Illinois State Athletics Director Perk Weisenburger has been appointed to the NCAAs I-AA Football Committee. He is the first ISU administrator to be appointed to the eight-person committee, which has been in existence since 1985.
The groups chief responsibility is supervising the annual I-AA championship. The committee selects the eight at-large teams, seeds the 16-team field then oversees the playing of the four-week event.
Im just very proud to be representing Illinois State and the Gateway Football Conference, and I cant wait to get started , Weisenburger said. This is a good opportunity to serve the NCAA membership, while also gaining more knowledge of the I-AA process.
Weisenburger, the lone representative from a Gateway school on the committee, will serve a four-year term, beginning Sept. 1, 2001. The only other new member joining at this time is Jim Miller, athletics director at Richmond.
Illinois State made its initial appearance in the I-AA championship in 1998 as an at-large selection. The 1999 team received an automatic berth after winning the Gateway championship.
My job on the committee will be to assist the NCAA in carrying out its championship at the highest level, said Weisenburger. The advantage to Illinois State will be a greater understanding of the championship itself and those factors that most enhance a schools opportunity to play in the event.
Weisenburger also just completed his first year as the Gateways representative on the executive committee of the I-AA Athletics Directors Association.
