Keep CSUN Move Up in Perspective

A lot of hands are going up over Thursday’s announcement by James W. Cleary, Cal State Northridge president, that the university has decided to upgrade its athletic program, with the exception of football, from the NCAA’s Division II to Division I.

Many of those hands are forming a clenched fist, the sign of a big victory. To them, it’s a good thing that the Valley is finally going big-time, joining its neighbors in Los Angeles and Orange County in the sports spotlight.

For others, the pose is one of two hands wringing each other in anguish. For those people, it’s all over. Their peaceful little Valley is no more. Big-time sports means big-time crowds, big-time traffic congestion, big-time trouble. Who needs it?

The truth is that both sides are being a little premature.

First, the hand-wringers. They are the kind of people who successfully lobbied to keep any and all venues of the 1984 Olympics out of the Valley, who shuddered when the Valley was mentioned as a possible new home for the Lakers before the Forum became a reality, who have turned thumbs down whenever it is suggested that this area deserves some level of sports competition beyond the high school, junior college and Division II levels.

News bulletin: The Valley is no longer a bunch of farms linked together by Ventura Boulevard. Edgar Rice Burroughs is gone. So is Valley State College.

This area is now home to 1.5 million people. CSUN has an enrollment of 30,000, about the same size as USC and only a few thousand students fewer than UCLA.

Isn’t an institution that size almost obligated to provide an athletic program equal to those of its no-longer-bigger brothers over the hill?

If you want peace and quiet, go live in Morro Bay. Pulling down your shades and pretending you live in a faraway hamlet will no longer cut it.

Besides, all this worry about further congestion and gridlock is ridiculous. The people who will be attending sporting events out here will be, for the most part, people who already live here. If they are not on the streets going to sporting events, they’ll be on the streets going somewhere else.

And why should such a large population continually be required to drive 20 to 30 miles for its entertainment?

Part of the CSUN expansion involves the construction of a 20,000-seat stadium for the football team and an 8,000- to 10,000-seat arena for the basketball team and various other events.

Those events don’t have to be limited to collegiate activities. Boxing matches, concerts, conventions and rodeos might all have a home. Let the Springsteen fans in the city go over the hill for a change.

But before we get carried away, a word of caution to the pro-expansion camp.

Yes, Cleary may have heralded the start of big-time sports, but tickets aren’t on sale just yet.

Northridge basketball Coach Pete Cassidy talked about playing an Indiana, a Georgetown or a UNLV.

He was being facetious. At least as far as the foreseeable future is concerned.

It will be two years before Division I competition even begins at CSUN. Perhaps three if the school needs additional time to gear up. The proposed arena was supposed to take a back seat to the proposed stadium, which could take as many as five years to build.

That timetable may be moved up, but even when the structures have been built, it’s going to take time to build a team.

Expecting more is like expecting Charlotte or Miami, the NBA’s new expansion teams, to win a title next year.

Those Matador squads, such as volleyball, swimming and soccer, that have had success at the Division II level, likely will be the most successful in the early going at the Division I level.

The high-profile sports, the ones that can really lure the crowds, probably will take a lot longer. And football, the biggest potential drawing card of them all, doesn’t even have a target date for moving up.

It’s probably all for the best. The Valley is growing up, but at a reasonable rate. Don’t look for or expect the big crowds or the big wins for a while.

But don’t be shocked when they finally arrive.

Because for sure now, they’re coming.