DeKALB, Ill. -- Welcome to major college football's hinterlands -- both literally and figuratively.

It's a cold, crisp Saturday morning in early October and rising out of the corn fields in this rural farming community 60 miles west of Chicago is Huskie Stadium. Still two hours from an early afternoon kickoff, the campus of Northern Illinois University -- at least the stadium's immediate surroundings -- is already in top tailgate mode.

The RVs have their flags flying and their mini-dishes in place, the red and white tents are protecting early arriving fans from the unseasonably cold weather and the grills have been fired up since 9:30 outside the 31,000-seat stadium. On the field, the NIU band is practicing its halftime performance for what hopefully will be a "big" crowd on Homecoming against the University of Central Florida.

	How the MAC stacks up
	Rank	Team	Home Att.
	1.	Michigan	110,825
	69.	Toledo	28,964
	73.	Marshall	28,017
	74.	W. Michigan	27,528
	89.	N. Illinois	21,415
	93.	Ohio	19,985
	96.	C. Michigan	18,954
	105.	Ball State	14,846
	106.	Miami (Ohio)	14,566
	109.	Buffalo	11,608
	110.	E. Michigan	11,387
	111.	Akron	10,763
	113.	Kent St.	9,778
	114.	Bowling Green	9,194
	115.	San Jose St.	9,081

Like most Mid-American Conference schools, this scene is smaller than the one found at its Big Ten counterparts -- for which they're competing against for fan support and media attention -- but is it still "major" college football?

That's a question the NCAA is considering. Proposal No. 2000-36 before the Management Council is looking into football attendance requirements for Division I-A institutions. If passed, it would require all 115 (and growing) I-A schools to average more than 17,000 in actual paid attendance for the most recent four-year period. The one loophole is that a school would be exempt if at least half of its conference members meet the requirement.

According to the NCAA, the current bylaw for Division I-A football status dates back to 1978 and includes two major requirements: the stadium must have at least 30,000 permanent seats and the school must have averaged 17,000 in paid home attendance at least once in the most recent four-year period. A key exception to the attendance requirement states that a school can maintain its I-A status if it has averaged more than 20,000 in paid attendance for all of its games (home and road) in the same period.

What the current proposal would do is eliminate most of the exceptions and waivers to the current criteria and force schools to actually average 17,000 per home game and be able to prove it with an audit by an outside firm -- which would then have to be verified by the NCAA.

	“	As a I-A school you're viewed differently. I think being I-A brings so much more prominence -- regardless of the revenue -- it's the way people look at you. ”
		— N. Illinois A.D. Cary Groth

That's a problem in the MAC. Only six of the 13 schools are currently over the 17,000 mark for this season. On the top of the scale are Toledo and Marshall, which each average nearly 29,000 per home game. At the bottom end are Bowling Green and Kent State with fewer than 10,000 fans in average home attendance.

"I think line drawing like this is a natural part of the evolution," MAC commissioner Rick Chryst said. "My sense would be that the ultimate line drawing will be overall programmatic in nature. It's been our belief that whatever standard is out there, this conference is going to meet it."

NIU is averaging 21,415 after two home games, meaning the Huskies need at least 14,057 fans for each of their final three home games to meet the 17,000 figure. The best NIU has been able to average for an entire season in the past four years was 15,475 in 1998.

"Whether the legislation goes through or not, it's our responsibility to increase attendance," NIU athletic director Cary Groth said. "We're an institution that's struggling for average attendance but we've had a lousy program. It will be difficult for us but it's not impossible.

"The one thing that dictates attendance most often is a competitiveness of your program and who you're playing at home."

The MAC has proved more than competitive this season with wins over three Big Ten schools (Western Michigan beat Iowa, Ohio beat Minnesota and Toledo beat Penn State) and one SEC school (Miami, Ohio beat Vanderbilt). But all those games were on the road.

That's in part because there's little or no incentive -- competitively or monetarily -- for a top-level program to play a road game against a MAC school.

And this year's schedule underlines that problem. Of the 13 MAC schools, seven play at least one Division I-AA school (Toledo played both Weber State and Eastern Illinois) at home and four play host to Connecticut -- a provisional member in its first season at I-A.

The other non-conference favorite for the MAC is UCF, which played at Akron, Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois.

The only school from one of the top six conferences to visit the MAC this year was when Pittsburgh played at Bowling Green.

"I think we can make real strides on the scheduling side," Chryst said. "That's one of the big challenges this conference has -- scheduling in a way where high-level competition will come into our stadiums and we've got to break through that somehow.

"Whether or not we make progress on it is going to be a litmus test of where we're at in the next five years."

The MAC may get a temporary reprieve from the NCAA Management Council at this week's meeting when Proposal No. 2000-36 could be tabled until a later date. "It looks like it's being folded into a lot of the overall governance discussions and I would guess it would probably come up in the April (2001) meeting," Chryst said.

The attendance legislation was originally introduced by Southland Conference commissioner Greg Sankey as a way to slow the recent migration of schools from I-AA to I-A.

Since 1989, 12 schools have jumped classes and at least two more -- South Florida and Troy State -- are expected to make the move next season.

"I-A is supposed to be the highest level of collegiate football in this country," Sankey said. "We feel that we need to modify the standards to slow the migration."

Sankey says that schools are making the move for a number of reasons, including the prestige that goes along with being able to call yourself a I-A institution.

Which is one of the reasons NIU is fighting to stay above the bar.

"As a I-A school you're viewed differently," Groth said. "I think being I-A brings so much more prominence -- regardless of the revenue -- it's the way people look at you."

The Huskies beat UCF 40-20 on this day and sent the Homecoming crowd of 18,148 away happy, but whether NIU and the MAC can win the ultimate game to stay in Division I's top football class is still in doubt.

"I'm confident we'll meet whatever standard is out there," Chryst said. "I've never felt paralyzed by the proposed attendance legislation. Wherever the line gets drawn, I'm convinced we'll meet it."

The answer to that "major" question remains to be seen.

David Albright is a Senior Editor for ESPN.com.