No, there's an attendance requirement in Division 1, not enrollment or stadium capacity requirement.
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Twelve schools in the NCAA's top football division are on notice. They aren't putting enough fans in the seats, USA TODAY reports this morning. If they don't put more fans in the seats, the NCAA could kick them to a lower division.
What's this rule? Our story explains: "The NCAA's attendance requirement for continued full-fledged status in the association's Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A) can be met if a school averages 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home games one time during a rolling two-year period."
The 12 schools are: Bowling Green, Louisiana-Monroe, Ball State, Temple, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Utah State, Akron, Rice, Buffalo, Kent State and Eastern Michigan. Read the full story to see how they all drew -- or more accurately, didn't draw -- in 2005. |
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Divisions are LEAST about enrollment. It's all about athletic funding and what your school is willing to pay (hence why the NCAA's FIRST criteria for granting D1 status is about how many scholarships you are willing to offer). Notre Dame, Duke, Rice, etc. have under 10,000 students (maybe Duke has moved above that line by now) but are willing to shell out 50-80 million (Duke/Rice) and 120 million (Notre Dame) for their athletic budgets to offer the full amount of scholarships.
This is an issue that has been beat for five years at this school...every single excuse has been brought up, every excuse has been shot down, because it's a ridiculous move to make. GVSU makes more money being in D2 and competing for national championships in every sport than they would moving to D1 and playing for a shot to the Motor City Bowl and maybe being above average in non-major sports like track or swimming.