- Source: 1982 NCAA Division I-AA football season
The 1982 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1982 and concluded with the 1982 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game on December 18, 1982, at Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Eastern Kentucky Colonels won their second I-AA championship, defeating the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens in the Pioneer Bowl, 17−14.
Conference changes and new programs
Upon the expiration of the four-year limit for compliance with Division I-A football criteria (set in January 1978), 41 NCAA Division I-A teams were reclassified from Division I-A to Division I-AA:
Ivy League — all eight members. Yale met the requirements to stay in I-A, but voluntarily chose to downgrade to I-AA to remain with the rest of the Ivy League.
Southern Conference — all eight members
Southland Conference — five members. McNeese State and Southwestern Louisiana met the requirements to remain in I-A; McNeese State voluntarily chose to downgrade to I-AA to remain with the rest of the Southland, while Southwestern Louisiana remained in Division I-A as an Independent.
Missouri Valley Conference — five members, with New Mexico State, Tulsa, and Wichita State remaining in I-A but also remaining in the conference. This was the onset of a four-year period in which the MVC functioned as a hybrid I-A/I-AA conference.
Mid-American Conference — eight members, with only Central Michigan and Toledo maintaining I-A status. Several of the demoted schools appealed the demotion, with the result that all eight MAC members reclassified to I-AA for 1982 were returned to I-A as of 1983.
Independent Cincinnati was reclassified to I-AA along with the MAC schools but filed an injunction against the NCAA to postpone their demotion until after the 1982 season, and was successful in remaining in I-A.
The successful appeals of Cincinnati (effective 1982) and the MAC schools (effective 1983) meant that 40 Division I-A members joined I-AA in 1982, of which 32 remained in 1983.
Conference standings
Conference champions
Postseason
The playoffs expanded from eight to twelve teams this season; four years later, in 1986, the field was expanded to sixteen teams.
= NCAA Division I-AA playoff bracket
=The top four teams were seeded, and received first-round byes.
* Next to team name denotes host institution
References
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- 1982 NCAA Division I-AA football season
- NCAA Division I Football Championship
- NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision
- List of NCAA Division I FCS football programs
- 1982 NCAA Division I-AA football rankings
- 2005 NCAA Division I-AA football season
- 1981 NCAA Division I-AA football season
- 1983 NCAA Division I-AA football season
- 1978 NCAA Division I-AA football season
- 1985 NCAA Division I-AA football season
