The NCAA Division I Football Championship likely will be decided at Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium through the 2009 season.

Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events Committee president Merrill Eckstein said Thursday that terms to an extension have been agreed upon and are awaiting approval of the NCAA championship cabinet, which will meet again in July. Eckstein called the approval “a mere formality.”

If the deal is approved, the committee announced the next two championship games would be scheduled for Dec. 19, 2008, and Dec. 18, 2009. Both are Fridays.

The title game for the Football Championship Subdivision has been played at Finley Stadium since 1997, and the two-year extension was all the Sports Committee sought.

“We only asked for two years this time around because there is the possibility the playoffs will expand,” Eckstein said. “If they expand, that means an additional week of games, and we do not want the championship game pushed back because of Christmas. We want to see what they are going to do, and if they do expand we are hoping they will start the playoffs a week earlier and leave the championship game around the same time.”

The Division I championship has been a hot ticket recently, selling out each of the last two years. Appalachian State has won three consecutive titles, and its large following has helped increase the numbers in the stands and raised the game’s profile.

“It is great to know that we have this game, our signature event, for the next two years,” Eckstein said.

In its 11 years in Chattanooga, the championship game has an average annual economic impact of $1.8 million, according to his committee’s figures.

“I am very pleased that we reached this agreement for two more years,” Sports Committee board chairman Doug Dyer said. “This is a great event for our city, our economy and our university.”