The Division I-AA Football Committee reviewed the administration of the 1999 championship during its recent meeting.

The committee, which met January 24-28 in Amelia Island, Florida, recognized the quality of the officiating throughout all rounds of the tournament. In addition, the group acknowledged the outstanding work performed by all the institutions that hosted contests during the first round, quarterfinals and semifinals.

Representatives of the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sports and Events Committee, host of the championship game along with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, also met with the football committee. They announced that attendance for the title contest rose for the second straight year.

Total attendance for the December 18, 1999, game between Georgia Southern University and Youngstown State University was 20,052, nearly 15 percent better than the 1998 figure. In 1997, the first time the final was held in Chattanooga, total attendance was 14,771.

The boost in total attendance was attributed in large part to support from the Chattanooga community. Ticket sales from the local organizing committee jumped by more than 50 percent to nearly 6,100.

Another positive championship-game increase involved the television rating. The ESPN telecast earned a 0.9 rating, which translated into an increase of the number of households viewing the game from 503,000 in 1998 to 709,000 in 1999.

The increase was considered significant given that the game was played during the same time period as two NFL games, the Division III championship final and the Heritage Bowl.

In other matters, the committee spent considerable time reviewing the championships handbook and operations manual. The group decided to expand the handbook to include a more detailed explanation of the procedures and principles it uses to select teams for the championship.

In other action, the committee:

Recommended granting automatic qualification for the 2000 championship to the Patriot League and the Atlantic 10, Big Sky, Gateway, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Ohio Valley, Southern and Southland Conferences.

Studied the process of seeding all 16 teams in the championship and refined the timetable for the evaluation of teams under consideration for at-large selection.

Reviewed the schedule of events during the week of the championship game and noted only minor adjustments would be necessary for 2000.