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 in the Pioneer Bowl on December 18, at Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Eastern Kentucky Colonels won their second I-AA championship, defeating the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens, 17âÂÂ14.
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 â 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 â all eight members
- Southland Conference â 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 â 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 â 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 involuntarily 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.
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Next to team name denotes host institution
References