Woe be unto any organization that gives sports columnists an opportunity to exercise their greatest muscle: glibness maximus.

Such a stimulus occurred this fall when Divisions I-A and I-AA changed their names to the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision.

The possibility of the change was first mentioned in The NCAA News in February 2005 and was considered at several governance levels before its approval in August 2006. The new terminology became effective in January 2007.

The only sound heard from mainstream media over that period was a yawn.

However, the beginning of the 2007 football season shook some sportswriters out of hibernation on the topic, and Appalachian State’s September 1 upset of Michigan threw others into rhetorical overdrive. Here are some outtakes:

• “Hey, it’s all about branding, about establishing an identity, even a false one so long as it makes you feel warm and fuzzy. It’s the same logic they use to give ribbons to all nine finishers at the youth swim meet.” (Kirk Bohls, Austin American-Statesman, under the headline “More NCAA gobbledygook”)

• “...Divisions I-AA and I-AAA are crybabies. So in order to get the two to suck on their pacifiers again, the NCAA changed the names of the divisions to make it more ‘fair.’ ” (Tyler Wilson, Purdue Exponent)

• “We already knew that I-A teams played in bowls and I-AA teams duked it out in a playoff. So who are the brainiacs who took away our letters? Blame these four N-C-A-A .... We don’t need FBS to see the Full-Blown Silliness of this change.” (Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune)

Certainly, the Association has been subjected to harsher criticism than the foregoing. But the comments do illustrate how contemporary sportswriting often places wit in front of substance.

Throughout the process on this issue, proponents said their purpose was to clarify that there are no Division I subdivisions in any sport other than football. The public historically has not understood that fact, in large part because the media has not understood it. References to “I-AAA baseball programs” and the like have been common for years, and affected member institutions and conferences were understandably interested in finding a remedy. Big Sky Conference Commissioner Doug Fullerton articulated their position well in an NCAA News guest editorial that appeared in August 2006.