[Innocent Bystander]

I saw the story yesterday that the AP poll voters will now be allowed to vote for teams in lower divisions in their football top 25 poll. Couple that with the AP decision last year to drop out of the BCS agreement and award their own national title as they see fit and you now have a situation where a 1-AA team could compete for the mythical national championship without moving up to 1-A football. The two biggest problems with such a pursuit are scholarships and schedule. For a team like Liberty to try to compete for a top spot they would have to load up their non-conference schedule with 1-A heavyweights that would all have to be played on the road. To compete in that environment with 22 fewer scholarships than the opposition is highly improbable....but not totally impossible. Might be an interesting compromise between moving up and staying put.

I will now open the floor to flaming.

[TDDance234]

I don't think it's a bad idea--but regardless of if I-AA teams are allowed in the Top-25 polls, I'm pretty sure it would be the farthest goal away from any coaches mind.

It would be nice but I doubt any I-AA team would have a deep enough sched. to actually get consideration.

[LUconn]

I was actually thinking about this yesterday, but the BCS gatekeepers have pretty much made the imaginary championship impossible to get if you're not affiliated with a BCS conference or you're school is not named Notre Dame.

[TIMSCAR20]

With this scenario I would say that not only would it be improbable but actually impossible because to win the mythical National Championship, you would have to play enough good teams to be considered the best in the country by pollsters which would mean an all 1A schedule. You can't schedule all 1A's if you are in a conference and if you are not in a conference, it is difficult to even make the 1AA playoffs let alone get the top votes in a 1A poll. I think this is good for sports talk radio and watercooler conversations at work but has no real bearing on anything. App St might break the top 25 in this type of polling but their strength of schedule would murder their chances of a mythical 1A national championship the second they played conference games.

[LUconn]

so how about an indy team with a ND-like schedule. And they'd have to win out. And I still think they'd get the Boise St treatment.

[vastrightwinger]

I think it is worth mentioning that if a I-aa team is strong enough to knock off I-a teams on a continous basis, the I-a teams simply won't schedule them. For instance, if Appy has a couple more wins like last week against teams like Michigan, they just won't be invited for risk of embarrassment for losing to a I-aa team. It just would not be worth the risk for the I-a teams to play them when they could play a team like FIU or FAU that is at the low end of the I-a spectrum and a fairly assured win. Just my thoughts.

[LUconn]

but, if this hypothetical team was regularly schooling these big schools, losing to them isn't an embarassment because they're highly ranked. At that point, the only thing I-AA means is they're handycapping themselves with less schollys.

[vastrightwinger]

I agree with that, but a win against them is no real benefit in the long run. A loss could be detrimental. I would love it if this hypothetical team could become a reality I just think it would be too much of a risk for schools trying to clinch a BCS shot to risk it against a team that has no shot at all.

[TIMSCAR20]

but, if this hypothetical team was regularly schooling these big schools, losing to them isn't an embarassment because they're highly ranked. At that point, the only thing I-AA means is they're handycapping themselves with less schollys.

If it were that simple then true. But we are talking about an opinion poll and people's opinion is that no 1A school should lose to a AA school period. People that saw App st play on Sat are saying they have enough good players to compete with anyone. They have size and speed and a good QB, good defense and playmakers. Also a good head coach. However, everyone is acting as if Michigan just lost to a group of 65 year old women because App is 1AA. Therefore the perception of losing to a 1AA is never good due to classification and perception but not reality. Also the scheduling thing makes it even more difficult if not impossible. App St has already had trouble scheduling 1A teams. No one is lining up to pay them a half million bucks to embarrass them on their own field.

[Innocent Bystander]

I was actually thinking about this yesterday, but the BCS gatekeepers have pretty much made the imaginary championship impossible to get if you're not affiliated with a BCS conference or you're school is not named Notre Dame.

That is true of the BCS championship, but the AP poll is no longer linked to the BCS and is not obligated to rank the winner of the BCS title game as #1.

[flameshaw]

I would be happy to beat good 1AA teams with the regularity ASU has done in the past few years. Nothing wrong with a couple of 1AA National Championships before we transition to 1A.

[theoneandonly]

I think Liberty needs to work on getting Lynchburg to like them before they worry about the Media.

[LUconn]

Why bother? LU can't do anything right in the eyes of the city.

[TDDance234]

Why bother? LU can't do anything right in the eyes of the city.

...and because of our affiliation with Thomas Road and our religous convictions, we're always going to have a harder time in the "public eye."

[LUUKFAN]

Kentucky went on probation a few years back and lost a bunch of scholorships. They did not recover until last year when they had almost a full compliment to give. I don't think it is feasable on any level to think that LU (or AP St or any IAA school) could compete week in and week out with the big boys.