Spot Why Division I-A and I-AA Became FBS and FCS in 2006

1978: one division becomes two

Before the 1978 season, the NCAA split its top football division in two. The upper group took the name "Division I-A," and the remaining programs became "Division I-AA." For almost three decades that was the vocabulary, one set of letters for the schools that went to bowls and a longer set for the tier below. Search phrases such as "ncaa football (fbs i)" still carry a trace of it: that stray letter at the end is the Roman numeral of the division both tiers belong to, hanging on long after the A's were dropped.

2006: the letters go, the mouthful arrives

Before the 2006 season, the upper tier became the Football Bowl Subdivision and the lower tier became the Football Championship Subdivision. The logic is readable in the names themselves. The top tier ended its seasons in bowl games. The second tier ended its season in an NCAA championship bracket. Each subdivision was named for its postseason, and neither name mentions which one is bigger. The AP story frames the whole switch as a response to that sore spot, not as a change in who played whom.

That was probably the point. It was also a lot of syllables. Say "Football Championship Subdivision" out loud three times and it becomes obvious why the initials do nearly all the work in the headlines, including every 2026 report on the newest FBS schools.

Six years later, still an identity problem

By 2012 the FCS label had critics inside the subdivision. Missouri Valley Football Conference commissioner Patty Viverito told the AP, "Football Championship Subdivision is a mouthful, and it doesn't make the case for our Division I stature." Southern Conference commissioner John Iamarino was more resigned: "I almost think we just ought to grit our teeth and work a little harder and make FCS work." The same story reported that the NCAA was funding a rebranding effort aimed at a 2013 rollout, timed to the FCS bracket growing from 20 teams to 24.

No record turned up in my search showing that any replacement name was adopted. Every 2026 report on schools moving between tiers still says FCS, which suggests Iamarino's teeth-gritting approach won by default.

The name that aged strangely

The best irony in the whole arrangement came later. The Football Bowl Subdivision now crowns its national champion through a playoff. The College Football Playoff replaced the BCS in 2014, used four teams through the 2023 season and has used 12 since, with the format held at 12 through 2026-27. Bowls still matter, but the tier named for bowls ends its year with a bracket, which is exactly what the Championship Subdivision was named for.

The banner that went to the wrong school

The same 2012 AP story contains a line that belongs in any history of these names. North Dakota State had just won the FCS title, and its championship banner "was mistakenly mailed to the University of North Dakota." In-state rivals, one wrong address, one very confusing package. Who signed for it is a mystery: the story does not say, and no later account I found fills the gap.

NDSU kept winning anyway. CBS Sports counts 10 FCS national championships for the Bison since 2011, and on July 1, 2026, the school left the subdivision altogether for the Mountain West and FBS. Its first game in the top tier, on August 29, was a 33-7 win over Jacksonville State in Fargo. The program that once could not get its FCS banner delivered to the right door has now moved to a new address of its own. The mailroom, one hopes, has the forwarding details.