Date of Award
6-19-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Sport Administration, MS
First Advisor
David LaVetter
Committee Members
Chris Mellor; Lance Bryant
Abstract
Increasingly universities are leaving the lower Football Championship Series (FCS) for the potentially greener pastures of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), but are they really greener? Is bigger always better? Since 2008, there have been 17 universities that have reclassified to the NCAA FBS subdivision. The purpose of this study was to study NCAA FCS to FBS reclassification from 2008 to 2023 to research the athletics and non-athletics related impacts that occurred and what factors most influenced the universities in the sample to choose to pursue reclassification. The study used a quantitative approach to more holistically research the impact of FCS to FBS reclassification. The study researched financial, athletic, and institutional metrics using public data sources over a period of four years before reclassification and four years after reclassification of the respective university. One way Analysis of Variance and Tukey’s Honestly Significance Difference post-hoc test was used to determine statistical significance and to identify significant differences. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the effects after reclassification until 2023 to study long term effects of reclassification. The 10 universities in the FBS reclassifying sample would be compared to data from a sample of non-reclassifying FCS universities for direct comparison over the same time period. The results of the study showed the majority of the universities in the FBS reclassifying sample increased applications for admissions, increased enrollment, increased generated revenues, and improved university academic rankings. However, the universities also increased expenses and decreased profitability. The results from the study reveal short and long term athletics and non-athletics effects of reclassification, informing administrators of considerations for future reclassification decisions.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Shaffer, Kyle, "Impact of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Reclassification on Universities" (2026). Student Theses and Dissertations. 1164.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/1164
