Northridge Seizes Opportunity, Sets Sail for Division I

Cal State Northridge has made it official, taking one giant--if cautious--step into big-time college athletics.

As expected, James W. Cleary, university president, announced at a news conference Thursday that Northridge will petition the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. for Division I status in all sports but football.

“I really don’t think we can afford the opportunity to not take advantage of the direction nearly everyone suggests we ought to go,” Cleary said.

Northridge must file the petition by June 1. The school then has two years to meet scheduling requirements before beginning Division I competition in the 1990-91 school year. At the end of the two years, CSUN can either make the jump, decide to stay in Division II, or request one more year for the transition.

During the past two months, 23 campus and community business and service organizations gave almost unanimous support for the move.

Even a sizable disparity between the public’s endorsement and its financial commitment to the move failed to deter Northridge officials, who in the end felt there was really no choice at all. Scheduling problems and the increasing cost of sending teams into postseason competition for which they were not reimbursed played major factors in bringing about the move.

So, too, did the feeling that Northridge, with an enrollment of 30,000, had outgrown Division II. The average enrollment for a Division II school is 6,000.

Northridge has won 33 national championships in 12 sports over the past 30 years and for the past decade its athletic program has been considered the best in Division II.

“Our time has come,” Athletic Director Bob Hiegert said. “This step is in the best interest of the university.”

The change first was proposed by Northridge coaches in November, 1986. A short time later, a five-person committee was formed to study the idea. In February, the panel recommended that the plan be put into action.

The reclassification will require increased funding by the university and community, as well as additional staffing and upgrading of athletic facilities.

Presently, CSUN spends $1.5 million a year on coaches’ salaries, operating expenses and scholarships for athletics. A committee report estimated $2.8 million per year was needed to “stay competitive” in Division I.

Most of that funding is needed for scholarships. In the 1986-87 school year, Northridge granted the equivalent of 83.9 full scholarships for its 16 sports. The Division I limit for the same combination of sports is 150. State funds cannot be used for athletic grants. A student referendum currently provides 49% of CSUN’s scholarship money. The remaining amount comes from fund-raising.

Cleary said that the level of money raised will have to rise “dramatically” in the next two years. He hopes that within five years Northridge can obtain as many of the 150 scholarships allowable as is possible. “We’re setting our sights high,” he said, “because we’d like to supply the community we serve with the best possible program.”

Public surveys, Cleary said, have shown “sufficient evidence to conclude an increased level of financial support could be expected” from the community.

Until then, the school will bear most of the financial burden. “Our game plan is to start building an endowment with whatever money comes in,” Cleary said. “It will take some time before we can mobilize things but someday, we hope, the athletics will be self-sufficient.”

The most money Northridge has raised for athletics in a year is $150,000. Ran Railey, director of athletic promotions, has estimated there is a potential to raise as much as 10 times that amount, however.

“We’re not expecting miracles,” Hiegert said. “You have to show success for people to support you. The worst thing we could do is jump into this and fall flat on our faces the first couple of years. If we do that I don’t think people will support us one bit.

“But our plan is not to do that.”

Special fund-raising efforts will be needed for a 3,000-square foot addition to the athletic offices and the construction of an 8,000- to 10,000-seat arena. Plans for a 20,000-seat multipurpose stadium already have been approved. Funds for the stadium will be supplied by ground leases of the 100-acre University Park development under construction at North Campus.

Cleary is hopeful that money from the development can be combined with funds raised by the university--and perhaps from the state--to pay for both facilities.

The state will have to fund an increase in the size of CSUN’s coaching staff, but administrators are hopeful that more money will be allotted as the school gradually increases its enrollment by an additional 10,000 students in the next decade.

Football will remain in Division II largely because the cost of playing at the major college level is so great.

“You have to take one step at a time,” Cleary said. “We all know it would be unrealistic to move and include football in the first phase.” However, the issue should be addressed, Cleary added, “within the next year or two.” The football team will continue to compete in the Western Football Conference.

Arrangements for Northridge to be accepted into a Division I conference have not been made, Cleary said, but the nucleus for a new conference exists if Northridge bands together with Cal State Sacramento and Southern Utah State, which are also pointed toward Division I.

Northridge is currently a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., which also includes Cal State Bakersfield, Chapman, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Riverside. Other CCAA schools also are expected to move to Division I in the next few years.

Cal State L. A. is in the second year of its transitional period. Cal State Bakersfield and UC Riverside are studying a move.

Presidents from CCAA schools have met on four occasions to discuss a transfer of the conference to Division I, but Cleary is convinced formulating a new conference is the best idea. He has held preliminary talks with the presidents of Southern Utah State and Northern Arizona regarding the subject.

Ultimately, Hiegert said, Northridge may try to join a conference such as the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., of which Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton, Nevada Las Vegas and Fresno State are members.

“We’re better off than schools like Long Beach or Fullerton in terms of community identity,” Hiegert said. “I don’t think that would be getting in over our head at all.”