The

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I FCS Mid Major National

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Championship was a label that began in 2001 and ended after the 2007 season. Prior to 2001,

mid-major Mid-major is a term used in American NCAA Division I college sports, particularly men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the "Power Five conferences" (the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC), which are alternativ ...

National Champions were named by various polls like Don Hansen's National Weekly Football Gazette and the Dopke collegesportsreport.com polls, but no "consensus" champion was named. Beginning with the 2008 season, the Sports Network ceased the mid-major poll and began including the teams previously ranked in the mid-major poll into more serious consideration for the full Division I FCS poll. Generally, the teams that were ranked in the poll were from three conferences, the

Pioneer Football League The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference. It has member s ...

, the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

, and the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and N ...

(before pulling sponsorship of FCS football after the 2007 season). These conferences were three of six Division I FCS football conferences that did not receive automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision championship tournament. (Beginning with the 2010 season, the winner of the Northeast Conference has been awarded an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. The Pioneer Football League did not receive an automatic bid, or any at-large bids for that matter, until 2013.) The Sports Network Cup was awarded annually to the winner. Like the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

, the Sports Network Cup was a traveling trophy. It spent the year at the winning school and was passed on to the next winner annually. The polls that were used to determine the annual champion are the Sports Network (for which the trophy is named), Don Hansen's National Weekly Football Gazette, and the Dopke College Sports Report Polls. (Notes: A team did not have to be named the national champion by all three polls in order to win the Sports Network Cup. They were only named so by the Sports Network. Hence, the trophy was named the Sports Network Cup. "Consensus" in this instance then meant more in the regard of the Sports Network's authority to name a national champion rather than an agreement by all three major polls.)

Mid-major national football consensus champions

Sports Network Cup champions

The voting for the Sports Network Cup champions consisted of media covering FCS mid-major schools, as well as media relations professionals from each of the eligible institutions. *Note: Score equals the number of first place votes

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Sports Network - Football Championship Subdivision
Division I FCS Consensus Mid-Major Football National Championship Recurring sporting events established in 2001 Recurring events disestablished in 2007 2007 disestablishments in the United States

Mid-major national football consensus champions

Sports Network Cup champions

See also

References

External links