Barring a catastrophic event, the NIU football team should attract a large enough crowd Saturday to meet the required Division I-A attendance quota.

In order for a football program to maintain its Division I-A

Standing, it must generate an average of 17,000 fans at home or 20,000 counting the home and away attendance figures, once every five years.

NIU sailed the home and away route. Particularly because their home attendance sunk for the 1990 season. The final number ended at 13,433, a mark that Head Coach Jerry Pettibone wanted to be higher.

“It didn’t happen,” Pettibone said. “I would have liked to have seen us make it here. But I was never really concerned (about making the quota.)”

After the first ten games of the season, the Huskies are averaging 21,829 per game. That number is obviously skewed after the game in Lincoln, Nebraska where 76,043 attended the contest.

Heading into the match-up this weekend with Southwest Louisiana, NIU needs just 1,706 fans to make the quota. Projections for the attendance are estimated at 18,000.

No matter what the actual number is, the Huskies seem to be headed for Division I-A play through 1996.

“It’s very important to maintain Division I-A football,” Pettibone said. “I felt confident that with the record of this team, that if it didn’t happen this year, it would’ve happened next year.”