Interdivisional Results

© Copyright 2006, Paul Kislanko

Everybody likes to see the "little guys" win against the "big bullies." I thought I'd spend a few minutes while waiting for the next Big Weekend to put together a summary of the inter-divisional play.

In the table below the entry is the record of the division to the left against the one at the top. I'm using BCS as an abbreviation for "teams in a conference that is an automatic qualifier to a BCS bowl plus Notre Dame," and ¬BCS to mean all other Division 1-A teams.

	BCS	¬BCS	1AA	D2	D3	NAIA
BCS		44-5	24-3				68-8
¬BCS	5-44		15-1				20-45
1AA	3-24	1-15		25-7	3-5	6-1	38-52
D2			7-25		6-0	20-7	33-32
D3			5-3	0-6		17-7	22-16
NAIA			1-6	7-20	7-17		15-43

The main reason for dividing Division-1A this way is because wins by non-BCS teams over a team from a BCS conference receive so much attention.

If there's a technical reason to do so, it is that it provides sort of a "benchmark" for comparisons of the other divisions.

(Through games of 9 September)

Div Rec v higher Rec v Lower BCS — 68-8 ¬BCS 5-44 15-1 1AA 4-39 34-13 D2 7-25 26-7 D3 5-9 17-7 NAIA 15-43 —

One should probably not draw any conclusions from the NAIA records. Unlike the NCAA divisions, the sole criterian for membership ("not being a member of the NCAA") specifies nothing about the potential strength of the football team. It is likely that if we had subdivisino of NAIA equivalent to divisions, they would overlap the NCAA divisions.

Lower division wins, and the fact that Division 1AA connects all of the divisions, make possible those wonderfully fun (but meaningless) transitivity chains of A beat B beat C ... beat Z beat A. How computer systems resolve those loops in the game graph is sometimes the main difference between them.

One wonders how much the fact that the great majority of these games are played at the higher-division's location. Last year's results tended to indicate that this is not a major factor. The margins of victory were more easily explained by the home team just being better enough that a different result couldn't be expected on a neutral field.

This year's results so far do not contradict that conclusion:

BCS vs nBCS

BCS vs 1AA

nBCS vs 1AA

1AA vs D2

1AA vs D3

1AA vs NAIA

D2 vs D3

D2 vs NAIA

D3 vs NAIA

I'll update the tables periodically through the end of the season. For the fun, here's the games where the lower-division team won:

8/26/2006 Virginia-Wise (NAIA) 44 at Brevard (D2) 20

8/26/2006 Winston-Salem St (1AA) 7 at Catawba (D2) 21 (Technically, W-S St is in transition to D1AA and is officially a D2-Independent

9/2/2006 Butler (1AA) 10 at Albion (D3) 31

9/2/2006 Savannah St (1AA) 7 at Benedict (D2) 21

9/2/2006 Montana St (1AA) 19 at Colorado 10

9/2/2006 Principia (D3) 20 at Crown (NAIA) 28

9/2/2006 Richmond (1AA) 13 at Duke 0

9/2/2006 Montclair St (D3) 21 at Iona (1AA) 7

9/2/2006 St Ambrose (NAIA) 17 at Loras (D3) 15

9/2/2006 LaGrange (D3) 7 at Maryville (NAIA) 47

9/2/2006 Portland St (1AA) 17 at New Mexico 6

9/2/2006 Brevard (D2) 7 at Shorter (NAIA) 39

9/2/2006 UW-La Crosse (D3) 17 at S Dakota St (1AA) 3

9/2/2006 North Greenville (D2) 35 at Virginia-Wise (NAIA) 48

9/2/2006 West Liberty St (D2) 16 at Walsh (NAIA) 42

9/2/2006 Central Methodist (NAIA) 20 at Westminster MO (D3) 8

9/3/2006 TCU 17 at Baylor 7

9/3/2006 Urbana (NAIA) 37 vs Central St (D2) 26

9/7/2006 Oregon St 14 at Boise St 42

9/8/2006 New Jersey (D3) 24 at La Salle (1AA) 21

9/9/2006 Union KY (NAIA) 23 at Chowan (D2) 20

9/9/2006 Colorado 10 vs Colorado St 14

9/9/2006 Wingate (D2) 22 at Davidson (1AA) 16

9/9/2006 Seton Hill (NAIA) 17 at McDaniel (D3) 7

9/9/2006 Southern Oregon (NAIA) 16 at Menlo (D3) 13

9/9/2006 Chadron St (D2) 35 at Montana St (1AA) 24

9/9/2006 Morehead St (1AA) 7 at Newberry (D2) 23

9/9/2006 Akron 20 at North Carolina St 17

9/9/2006 North Dakota (D2) 35 at Northern Iowa (1AA) 31

9/9/2006 New Hampshire (1AA) 34 at Northwestern 17

9/9/2006 Augsburg (D3) 24 at Northwestern MN (NAIA) 31

9/9/2006 Stanford 34 at San Jose St 35

9/9/2006 Delta St (D2) 17 at SF Austin (1AA) 14

9/9/2006 Jamestown (NAIA) 20 at SW Minnesota St (D2) 17

9/9/2006 Trinity Int'l (NAIA) 39 at Valparaiso (1AA) 20

9/9/2006 St Peter's (1AA) 3 at Western Conn St (D3) 21