The NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee has extended an invitation to College Sporting News (CSN) to have their Gridiron Power Index (GPI) used as a tool for the selection of teams for the 2009 NCAA Division I Football Championship.

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The GPI rankings will be specifically used for the purposes of evaluating the champion of a conference that does not receive automatic qualification into the championship on an at-large basis.

Beginning with the rankings produced after Saturday, October 24, 2009, CSN will provide the GPI weekly rankings of FCS football teams on Mondays. On the final weekend – championship selection weekend – CSN shall provide the GPI rankings to the NCAA on that Sunday morning.

The GPI rankings provided to the NCAA will be a modified version of the original that will not include margin of victory as a factor.

The GPI rankings will be provided to the NCAA on a complimentary basis and it is for the 2009 college football regular season only. The NCAA alone will decide whether to continue to use the rankings in its selection process in the future.

The NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee for the first time named outside tools as a selection criteria in 2008 using the GPI, the Sports Network Poll, and the FCS Coaches Poll. All three are used only for evaluating the champion of a conference that does not receive automatic qualification into the championship on an at-large basis. In addition to other criteria, the specified conference champion must average in the top 16 in each ranking to be considered.