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1979 NCAA Division I-AA season
1979 NCAA Division I-AA season
Regular season
Number of teams	42
Duration	August–November
Playoff
Duration	December 8–December 15
Championship date	December 15, 1979
Championship site	Orlando Stadium; Orlando, Florida
Champion	Eastern Kentucky
NCAA Division I-AA football seasons
	«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-AA level, began in August 1979, and concluded with the 1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game 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.^[1]

Conference changes and new programs

School	1978 Conference	1979 Conference
East Tennessee State	Ohio Valley (I-AA)	Southern (I-A)
Nevada	I-AA Independent	Big Sky

1979 Big Sky Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Boise State *	7	–	0	–	0	10	–	1	–	0
No. 9 Montana State $	6	–	1	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
No. 5 Nevada ^	5	–	2	–	0	8	–	4	–	0
No. T–10 Northern Arizona	3	–	4	–	0	7	–	4	–	0
Weber State	3	–	4	–	0	3	–	8	–	0
Idaho	2	–	5	–	0	4	–	7	–	0
Montana	2	–	5	–	0	3	–	7	–	0
Idaho State	0	–	7	–	0	0	–	11	–	0

$ – Conference champion ^ – NCAA Division I-AA playoff participant * – Boise State was on probation Rankings from NCAA Division I-AA AP Poll

1979 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football standings
v t e	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

1979 Ohio Valley Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 2 Murray State $^	6	–	0	–	0	9	–	2	–	1
No. 3 Eastern Kentucky ^	5	–	1	–	0	11	–	2	–	0
Morehead State	3	–	2	–	1	5	–	4	–	1
Western Kentucky	3	–	3	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
Austin Peay	2	–	4	–	0	7	–	4	–	0
Middle Tennessee	1	–	5	–	0	1	–	9	–	0
Tennessee Tech	0	–	5	–	1	1	–	8	–	2

$ – Conference champion ^ – NCAA Division I-AA playoff participant Rankings from Associated Press poll

1979 Southwestern Athletic Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 6 Alcorn State +	5	–	1	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
No. 1 Grambling State +	5	–	1	–	0	8	–	3	–	0
No. 8 Jackson State	4	–	2	–	0	8	–	3	–	0
No. T–10 Southern	4	–	2	–	0	7	–	4	–	0
Mississippi Valley State	2	–	4	–	0	4	–	5	–	0
Texas Southern	1	–	5	–	0	3	–	8	–	0
Prairie View A&M	0	–	6	–	0	0	–	11	–	0

+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from Associated Press poll

1979 Yankee Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 7 Boston University +	4	–	1	–	0	8	–	1	–	1
UMass +	4	–	1	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
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 Associated Press poll

1979 NCAA Division I-AA independents football standings
v t e	Conf			Overall
Team	W	L	T	W		L		T
No. 4 Lehigh ^		–		10	–	3	–	0
Florida A&M		–		7	–	4	–	0
Portland State		–		6	–	5	–	0
Lafayette		–		5	–	3	–	2
Bucknell		–		4	–	4	–	2
Northwestern State		–		3	–	6	–	0
Northeastern		–		3	–	7	–	0

^ – NCAA Division I-AA playoff participant Rankings from Associated Press poll

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

The bracket consisted of three regional selections (West, East, and South) plus Eastern Kentucky as an at-large selection.^[2]

Semifinals December 8 Campus sites			National Championship Game December 15 Orlando Stadium Orlando, Florida

East	Lehigh	28

South	Murray State*	9
			East	Lehigh	7

			AtLg	Eastern Kentucky	30
West	Nevada	30

AtLg	Eastern Kentucky*	33**

* Next to name denotes host institution
* Next to score denotes overtimes

^ "1979 NCAA Division I Football Championship" (PDF). NCAA.org. p. 14. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
^ "Eastern Kentucky Gains Football Playoff Berth". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. December 3, 1979. p. 36. Retrieved February 9, 2019 – via newspapers.com.