Inaccurate student counts may have saved CMU’s Division I status in 2004

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An average of 43 people might have kept Central Michigan football in Division I status in 2004.

Teams have to average a 15,000 attendance once every two years to keep Division I status: CMU had 15,043. In 2003 CMU averaged 13,919, making 2004 a crucial season in CMU football history, and students knew it.

“Students got counted multiple times to help the attendance numbers,” said 2004 graduate Paul Constanzo. “It was a running joke. Everyone knew it was happening. It was well known.”

Constanzo, at the time a senior reporter at Central Michigan Life, wrote a column about how he and a friend entered and left the stadium multiple times; They were counted as eight people. Constanzo said another one of his friends was counted “20-plus times.”

Herb Deromedi, athletic director from 1994 to 2005, said he can’t recall students going in and out for higher attendance numbers, but did say athletics made it well-known they needed a high attendance.

“We did make it known how important it was to not only our students, but our alumni and community that we met the requirement,” Deromedi said.

While it was important, some think CMU didn’t make the benchmark.

“No way there were 15,000 at those games,” Constanzo said. “No way.”

Currently, the NCAA would put CMU on probation if it did not reach the requirement. But in 2004 the consequences were uncertain.

“We were concerned on what the criteria was for Division I,” Deromedi said. “(The NCAA was) making adjustments to criteria, trying to determine what it took to be Division I.

“I’m sure Dave Heeke knows what the ramifications are now.”

Some students took the issue of attendance numbers and their potential effect on CMU into their own hands.

Mike Haight, a 2005 CMU graduate, said students would go inside the gates while tailgating to avoid waiting in long lines for the bathroom outside, all while being counted numerous times.

“Students would do that and get counted multiple times,” Haight said. “Or they would just go back and forth. We didn’t want to lose Division I status.”

He said it was difficult to get students to go to games with poor teams; some would tailgate and then just go home.

“I don’t think we would’ve made the requirement without doing that,” Haight said. “I doubt they would be Division I, it was a big help (students re-entering).”

Eight years later and CMU is in a similar position. Coming off a 3-9 season just like in 2003, last year is also the only other year in CMU history that the school did not reach the 15,000 benchmark at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

“I wasn’t here then,” said CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke. “First I’d ever heard of that.”

Heeke did not want to comment on the situation because he was not with the program at the time, but said he is not worried about it happening again.

“I wouldn’t think so,” Heeke said when asked if students could go in and out to be counted again. “We try to be careful with students going in and out because normally when they do that they come back in a condition we don’t want them in.”

Heeke didn’t rule out the problem’s possibility, but said he hasn’t heard his staff mention a problem with students coming in and out.

“No question there’s room from error there,” Heeke said. “Could it happen, someone (be) double-counted? Yeah.”

Free tickets, no-shows still counted

Heeke explained how CMU “pumped out” free tickets into the market and corporate partners to drive people into Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

CMU counts those distributed tickets toward its numbers whether their holders show up or not.

That is something Deromedi didn’t do in his tenure.

“We weren’t giving out free tickets,” Deromedi said. “Groups were purchasing a number of tickets. They had to be paid to count for attendance.”