“Whoa, Nellie!” Regardless of record or how bad a beating a team took in prior weeks, there's no spoiling a fan's pride when it comes to their NCAA football squad. NCAA football has been a continuous evolution of game play, rules, methods to determine the best team, conference shuffling -- the list could go on -- yet through it all, one thing has remained consistent: the teams.
College football is built more upon tradition than draft order, salary cap room, trades and free agent acquisitions. By all means, the recruiting of world-class athletes is the most important key to building a solid NCAA football squad. However, having a winning tradition always increases the ability of schools to recruit the best players.
Presently, the NCAA is broken down into four football divisions: NCAA Football, NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III. When considering the elite of the elite, NCAA Football rules the roost, as the schools compete in the toughest collegiate athletic conferences the U.S. has to offer. These schools are divided by geographical region to determine conference placement. The current method of determining how teams are ranked nationally (BCS rankings -- Bowl Championship Series) takes into account the major conferences and their level of play.
Within each NCAA football conference, there may be any number of teams. For some conferences, the name says it all: The Big 10 or The Big XII. While others, such as the SEC (Southeastern Conference), consist of 12 teams. The larger conferences, including the Big XII and SEC are further divided into two divisions, based heavily on geographic location.
There are several “independents,” including the University of Notre Dame, that have no conference affiliation; however, based on the ability to compete, they are BCS eligible. (Regardless of 2007 proving to be a disappointment.) These independents, combined with some of the "mid-major" conferences, have really stirred things up in recent years, offering far more parity to the world of college football.
