1AA vs. Division 1

[HuskersNow]

James Madison beat Virginia Tech. South Dakota beat Minnesota. Jacksonville State beat Ole Miss. All of the teams that faced each other happened to be close to each other or from the same state. Does always hearing about how much better the nearby higher division team is make the 1AA schools play better? Or is this just a coincidence?

 

Note: I'm not including Kansas because this is the first game for their new head coach. The other teams all had established head coaches.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

FCS teams are definitely getting better. No doubt about that.

[VA Husker Fan]

Sometimes FCS schools will get transfers from FBS schools so they don't have to sit out, or because of problems that make them not so appealing to FBS schools. Remember how Randy Moss was at Marshall, and for a year or two they were D1AA before moving up? It's not because he was overlooked or not good enough in HS. He got booted off both ND and FSU before landing at Marshall. I don't remember the details, but I think JMU has a couple players that VTech booted because of troubles, and believe me, you have to be in a lot of trouble to get booted off of VTech's team!

 

But mostly FCS schools are made up of guys who didn't get an FBS offer. Not sure why the gap is closing. Maybe conditioning is getting better overall such that you don't necessarily have superiority by buying the best equipment.

[HuskersNow]

I guess my point is that major division 1 programs should avoid scheduling 1AA teams that are nearby or in the same state because they seem to play much better in this situation. Or, on the flip side, it could be the nearby division 1 teams who are dismissing the 1AA teams as being no match for them.

[killer cacti]

Clemson plays only in-state FCS schools, just like SCar. The reason? To keep the money within the state system.