1978 NCAA Division I-AA season | |
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Regular season | |
Number of teams | 43 |
Duration | August–November |
Playoff | |
Duration | December 9–December 16 |
Championship date | December 16, 1978 |
Championship site |
Memorial Stadium Wichita Falls, Texas |
Champion | Florida A&M |
NCAA Division I-AA football seasons | |
1979» |
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.
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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]
Semifinals December 9 Campus sites |
National Championship Game December 17 Pioneer Bowl Memorial Stadium– Wichita Falls, TX | ||||||||
AtLg | Florida A&M | 15 | |||||||
South | Jackson State* | 10 | |||||||
AtLg | Florida A&M | 35 | |||||||
East | UMass | 28 | |||||||
East | UMass | 44 | |||||||
West | Nevada* | 21 |
* Denotes host institution