"Northern Illinois announced their home attendance for the 2017 season at 67,748, but an audit obtained by the paper showed that scanned tickets totaled only 44,084 in the same time period. With six home games, that latter figure would have put the school below the NCAA’s FBS attendance threshold of 15,000 per home game.
The end result? NIU had to purchase 56,345 tickets for a whopping $273,619 in order to comply with the regulations and hit the minimum number of paid tickets for each home game."
https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/10/18/niu-needed-to-buy-back-273619-worth-of-tickets-to-hit-ncaa-attendance-requirements/
The end result? NIU had to purchase 56,345 tickets for a whopping $273,619 in order to comply with the regulations and hit the minimum number of paid tickets for each home game."
https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/10/18/niu-needed-to-buy-back-273619-worth-of-tickets-to-hit-ncaa-attendance-requirements/