Scholarships are different though. The fear, for us, is that they will change the rule on partials. "full cost-of-attendance scholarship that is expected to be passed in early 2012". This is the worst thing that can happen to I-AA/FCS schools ...like YSU.
Most people do not realize that I-AA/FCS schools are allowed partial scholarships, as long as it adds up to a TOTAL of 63; while IA/FBS schools are not. FBS schools that give a single dollar to a football player must count this as a FULL scholarship. We (at YSU) have more than 63 kids on scholarship right now; I would guess we have over 80 on scholarship at this point ...maybe even close to 100. So if the NCAA requires "full cost of attendance", that means we lose partial scholarships. That helps Joe Blow U in one of the Dakotas (that has to go outside of the local area to get most all of their players), but it kills schools like YSU, that have a wealth of solid local talent that may come play for the cost of education, and live with mom and dad for a year or two. Thus allowing YSU to use that 1/2 scholarship toward another player.
Not to sound like Andy Rooney here, but this is a very bad thing for us. Very bad. Should we move this topic to the regular football thread ...important topic?
The same crap happened when they changed the name from I-AA to FCS. All of the wannabe IA coaches (in what was then known as I-AA, like that idiot from Montana that wanted the Nevada job) jumped on the side of the NCAA that claimed that it dropped the "AA", because it made people think we were DII. What a bunch of 'bunk' that was. The truth of this matter was that the "big boys" did not want I-AA teams to be considered DI (like they are) by prospective recruits, so they lobbied the NCAA for the change to FCS. Sure the AA is gone, but so is the "I" that came before it. That is what tells people we are division-I. I would much rather be division I-AA, than the FCS subdivision of DI. For a nation that has to have a restaurant name changed to three letters because it is to difficult to say "Kentucky Fried Chicken"; what do you think are the chances that the media will print, or say. "division I-FCS" over "FCS"?
Sincerely,
KFC
