NIU Offering Free Tuition As Incentive For Attending Football Games
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Northern Illinois University has offered students what it hopes will be a powerful incentive to attend Huskies football games in DeKalb this fall.
At the end of the season, any student who has attended all six home games, and stayed to the end, will have a chance to win free tuition for the spring semester. One qualifying student will be chosen at random.
NIU assistant athletic director Morris White said it's a struggle filling the stands at the 24,000-seat Huskie Stadium.
Last year, NIU averaged only about 5,000 students per home game. Even though students get in for free, most don't show up. The school's enrollment is about 21,000 students.
"They have the ability to watch a game from their phone in the comfort of their own home, and there's the big-screen televisions, and the high-def screens," he said.
This season, he came up with an incentive to get students to show up for games.
"I thought that free tuition would be a huge incentive for students to just spend three hours out of their day rooting on the team," he said.
White said the prize is worth $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the course load.