Titan Football Gets Boost From Top : Endorsement: Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb, Cal State Fullerton president, wants football program to remain in Division I-A.

Cal State Fullerton President Jewel Plummer Cobb has given the Titans’ football program a ringing endorsement in response to a faculty group’s questions about the viability of Division I-A football at the school.

Among the highlights of a 27-page report submitted Thursday to the school’s Athletics Council were Cobb’s contentions that Division I-A football brings the school significant visibility, status and national recognition, and that a drop to Division II or III would jeopardize the entire athletic program, not only football.

The Academic Senate, a 45-member advisory group, had in February asked Cobb to respond to 16 questions ranging from the program’s financial feasibility to the possibility of moving it to Division II or III.

The response was submitted to the Athletics Council, the president’s advisory group on athletics, for discussion Thursday. It will be sent back to Cobb with recommendations for minor revisions and then to the Academic Senate, which meets again April 19.

“I really don’t see how anyone with concerns about athletics could respond to this report in a negative way,” said Bill Puzo, a geography professor who is member of the Athletics Council and the Academic Senate. “We want to make sure money is spent in a proper way, and we don’t want the institution to be anything but enhanced by athletics.”

According to Athletic Director Ed Carroll, the Academic Senate’s questions were prompted by budget problems the athletic department has experienced this year. Because football has the largest budget, Carroll said, the sport is perceived by those in the academic community as the athletic department’s albatross.

“The impression is that the football program is taking money from other programs that might make it on their own--that it’s full of blood-suckers draining the athletic department,” said Bill Reeves, an Athletics Council representative who works in the student affairs department. “But every program here is subsidized (by state funds). None are self-supportive.”

The report projected the fiscal impact of downgrading the team to Division II and III or eliminating the program altogether.

With estimated expense savings at $704,819 and estimated revenue decrease of $703,425, a Division II football program would net only $1,606 in budget savings, an insignificant amount to warrant such a move.

With estimated expense savings at $1,107,628 and estimated revenue decrease at $740,000, a Division III program would net $367,628 in budget savings. But Division III football, the report says, would not be feasible because of scheduling problems.

The only Division III football-playing conference in the West is the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which consists of Occidental, Whittier, Redlands, La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer and the Claremont colleges.

“Division III is not an option,” said Barbara Stone, chairman of the Athletics Council. “No one would schedule us. And travel expenses might actually increase because no one in Southern California would play us.”

Dropping the entire football program would save $566,538, the report says, but neither that nor a move to Division II would benefit the school’s athletic program.

A change in the status of the Titans’ program could place Fullerton’s membership in the Big West Conference in jeopardy, perhaps leading to the loss of money generated under the conference’s revenue-sharing plan.

A de-emphasis on football also would be incongruous with the school and City of Fullerton plans to build the long-awaited Titan Sports Complex, the focal point of which is a 10,000-seat football stadium. Ground breaking on the $12.6-million facility is scheduled for summer.

“Now that the construction of the stadium is almost a reality, a change in the status of our football program would be viewed by city leaders as a major shift in the priorities for the sports complex,” the report said.