| Year: | 1992 |
| Number Of Teams: | 89 |
| Regular Season: | September 5–November 21 |
| Playoffs: | November 28–December 19 |
| Nc Date: | December 19, 1992 |
| Championship: | Marshall University Stadium Huntington, West Virginia |
| Champions: | Marshall |
| Payton: | Michael Payton |
The 1992 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began on September 5, 1992, and concluded with the 1992 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game on December 19, 1992, in Huntington, West Virginia. The Marshall Thundering Herd defeated the Youngstown State Penguins by a score of 31–28.[1] It was the second consecutive year that Marshall and Youngstown State faced off in the I-AA title game.
Prior to the season, the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference, otherwise a women's sports league but sponsoring football as its only men's sport since the 1985 collapse of the football side of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), merged into the MVC. The football league became the standalone Gateway Football Conference, forerunner of the present-day Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC).
| School | 1991 Conference | 1992 Conference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-A Independent | |||
| Big Sky (I-AA) | Big West (I-A) | ||
This is a listing of conference champions.[2]
| Conference | Champion | |
|---|---|---|
| Atlantic 10 Conference | Delaware | |
| Big Sky Conference | Idaho and Eastern Washington | |
| Ivy League | Dartmouth and Princeton | |
| Gateway Football Conference | Northern Iowa | |
| Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference | North Carolina A&T | |
| Ohio Valley Conference | Middle Tennessee | |
| Patriot League | Lafayette | |
| Southern Conference | The Citadel | |
| Southland Conference | Northeast Louisiana | |
| Southwestern Athletic Conference | Alcorn State |
Only the top four teams in the field were seeded, and thus assured of home games in their first-round games.[3] The site of the title game, Marshall University Stadium, had been predetermined months before the playoffs began.[4]
* Next to team name denotes host institution
Source:[5]
| NCAA [6] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ranking | Team | |
| 1 | The Citadel | |
| 1 | Northeast Louisiana | |
| 3 | Northern Iowa | |
| 4 | Middle Tennessee | |
| 5 | Idaho | |
| 6 | Marshall | |
| 7 | Youngstown State | |
| 8 | Delaware | |
| 9 | Samford | |
| 10 | Villanova | |
| 11 | McNeese State | |
| 12 | Eastern Kentucky | |
| 13 | William & Mary | |
| 14 | Eastern Washington | |
| 15 | ||
| 16 | Appalachian State | |
| 17 | North Carolina | |
| 18 | Alcorn State | |
| 19 | Liberty | |
| 20 | ||