Harvard officials yesterday criticized the demotion of the football programs of Harvard and seven other Ivy League schools from Division 1-A, the top classification of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Representatives of the 137 Division 1-A schools voted by a show of hands at a special convention Friday in St. Louis to change the requirements for membership in Division 1-A, leaving Ivy League schools ineligible.

"I think it's a very sad situation," John P. Reardon Jr. '60, director of athletics, said yesterday. "We wanted to stay in Division 1-A based on our tradition--basically Harvard, Yale and Princeton started the NCAA. I don't think it's a good omen for college athletics."

He added that the NCAA, which stresses education and athletics, should get rid of "football businesses" like the universities of Oklahoma and Texas.

"The entire exercise is one that leaves me very cold indeed," President Bok said yesterday. "It seems to me to reflect primarily the commercial orientation of college sports that I think has been a source of considerable harm to what institutions of higher education are trying to accomplish."

He added that the major football powers are interested in an approach to football "which is far from what we think is desirable."

As a result of the convention's vote, Ivy League teams, and those of approximately 40 other schools, including eastern teams Holy Cross and Colgate, will move down a notch to Division 1-AA, reducing the top division from 137 members to under 100.

Although the move is not expected to affect the Ivy League financially or in future scheduling, the Ivy League plans to request a waiver of Division 1-A eligibility requirements in order to be reinstated. Reardon said.

"I think we will seek a waiver." Reardon said, "but I frankly don't think they'll let us stay."

Dartmouth's athletic director, Seaver Peters, who acted as spokesman for the Ivy League at the convention, added. "Since it was the Division 1-A schools that voted us out. I think the chances of them letting us back in are only about 50-50."

NCAA officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.

The reorganization of Division 1-A, which. Reardon said, the major football powers have been pushing for since 1978, came after the convention voted to change the eligibility requirements for member schools.

Members of Division 1-A must now fulfill one of two requirements--a home-stadium capacity of 30,000, or an average home attendance of 17,000 or better over the past four seasons. Only four Ivy Schools--Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn--meet one or both of the requirements, but Reardon said it was a consensus among the Ivy League athletic directors that the league would remain intact.

If one Ivy athletic director had decided to go a different route, he added, the Ivy League presidents would have prevented the break-up of the league.

In the past, Ivy schools, although not at the same competitive level as the majority of Division 1-A teams, had retained eligibility because of the so-called "Ivy Amendment," which allowed any schools that carried 12 varsity sports to remain in Division 1-A. An attempt to retain the amendment proved futile at the special convention, Reardon said.