Stop the I-AA madness

What's I-A and I-AA? Didn't the NCAA axe those terms over a year ago? Yup, words do matter. It's not a matter of being PC; it's a matter of using correct terms as defined by the NCAA. I-A/I-AA is dead. Get over it. Using anacronistic terms just makes you sound out of touch. But, hey, whatever floats your boat. Enjoy your sarsparilly as you watch Wake Forest College take on Trinity College and North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

Per App's admission's site regarding the 2006-07 incoming freshman class:
(http://www.admissions.appstate.edu/process/hs.html)
* Average Freshman high school GPA: 3.73
* Average Freshman SAT: 1131
* Freshman Enrollment: 2,716
Per the Triangle Business Journal's article from 10-05-07 regarding State's declining SAT scores:
(http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2007/10/08/story2.html)
"The average SAT score for students entering NCSU this fall is 1174. That is three points fewer than last year's average of 1177, and it marks the lowest average SAT score for an entering freshman class at the school since 1998. (1195)"
So even in a period of declining SAT scores due to ballooning incoming class sizes, State's average SAT scores are still more than 40 points higher than App's.
FWIW.

"To start I will address the comment made about "Appalachain losing to a 3-9 NC State team. The team that took the field that day is no where in comparison of the team that took the field two weeks later as Armanti Edwards became the starter and has since led the team to a 22-2 record as a starter. That same team is the one that took the field on September 1st 2007 and beat the number 5 ranked team in the nation, a feat I doubt any NC State team could have accomplished in the past 4 years." Make all the excuses you want, the fact is, you got beat by a sorry 3-9 NC State team.

this such a stupid argument you App fans or graduates put up.

In your closet (in-state App fans or graduates) you'll find a UNC, NCSU, DUIke or WFU t-shirt, hat, jersey or sweat shirt. you'll also find yourselves rooting like all heck for one of those teams as soon as round ball season starts and may even have family members who have tickets to these games and find yourslef in one of those seats come Jan - Apr.

Just do not lie to yourselves is all i'm saying. Lie to this board all you want to though!! B/c i've never seen so much traffic in a year!! keep up the good work so called "ACC haters!!"

The Pac-10 laughs at ACC football. The Carolina & Duke football programs are a complete joke. App State would torch 75% of the teams in the ACC.

What a clown! Nice picture J.P.

Notice that the VT-App game is scheduled for 2011 - after Armanti Edwards leaves. As things stand currently, it is hard to see when ASU won't be a national title contender, and a threat to any mid-level BCS team that doesn't come to play, but it is Edwards that makes them a transcendent team. If VT moved up into the 2009 slot that LSU vacated, that would show some huevos.
If mixed-division games aren't going away, it would really be great for students at all the schools if NC State and UNC-CH would schedule ASU and WCU once every four years. But if they are scared of the ASU side of that idea, VT and UT are good fallbacks for App - Knoxville and Blacksburg are both about the same distance from Boone as Raleigh is.

I've had a ton of respect for Appalachian State, even before they pasted my Youngstown State Penguins a couple of years ago in the playoffs. I was at Ohio Stadium last year for the Ohio State-YSU game last year and the loudest cheers happened when the score of the ASU-Michigan game was posted. I swear that if they would have streamed the Michigan game on the scoreboard, everyone, including the players would have stopped to watch.

App fans are riding high no doubt. SoCon football is great and the ACC and SEC both grew out of it historically. Crowning a championship on a field of play is of course superior to the BCS but...some of the banter has gotten completely unrealistic however. It is no surprise that the most inflamatory statements are ususally posted by an Anonymous. Let's remember that App followed up the Michigan win with a loss to Wofford. 4-8 UNC crushed a playoff bound JMU team. What is the overall FBS/FCS record? Just ask Jerry Moore how his team matches up with LSU. That is realism. There is no player at App who wouldnt have wanted to go to a Carolina or State first if they were offered a chance to play their preferred position (see Armanti Edwards.) Of course App can rise up and upset a team here or there but week in and week out they would get pounded in the ACC. Its about players and talent not fan bragging. Look at the NFL draft results if you dont believe me. Also why isnt there more talk about playing ECU or Holtz dodging App instead of calling Carolina chicken. That is where you need to start first and the Pirates would be favored also. I foresee App joining Conference USA and making a rivalry with ECU if they ever get a chance to move up though. I wish the ScCon schools the best but if Carolina and State are supposed to do favors and play them, then Western should be given first crack. They need the help!

I don't know what the big deal is. It's not like the ACC is a football conference. The big name football programs view ACC teams as weak. Maybe the ACC should move to FCS where their teams may stand a chance of winning a national title. I think you will be suprised with the outcome of some of the ACC-FCS games this year.

b/c you wrote this stupidness:

"study harder and get into DUIke, NCSU, Wake or UNC and then you'll write what I just wrote to all the morons who went to App or Elon. period."

