Since the major schools can't control who joins Division I, I really don't see them eliminating I-AA.

What seems more likely is eliminating the restrictions on counting I-AA games for bowl qualification. It helps I-AA and it helps the BCS schools since it reduces the cost of "money" games. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few years back with the Nebraska AD complaining about the cost to get San Jose or Akron to come to Lincoln.

I think San Jose State cannot weather even that modification. That might be the extent of it, however.

There is something sensible about the two-year distinction. Conference schedules being what they are means that the theoretical "rivalry" game is hosted every other year. That game alone pays a lot of bills, theoretically. Theoretically, it's only fair to include this in the mix.

I agree once in 2 years makes sense, but why lower the standard? If they use paid, why not keep it at 17,000? Now they only had to meet the old standard once every 4 years (and they had the 20k home and road and conference exemptions), but I believe the 15k was selected because the 17k wasn't actually fans in the stands. Now they are making it quite a bit easier. 17k was a harder hurdle to reach for many schools.

The strict rules they were proposing made perhaps 22 schools likely to fail, with schools like Toledo and WMU in trouble because their conference would disappear. I count 16 schools failing the proposed rule over the last 8 years, but most barely failed. At 17k, 22 schools failed, with a majority by a good margin.

It kind of defeats the purpose if they make it easier to get in and easier to meet the requirements on your own (i.e. w/o conference exemption help).

If this passes, there are still 7 schools that will have serious difficulties meeting the spirit of the rule, Kent, Buffalo, E. Michigan, Akron, San Jose, Arkansas St. and Louisiana Monroe. Now if they leave the loopholes big enough to drive an 18 wheeler through (Ark. St. hosting Missouri in Kansas City, La Mo hosting Arkansas in Little Rock with Arkansas getting all the money), even fewer will struggle.

And FAU and FIU still haven't met the old standards.

Yes, if there were any backbone to it, the attendance requirement would "excuse" about 20 schools from IA. Whether that would be a good thing is subject to your interpretation.

I believe part of that is exaggerated...I don't know of any full-time student that takes 24 credit hours!!! Maybe it's different in Florida, but where i'm from and probably most places it would take 7 or 8 classes to get 24 hours...

330 dollars isn't a whole lot to complain about...I know at my college athletic fees went up every year...If I was an FAU or FIU student i would definitely be at 90% of all home games in most every sport...especially football...because that's where most of the money is going...They have to make a commitment if they really want to attend football games at the Highest Level...