1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season

1979 NCAA Division I-AA season
Duration	August – November 1979
Playoff
Duration	December 8–15, 1979
Championship site	Orlando Stadium, Orlando, FL
Champion	Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Division I-AA football season
«1978 1980»

The 1979 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 Football Championship Subdivision level, began in August 1979, and concluded with the National Championship Game of the NCAA Division I Football Championship on December 15, 1979, at Orlando Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

The Eastern Kentucky Colonels won their first I-AA championship, defeating the Lehigh Engineers by a final score of 30−7.

Conference changes and new programs

School	1978 Conference	1979 Conference
Bethune-Cookman	SIAC (II)	MEAC (I-AA)
East Tennessee State	Ohio Valley (I-AA)	Southern (I-A)
Florida A&M	SIAC (II)	MEAC (I-AA)
Morgan State	MEAC (I-AA)	D-II Independent
Nevada	I-AA Independent	Big Sky
North Carolina Central	MEAC (I-AA)	CIAA (D-II)

Conference standings

Template:1979 Big Sky football standings	1979 MEAC football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Morgan State $ 5 – 0 – 0     9 – 2 – 0 South Carolina State 4 – 1 – 0     8 – 3 – 0 North Carolina A&T 2 – 2 – 1     4 – 6 – 1 Howard 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 6 – 0 Delaware State 1 – 4 – 1     4 – 5 – 1 North Carolina Central 1 – 4 – 0     2 – 8 – 1 Maryland Eastern Shore 0 – 0 – 0     3 – 7 – 1 $ – Conference champion Maryland Eastern Shore games did not count as conference games in 1979 Rankings from Associated Press poll	Template:1979 Ohio Valley football standings
Template:1979 SWAC football standings	1979 Yankee Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T UMass + 4 – 1 – 0     6 – 4 – 0 #7 Boston University + 4 – 1 – 0     8 – 1 – 1 Connecticut 3 – 1 – 1     3 – 6 – 2 New Hampshire 2 – 2 – 1     5 – 4 – 2 Maine 1 – 4 – 0     1 – 9 – 1 Rhode Island 0 – 5 – 0     2 – 9 – 0 + – Conference co-champions Rankings from NCAA I-AA Poll	1979 NCAA Division I-AA independents football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Lehigh ^   –       10 – 3 – 0 Portland State   –       6 – 5 – 0 Lafayette   –       5 – 3 – 2 Bucknell   –       3 – 6 – 0 Northwestern State   –       1 – 9 – 1 $ – Conference champion ^ – Division I-AA playoff participant

Conference champions

See also: List of NCAA Division I-AA/FCS football seasons

Conference champions
Big Sky Conference – Montana State Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – Morgan State Ohio Valley Conference – Murray State Southwestern Athletic Conference – Alcorn State and Grambling State Yankee Conference – Boston University and Massachusetts

Postseason

NCAA Division I-AA Playoff bracket

	Semifinals December 8 Campus Sites					National Championship Game December 15 Orlando Stadium Orlando, FL
	Lehigh		28
	Murray State*		9
						Lehigh		7
						Eastern Kentucky		30
	Nevada		30
	Eastern Kentucky* (2OT)		33

* Denotes host institution