I'll be certain to inform my Ivy League friends that they need to "study harder" to get into NC State.

Just to set it straight. ASU has the second highest SAT scores behind only UNC-CH in the UNC system (that's ahead of NCSU so you don't have to strain yourself). I was accepted to all the schools I applied to included UVa, WFU, Duke, etc. and chose to go to ASU. It was and is more friendly and superior in my major. It is not just for "morons" who could not get into an ACC school. Other moron-infested FCS schools include Furman, Richmond, W&M, Cal-Poly, UMass, UConn and such low brow universities as the ENTIRE Ivy League. The ACC includes such bastions of upper education, especially for athletes, as the Fla thug twins Miami and FSU. There are definately morons here...but I think you have made it clear that they are not FCS fans. And yes ASU, would have finished at least mid-pack in the ACC (barring injuries due to our fewer scholarships) last year. And before you say I now nothing about college football...at least I played college FB for 4 years...and you? It doesn't make me an expert, but a man who lives in China has a better understanding of the country than a man who has only watched it on TV.

Spoke like a true "Duke/ UNC (didn't go there) fan." If Duke/ UNC didn't have FCS teams to play, they wouldn't have a chance to go to a bowl game. Come on, why is it so scary for the "big boys" to play I-AA teams--after all they do have 22 more scholarship players? Sure, your argument is for the betterment of ACC fans, like the ones who support Duke football and all the joy that program has brought it's fans. Give me break. Go to the game between ASU and JMU this year and you will see better football then you do in half the ACC.

The I-AA to FCS name change had nothing to do with "political correctness." It was done because schools that were putting a lot of money into their I-AA football programs were getting all of their sports programs referred to as Division I-AA (no such thing exists outside football), while schools that spent no money on football at all were being called Division I. Should a school with no football be perceived as being in a higher division than a school playing FCS football, and putting in all the millions of dollars necessary to support it? That's why they separated the designation from the Division I name.

Btw, if the ACC doesn't take matters seriously they could go 0-3 in the August 30th subdivision games. Those are all top 10 teams in the FCS preseason polls. Richmond too.

Let's be honest here these games a mutually beneficial. ACC schools get a pay day, the FCS schools get that chance to play with the big FBS teams. I would also venture to think that anyone in ACC country would much rather see Furman-Clemson, NCSU-Appalachian, or any other in state FCS v FBS game than seeing, ACC v Sunbelt, WAC, MAC, or Mountain West Teams

I can see and concede nearly every point in the article. But, come on, hasn't "1-A football" become synonymous with "Bureaucracy?" The entire division has a hierarchy of major 1-A vs. the smaller less notable 1-A (Sunbelt). Even the National Championship is an (subjective) opinion rooted in pedigree as much as anything else. Of the ACC games mentioned, 2 or more may actually result in defeat: JMU, McNeese St. Tis true, ACC fans do lose on these games with lesser teams - but if it were about good games, Duke should have been out of the league long ago. Most importantly, the system should remain open to 1-AA schools simply for parity's sake. There are schools that aspire to a greater status (Marshall, Troy were 1-AA only 5 years ago or so) - and there are 1-A schools that can't seem to get their programs together. Let the N Dakota St (Minnesota) Appalachian States (Michigan) of the world threaten embarrassment for the sake of sport, if nothing else. This way, the rich don't continue to get richer, and the poor, poorer.

App State is - and has always been - a Division I football program.

App State owns the D1 football championship by winning an NCAA tournament and getting an NCAA trophy. I-A/FBS schools compete to win a BCS championship and get a trophy sponsored by Sears.

Please enlighten your readers as to the true purpose of college football programs - to ensure powerhouse athletic contests each weekend so sports writers can write epic stories of triumph and despair, or to make a buck?

True football fans don't care who their teams play, as will be evidenced by the 92,000 who will see LSU-App State play later this month (let's not forget that ESPN audience).

A game is a game. It's the writers who continually whine (But only about football mismatches, never the first round of March Madness).

There is a decent possibility that 3 of your ACC teams (Duke, NC, and Maryland) will all lose to these "inferior" FCS or I-AA teams that have 23 less scholarships.

If you were writing this article for the SEC, I might buy your argument. While I'm an ACC fan, the facts are schools like Appalachian State could win at least 3-4 games (maybe more) if they were a member of the confernce--so don't be so quick to dismiss them. No they aren't likely to beat Virginia Tech, Clemson or perhaps the current Wake Forest--but the rest of the conference, particularly Duke, Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, Boston College...etc better show up to play.

Hold on--it will be basketball season soon.