1978 NCAA Division I-AA football season

The 1978 NCAA Division I-AA football season was the first season of Division I-AA college football. Division I-AA was created in January 1978 when Division I was subdivided into Division I-A and Division I-AA for football only. It was anticipated that 65 Division I football schools would transition to Division I-AA. Instead, just eight programs (seven teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which had just joined Division I a year before, plus independent Northwestern State) voluntarily opted for Division I-AA for the 1978 season. They were joined by 35 schools that had reclassified from Division II.

The season began in August 1978 and concluded with the Division I-AA Football Championship Game, played on December 16 at Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Florida A&M Rattlers won the first I-AA championship, defeating the UMass Minutemen 35–28 in the Pioneer Bowl. Florida A&M of 1978 remains the only HBCU program to play in (and win) the I-AA/FCS national championship game.

Initial membership

 * The Southwestern Athletic was the only conference competing in the 1977 NCAA Division I football season to join Division I-AA in 1978.
 * Four conferences, the Big Sky, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Ohio Valley, and Yankee, transitioned from Division II to Division I, classifying their football programs in Division I-AA.
 * Of the eight programs moving to Division I-AA as independents, one came from Division I and seven came from Division II.


 * ^ Idaho was previously in Division I for football, but also a member of the Big Sky Conference (D-II for football only)

NCAA Division I-AA playoff bracket
The bracket consisted of three regional selections (West, East, and South) plus an at-large team. Florida A&M (FAMU) of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) was the at-large selection. While the SIAC was a Division II conference, FAMU had successfully petitioned the NCAA for Division I classification (Division I-AA in football), which took effect on September 1, 1978.

* Denotes host institution