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What is NCAA Football?

For men’s football, the NCAA currently uses a four-division setup.

Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). This Division has approximately 120 member teams – 116 of which play in one of 11 different leagues and four of which play as “independents”, ie outside of a league structure. Division 1 FBS schools can offer athletic scholarships to student athletes. For a variety of reasons, largely but not all financial in nature, and unlike men’s basketball with its 65 team “March Madness” tournament, NCAA men’s football has never had a Division 1 playoff play-down structure resulting in an undisputed national championship men’s football team. Since 1998 the NCAA has developed a somewhat complicated structure called the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) that is designed to allow the top two ranked teams to play each other in a national championship game, but this system is not without critics. The BCS is a selection process involving ten of the top ranked teams playing in a series of five bowl games, with the top two ranked teams competing in the BCS National Championship Game. [Please note: Heritage Sports Art features original uniform artwork of 14 of the leading Division 1 FBS teams.]

Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). This Division has approximately 126 member teams – 123 of which play in one of 14 different leagues and three of which play as “independents”, ie outside of a league structure. Division 1 FCS schools can offer athletic scholarships to student athletes although the Ivy Leagues choose not to. All teams in this division, with the exception of the teams in the Ivy league and at times one or two other leagues, compete for the Division 1 FCS Championship (called the FCS title) in a 20 team playoff series used to determine the Division 1 FCS champion.

Division 2. This Division has approximately 155 member teams – 150 of which play in one of approximately 14 different leagues and five of which play as “independents, ie outside of a league structure. Division 2 schools can offer athletic scholarships to student athletes. A 24 team playoff series is used to determine the Division 2 champion.

Division 3. This Division has approximately 240 member teams – 236 of which play in one of approximately 28 different leagues and four of which play as “independents, ie outside of a league structure. Division 3 schools may not offer athletic scholarships. A 32 team playoff series is used to determine the Division 3 champion with the championship game being called the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl or simply the Stagg Bowl.

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