A&M of 1978 remains the only HBCU program to play in (and win) the I-AA/FCS national championship game.
^ Idaho was previously in Division I for football, but also a member of the Big Sky Conference (D-II for football only)
See also: List of NCAA Division I-AA/FCS football seasons.
The bracket consisted of three regional selections (West, East, and South) plus an at-large team.[4] Florida A&M (FAMU) of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) was the at-large selection.[5] While the SIAC was a Division II conference, FAMU had successfully petitioned the NCAA for Division I classification (Division I-AA in football), which took effect on September 1, 1978.[6] * Denotes host institution