• Commitment to student-athletes.

• Ensure a quality education.

• Support athletics participation.

• Diverse membership.

These are the core values that the NCAA articulates. This is the same NCAA that is considering an attendance requirement of 15,000 fans per game for institutions to continue participating in Division I-A football.

We believe that this potential requirement is misguided and should not be implemented.

The purpose of intercollegiate athletics is not to generate the greatest attendance. The general goals of the NCAA are articulated above, and more specifically, these goals are first and foremost educational in nature. Every aspect of NCAA sports should be focused on the academic success of our student-athletes as the primary goal. An attendance requirement does not meet this test, as all it will do is deny opportunities for many student-athletes.

The denial of opportunities will come in the form of relegation of institutions away from Division I-A. In our conference, the Mid-American Conference, competing in Division I-A football is a requirement for membership. If some of our institutions are required to leave the MAC because of inability to meet an attendance requirement, the effect will be the loss of significant financial resources that our institutions rely on to support the nonrevenue sports. This will have the effect of providing fewer scholarships and less financial support for our female student-athletes in particular, which simply is an unacceptable result. Why should we penalize the student-athletes with the best academic performance?

Why is this attendance requirement being considered? Let's get it on the table: It is all about money. Money for whom? More money for the BCS schools to share among themselves. Again, this has nothing to do with student-athlete welfare. With fewer schools in Division I-A, there will be fewer schools to share television and bowl money. Members of our conference, when given the chance, have proven themselves on the field. We have been proving ourselves consistently in the classroom.

If there should be any benchmark for whether an institution should remain in Division I-A, then should that not be graduation rates? The NCAA is reconfiguring the manner in which graduation rates are computed, and the NCAA also is considering measures to reward and penalize schools based on graduation rates. We support any such guidelines that are based on academic performance. We do not support any guidelines based on how much money a school can generate for the BCS pool.

We firmly believe that the proposed attendance requirement conflicts with the core academic mission of the NCAA. We strongly urge that this requirement be eliminated from consideration.

The Faculty Athletics Representatives of the Mid-American Conference