Fullerton Football Here to Stay, for Now : Titans: Academic Senate votes to table a resolution that would have eliminated the program.

The Cal State Fullerton Academic Senate voted Tuesday to table discussion of the Titan football program, in effect killing a resolution that would have eliminated the sport at the school.

“The net effect of this motion is that football will continue at Cal State Fullerton,” said Jack Bedell, senate chairman. “This is the end of the football question until someone raises it again.”

Academic senators spent about 90 minutes during a May 3 meeting debating the merits of Division I football at Fullerton and the possibility of either downgrading the program to Division II or III or eliminating it.

That discussion continued for an hour at Tuesday’s meeting but ended abruptly when a motion to table the item passed, 15-13, thus precluding a vote on Dr. Leland Bellot’s resolution to phase out the football program.

Bellot’s resolution stated: “In order to properly support the range of men’s and women’s Division I intercollegiate sports CSUF desires to compete in, we should phase out intercollegiate football (on a time schedule that would allow us to meet our contractual obligations) and reallocate the available resources to the other existing athletic programs.”

Because the senate will meet for the last time during this semester Thursday and because football was not placed on the agenda for that meeting, the subject likely will not be discussed again until the next school year.

“Those who are against football have taken their best shot and failed,” Fullerton Athletic Director Ed Carroll said. “Next year we’ll have a new president and a new on-campus stadium under construction. It will be a whole new ballgame.”

In February, the Academic Senate sent a list of questions to school President Jewel Plummer Cobb regarding the financial feasibility of continuing the Division I football program at the school.

Cobb’s response, which was drafted by Carroll and discussed at a school Athletics Council meeting in April, was basically a ringing endorsement for Division I football.

The president said Division I football brings the school significant visibility, status and national recognition, and a drop to Division II or III would jeopardize the entire athletic program’s standing in the Big West Conference.

She also argued that a push to eliminate football would incongruous with the school’s efforts to build the Titan Sports Complex, which is scheduled for ground-breaking this summer. The centerpiece of the project is a 10,000-seat football stadium.

The Academic Senate received the response in May, but some senators, including Bellot, were not convinced that Fullerton should continue its football program.

“Football continues to represent a serious budget deficit,” said Bellot, a history professor who also is chairman of the school’s budget advisory committee. “In order to sustain the program, there is little flexibility to maintain other athletic programs.”

But there was plenty of support to continue the football program. Dr. Vyron Klassen, a mathematics professor, cited financial problems in the UC Irvine athletic department as an argument that cutting football will not necessarily put the Fullerton athletic department in the black.

“There’s no guarantee that without football, we wouldn’t lose money or the budget for other sports would increase,” Klassen said. “I think the resolution is misleading, and it won’t accomplish what we’re intending.”

Had the resolution passed, it would have been sent to Cobb, who would have had to pass or veto it within seven days. The Academic Senate is merely an advisory group that recommends action to the president--it does not set policy.

Now, Cobb, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, won’t ever have to vote on the issue. She is retiring this summer and will be replaced by Milton A. Gordon. Carroll hopes Gordon never has to vote on the issue either.

“I’m pleased this occurred so we can get on with other things,” Carroll said.