Playoff changes come as no shock

By Pete Mollica

YSU AD Ron Strollo said there are plans to expand the FCS playoffs to include 24 teams.

YOUNGSTOWN — The NCAA Football Championship Subdivision will move its championship game from December to the eve of the Bowl Championship Series national championship game in January for the 2010 season.

That move coincides with the FCS’s plans for playoff expansion in 2010. It will expand from 16 teams to 20 teams.

Although the move came as a surprise to FCS fans, Youngstown State Athletic Director Ron Strollo already knew about it.

“I was on the committee that played a big part in getting the division to expand the playoffs to 20 teams in 2010,” Strollo said.

“After that was completed, the committee found themselves facing several problems,” he said. “Since it was going to add another week to the season the committee came up with three possible solutions.”

The first option was to move the start of the season up one week, but that would have meant bringing in the student athletes earlier before classes began and creating additional expenses, he said.

The second option was to eliminate the bye week, but that would create too many scheduling headaches, Strollo said.

“So they ended up going with option three,” Strollo said.

“It’s really only going to involve two teams, who will have to extend their seasons a couple more weeks, but the committee felt that it would enable the division to take advantage of all the media involvement over the BCS game and cash in that way.”

Strollo said the playoff expansion will include two automatic bids and two at-large bids. The two new conference automatic bids would be the Big South and Great North.

Under the new proposal, the postseason tournament would begin Thanksgiving weekend and continue on a weekly basis. Semifinal games would be on campus sites in mid-December with the two winners receiving a break until the first week in January 2011 when the title game would be played on the eve of the BCS national championship game.

The site for the 2010 FCS title game will be Chattanooga, Tenn., which has hosted the contest the past 11 years.

“I know that Chattanooga has really enjoyed hosting this championship and I also know that they would like to continue it even if it is in January,” Strollo said.

“We’ve been getting excellent television coverage throughout our playoffs in recent years. In the first two rounds we’ve had several games on and both semifinal games along with the title game have been televised for years,” he added.

Strollo said money was the main reason for the decision.

“It would cost a whole lot more money to bring all of the FCS teams in a week early to start the season than it will be to bring in two teams at the end of the season.”

Strollo said the committee wants to bring the Subdivision playoffs up to 24 teams.

“With that situation there would be eight first-round byes and the other 16 teams would play,” said Strollo. “From there it would be the same as a 16-team playoff.”