1978 NCAA Division II football season

1978 California Collegiate Athletic Association football standings
	$ – Conference champion; ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant; Rankings from Associated Press poll

1978 Association of Mid-Continent Universities football standings
	$ – Conference champion; ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant;

1978 NCAA Division II football season
Regular season	August – November 1978
Playoffs	December 1978
National Championship	Lobo Stadium; Longview, TX
Champion	Eastern Illinois

The 1978 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level, began in August 1978, and concluded with the NCAA Division II Football Championship in December 1978 at Lobo Stadium in Longview, Texas. The Eastern Illinois Panthers defeated the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens, 10–9, to win their first Division II national title.[1]

Conference changes and new programs

Five conferences and five other programs departed Division II for the newly formed Division I-AA.
The Mid-Continent Conference was established as a Division II football conference with six teams from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio.

School	1977 Conference	1978 Conference
Akron	D-II Independent	Mid-Continent
Bucknell	D-II Independent	I-AA Independent
Cal State Los Angeles	D-II Independent	Dropped program
Eastern Illinois	D-II Independent	Mid-Continent
Lafayette	D-II Independent	I-AA Independent
Lehigh	D-II Independent	I-AA Independent
Nevada	D-II Independent	I-AA Independent
Northern Colorado	GPAC	North Central
Northern Iowa	North Central	Mid-Continent
Portland State	D-II Independent	I-AA Independent
UNLV	D-II Independent	I-A Independent

Conference standings

1978 Far Western Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 4 UC Davis $^	5	–	0	–	0	8	–	3	–	0
Cal State Hayward	4	–	1	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
Humboldt State	3	–	2	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
Chico State	2	–	3	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
Sacramento State	1	–	4	–	0	1	–	9	–	0
San Francisco State	0	–	5	–	0	1	–	9	–	0

$ – Conference champion ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant Rankings from Associated Press poll

1978 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Grand Valley State $^	5	–	0	–	0	9	–	3	–	0
Wayne State (MI)	4	–	1	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Northwood	2	–	3	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Saginaw Valley State	1	–	3	–	1	4	–	5	–	1
Ferris State	1	–	3	–	1	3	–	5	–	2
Hillsdale	1	–	4	–	0	5	–	6	–	0

$ – Conference champion ^ – NAIA Division I playoff participant

1978 Heartland Collegiate Conference standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Indiana Central $	4	–	2	–	0	6	–	3	–	0
Valparaiso	3	–	2	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Saint Joseph's (IN)	3	–	2	–	0	5	–	4	–	1
Butler	3	–	2	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
Evansville	2	–	3	–	0	2	–	9	–	0
Franklin (IN)	1	–	6	–	0	1	–	9	–	0
Georgetown (KY) *	1	–	1	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Ashland *	1	–	0	–	0	2	–	8	–	0

$ – Conference champion * – ineligible for conference title

1978 Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
SW Missouri State $	6	–	0	–	0	8	–	3	–	0
NE Missouri State	5	–	1	–	0	6	–	4	–	1
Missouri-Rolla	4	–	2	–	0	8	–	3	–	0
SE Missouri State	2	–	4	–	0	6	–	5	–	0
Lincoln (MO)	2	–	4	–	0	3	–	8	–	0
Central Missouri State	2	–	4	–	0	2	–	8	–	0
NW Missouri State	0	–	6	–	0	0	–	11	–	0

$ – Conference champion ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant

1978 North Central Conference football standings
	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
South Dakota * $	5	–	0	–	1	7	–	4	–	0
No. 6 Nebraska–Omaha * ^	4	–	1	–	1	8	–	3	–	0
North Dakota State	3	–	3	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
North Dakota	3	–	3	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
South Dakota State	3	–	3	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
Augustana (SD)	2	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
Morningside	0	–	6	–	0	2	–	8	–	0

$ – Conference champion ^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant * – Nebraska–Omaha and South Dakota split two head-to-head games, which counted as a tie for each team in the conference standings. Rankings from AP Poll

1978 NCAA Division II independents football records
	Conf			Overall
Team	W	L	T	W		L		T
No. 3 Delaware ^		–		10	–	4	–	0
Northern Colorado		–		4	–	6	–	0
Central State (OH)		–		2	–	9	–	0

^ – NCAA Division II playoff participant Rankings from Associated Press poll

Conference summaries

Conference Champions
Association of Mid-Continent Universities – Youngstown State Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association – Winston-Salem State Far Western Football Conference – UC Davis Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Grand Valley State Gulf South Conference – Jacksonville State Lone Star Conference – Angelo State Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association – Southwest Missouri State North Central Conference – South Dakota Northern Intercollegiate Conference – Minnesota–Morris Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference – East Stroudsburg Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference – Western State South Atlantic Conference – Elon and Presbyterian Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Florida A&M

While the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) was a Division II conference, Florida A&M (FAMU) had successfully petitioned the NCAA for Division I classification (Division I-AA in football), which took effect on September 1, 1978.[2] FAMU subsequently competed in the 1978 Division I-AA postseason, winning the Division I-AA championship.

Postseason

1978 NCAA Division II Football Championship
Teams	8
Finals Site	Lobo Stadium Longview, TX
Champion	Eastern Illinois (1st title, 1st title game)
Runner-up	Delaware (2nd title game)
Semifinalists	Winston-Salem State Youngstown State
Winning Coach	Darrell Mudra 1st championship

The 1978 NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs were the sixth single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college football. The championship game was held at Lobo Stadium in Longview, Texas for the first time.

Playoff bracket

First round Campus sites		Semifinals Campus sites		Championship Lobo Stadium Longview, TX


Winston–Salem State	17

Cal Poly	10
		Winston–Salem State	0

		Delaware	41
Delaware	42

Jacksonville State	21
				Delaware	9

				Eastern Illinois	10
Youngstown State	21

Nebraska–Omaha	14
		Youngstown State	22

		Eastern Illinois	26
Eastern Illinois	35

UC Davis	31

References

"1978 NCAA Division II National Football Championship Bracket" (PDF). NCAA. NCAA.org. p. 13. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
Cooper, Barry (August 31, 1978). "Florida A&M granted Division 1 status". Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee, Florida. p. 1B. Retrieved May 13, 2019 – via newspapers.com.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "1978 NCAA Division II National Football Championship Bracket" (PDF). NCAA. NCAA.org. p. 13. Retrieved January 2, 2014.

[2] Cooper, Barry (August 31, 1978). "Florida A&M granted Division 1 status". Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee, Florida. p. 1B. Retrieved May 13, 2019 – via newspapers.com.

NCAA football seasons
Pre-divisional	1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
NCAA University Division	1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972
NCAA Division I	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977
NCAA Division I-A/FBS	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
NCAA Division I-AA/FCS	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020–21 2021
NCAA College Division	1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972
NCAA Division II	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
NCAA Division III	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021