The Jackal wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 3:06 pm
(1) I do not believe the Ivies ever really play a "money game" or an FCS opponent. Their schedules tend to be all FCS.
So, they already play 10 FCS opponents, which is what Furman shoots for most seasons.
I suspect there's a
(2) minimum number of games a team has to play to be eligible for the post season. I also suspect there's a
(3) minimum number of FCS wins one has to have. If those two standards are met, I doubt the NCAA will care if the Ivies routinely schedule 10 games.
Now, at the same time, the Ivey League teams didn't really kick off their season until late September. Their opening weekend of games was the weekend Furman played William & Mary.
Back in better days, when the NCAA had rules and was the governing body of collegiate athletics…
(1) FBS Teams could only count wins over “qualifying” Teams to meet the requirements for Bowl eligibility. Qualifying Teams had to have / offer XX number (some % or fixed number the NCAA set that was roughly around what most FCS schools offer) of Football scholarships. Ivy League Teams & PFL Teams do not offer any Football/Athletics scholarships, so FBS schools don’t want to play them. They would rather play Mississippi Valley State than Harvard or Davidson.
(2) There are about 43 sections of the NCAA Manual (it reads as if the NCAA does, actually, have rules, so it may be a parody publication) defining eligibility for Championships, but the best FUBeAR can discern is that if a Team plays over 1/2 of their games vs. 4 year degree granting schools (any association, any division), they are, generally, eligible to participate in the Championship/Playoffs.
(3) There has never been an NCAA rule about the number of wins / FCS wins a Team has to have to be eligible for the playoffs. What has been published is ‘guidance’ from the Playoff Committee which stated something to the effect of ‘any Team that has fewer than 6 D1 wins risks their chances of being selected for an At-Large bid.’
So, even before the NCAA stopped overseeing college athletics, they found many ways not to have hard-and-fast rules about anything. It was easier to put Wright State on probation when Duke violated the NCAA “rules” if the rules were written that way.