Nicholls State and other Division I-AA football teams will be known as Division I starting in December, a move taken by the NCAA to better distinguish Division I schools for the purpose of governing football. Along with the dropping of the I-AA name, Division I will have new labels distinguishing the different subdivisions of college football. I-A will be classified as the “Football Bowl Subdivision” for all I-A teams participating in season ending bowl games and I-AA as the “NCAA Football Championship Subdivision” for teams such as Nicholls participating in playoff games.

Colonels football Head Coach Jay Thomas said he is pleased with the new name change. He said it better represents the high level of play among the smaller conferences in the country.

“If you look at the play of the I-AA teams in the first few weeks of this season, you see that the talent level is right up there with the bigger D-I schools,” Thomas said.

Athletics Director Rob Bernardi said the change would help clear up the confusion brought up concerning all Nicholls athletics and the I-AA classification.

“Football is the most confusing sport to the public because of the different subdivisions,” Bernardi said. “Football is the only sport classified as I-AA, every other sport on campus is Division I.”

The number of scholarships given to a football team is what determines the difference in classification. Where a D-I school has a total of 85 scholarships for football, Nicholls can only offer 63.

“By doing this, hopefully it will provide more clarity and distinction, inevitably enhancing I-AA football,” Bernardi said.

With most D-I football teams having a 12 game schedule, Bernardi said the name change helps in scheduling bigger D-I opponents in the future. “It makes us more attractive to other schools because it’s another home game for them,” he said.

Bernardi also said the Southland Conference is voting in January on adding another game to the schedule for conference teams, which he believes will help teams schedule more non-conference opponents.

“If you look back before the 12 game schedules, it was hard to get even one game,” Bernardi said. “Now if you look around the conference you have Southeastern and Northwestern playing at least three I-A teams every year, and that’s something we’d like to do as well.