Too much info.... oh well
http://www.ncaa.org/library/membership.html#manuals
20.9.6.2 Football Scheduling Requirements
The institution shall schedule and play at least 60 percent of its football games against members of Division I-A and shall schedule and play at least five regular season home football games against members of Division I-A. For purposes of satisfying the scheduling requirement, a contest shall be considered a home contest if it is played in the stadium in which an institution conducts at least 50 percent of its home contests. In addition, an institution may use one home contest against a Division I-A member conducted at a neutral site to satisfy the five-home-game requirement. (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/04)
20.9.6.3 Football-Attendance Requirements
The institution annually shall average at least 15,000 in actual attendance for all home football games. (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/04)
20.9.6.3.1 Counting Attendance Effective Date: Aug 01, 2004
For purposes of computing attendance figures, an individual may be counted if any one of the following conditions applies: (Revised: 4/25/02, effective 8/1/04)
(a) Attendees are issued tickets that are collected upon admission to the game and retained; (Revised: 4/25/02, effective 8/1/04)
(b) Attendees enter through and are counted by a turnstile that is monitored by a representative of the department of athletics who verifies in writing the accuracy of the count on a per-game basis; or (Revised: 4/25/02, effective 8/1/04)
(c) Attendees enter through a gate at which a representative of the department of athletics counts them individually with a manual counter, and the representative provides a written statement verifying the accuracy of the count on a per-game basis. (Revised: 4/25/02, effective 8/1/04)
20.9.6.3.2 Certified Audit Effective Date: Aug 01, 2004
In meeting the football-attendance requirements of Division I-A, an institution must undertake an annual certified audit verifying its football attendance. The audit must be conducted by an outside auditing firm. The audited football actual-attendance figures must be received in the NCAA national office not later than the February 15 following the completion of the football season and NCAA national office staff shall verify compliance with all Division I-A attendance requirements. The certified audit and materials (including the ticket manifest) must be available for inspection for a four-year period. (Adopted: 1/10/92, Revised: 4/25/02, effective 8/1/04)
20.9.6.3.2 Conference Exception to Home-Attendance Requirement I-A
An institution that fails to meet the home-attendance requirement may retain Division I-A football classification if it holds membership in a member conference (which conducts championship competition in the sport of football) in which at least six of the conference member institutions sponsor football and more than half of the football-playing conference member institutions meet the attendance criterion for the applicable period.
20.9.6.3.3 Institutional Exception to Home-Attendance Requirement I-A
An institution that fails to meet the home-attendance requirement in 20.9.6.3-(a) or (b) may retain Division I-A football classification if it has averaged more than 20,000 in paid attendance for all of its games (at home and away) for the applicable period. Such an institution shall play at least four home games in any year in which it utilizes this provision.
20.9.6.3.5 Counting Attendance
For purposes of computing attendance figures, tickets must be sold at regularly established ticket prices and must be counted, whether or not they are used for admission. Tickets sold at discount prices may be counted as paid attendance only if they are used for admission. Student attendance may be counted as paid attendance if the student actually is in attendance and any one of the following conditions applies:
(a) The student paid an athletics fee;
(b) The student paid an institutional fee of which a certain portion was allocated to the department of intercollegiate athletics; or
(c) The student paid no athletics fee, but the institution allocated to the department of intercollegiate athletics a certain portion of tuition income or general operating funds as the equivalent of a student athletics fee.
20.9.6.3.5.8 Minimum Price of Counted Tickets I-A
A "regularly established price" is a price that is (a) established prior to the season, (b) at least one-half of the face value of the highest-priced ticket sold and (c) printed on the face of the ticket. Season tickets sold at a discount of not more than one-half of the highest-priced ticket sold shall qualify as tickets sold at regularly established prices. Any ticket sold that does not meet these criteria is a ticket sold at a "discount price," in which case the ticket holder is required to attend the game in order to be counted. Any ticket sold for less than one-third of the face value of the highest-priced ticket sold for the game may not be used in counting attendance for compliance with Bylaw 20.9.6.3.