An attempt by the NCAA to regulate the influx of Division I-AA football programs to I-A could be reality as soon as soon as the 2001 season.
The NCAA is considering a proposal that would require schools to average 17,000 fans over a four-year period.
Currently, the Mid-American Conference does not have all of its schools meeting the current proposed guidelines.
An example is Eastern Michigan, who averaged 11,882 fans last year.
At CMU, the average last season was 17,938.
Dennis Poppe, NCAA Championships Director and member of the Football Issues Committee, said the earliest the proposal could take effect would be the 2001 season.
"The Management Council will review the proposal in October," Poppe said.
"If it (proposal) receives a passing vote, it would then be voted on in April by the board of directors. The average in the proposal is a four-year cumulative average."
According to Poppe, a school could average 16,000 fans for two years and 18,000 the other two years and still be in compliance with the proposal guidelines.
The NCAA Management Council has other options when reviewing the proposal.
The council can vote to send the proposal forward with an amendment, vote to not send the proposal, or send the proposal back to the Football Issues Committee.
According to the NCAA's proposal 2000-36, the intent is 'to specify that a Division I-A institution shall satisfy football attendance requirements only if it averages 17,000 in actual paid attendance per home contest in the immediate four-year period and to eliminate all exceptions/waivers to those requirements; further, to require actual use of a ticket sold at a regularly established ticket price in order to count the ticket in computing attendance figures; further, to require the institution's annual audit to verify attendance to be conducted by an outside firm and verified by the national office staff; and, finally, if an institution fails to meet the requirements, it shall be placed in a restricted membership category for a maximum of three years.'
The only exception to the policy is for schools in Division I-AA that are currently completing the compliance period to attain Division I-A classification.
Those Division I-AA schools may apply previous attendance figures until the effective date of the new legislation.
Chippewa Head Football Coach Mike DeBord, believes the classifications should be based on the school's ability to maintain a Division I-A program.
"If a school is able to fund a Division I program, then they should be able to have it," DeBord said.
"The only thing the football staff can do is work hard, play hard and win games. We have great support from the community and alumni. One of the things they do need to look at is inclement weather conditions affecting attendance."
Under the current guidelines, exceptions are in place that schools can use for meeting attendance requirements.
The proposal in its current form would remove any requirement exceptions.
Herb Deromedi, CMU athletics director, said Central has always met attendance guidelines.
"As far as the proposal's guidelines of counting attendance, we are already count our attendance that way," Deromedi said.
"We are fortunate to have a program that averages 17,000 people each and every year."
Scheduling, bowl agreements, weather and other factors are continued to be discussed if the proposal is passed into legislation.
Actions taken against schools who are in danger of, or will be demoted to I-AA would be left up to the conference the school is in.
MAC commissioner Rick Chryst was unavailable for comment at press time.