Titans Live to Take Another Snap : Cal State Fullerton: Division 1-A football, in limbo since last week, will survive. School president believes $500,000 shortfall can be covered.

Cal State Fullerton’s Division I-A football program, on its death bed only a week ago, will apparently live to see another season.

Milton A. Gordon, school president, said he will make an official announcement on the fate of the program at an 11 a.m. news conference today. But Titan coaches were informed Thursday night that the sport was being saved.

Coach Gene Murphy and his assistants wouldn’t comment, but two players, redshirt freshman offensive lineman John Cotti and redshirt junior receiver Shawn Facione, said coaches told them they would be playing next season.

“They’re saving the program--it’s great news,” said Cotti, who was working out in the weight room when word came. “Now I’m excited. Hopefully, this will bring us all closer together. We had a rough year (1-11 last season) but I think we’re going to come back strong.”

Added Facione, who also was in the weight room: “It’s great that we’re playing again. We’ve been working hard in the off-season, getting ready to play. We feel we’ll have something to prove.”

Several other players were informed by telephone Thursday night that football will continue.

“It’s awesome, we’re ready to roll,” junior offensive lineman Tim Drevno said. “This puts us at ease. We don’t have to worry about transferring. Once a Titan, always a Titan, and proud to be a Titan. They tried to mess with the Titan Family, but we’ve got unity.”

Last Friday, it appeared the Titan family was breaking up. Gordon had received an athletics council recommendation that football be dropped because of state funding problems--the athletic department was projecting at least a $500,000 budget shortfall for the next school year--and Murphy held out little hope the program would be saved.

Murphy released six recruits from their letters of intent and told 18 others who had made oral commitments to Fullerton to check other schools. Murphy said he was told there would be no scholarship funds available for incoming players.

Murphy also told current players that the program was being dropped and began calling other coaches to inquire about possible openings for his assistants.

But in the past week, City of Fullerton officials, who have invested more than $9 million in the Titan Sports Complex, a multipurpose stadium under construction on Fullerton’s campus, have urged Gordon to retain the sport.

Community, alumni and booster groups also voiced their support for football, and the Titan Athletic Foundation has already received more than $100,000 in football pledges, even though no formal campaign to save the program has been launched.

Gordon, who spoke Tuesday as if he doubted football could survive such dramatic budget cuts, appeared to have had a change of heart by Thursday.

The first-year president spent much of Tuesday night’s meeting with the Titan Athletic Foundation justifying the merits of a proposed Division I-AAA level to a group of boosters who were adamant about retaining I-A football.

Gordon seemed resigned to the likelihood that Division I-AAA, which would require no scholarships, fewer coaches and minimal expenses compared to Division I-A, would be much more financially feasible for Fullerton in the future.

The Division I-AAA proposal will go to the NCAA for a vote at next January’s convention and, if passed, would go into effect in three to five years.

But Thursday, Gordon spent much of an Academic Senate meeting justifying the merits of football to a group of professors who, for the most part, think the sport should be dropped.

In fact, the Senate voted, 24-7, to pass a resolution in support of last week’s athletics council recommendation to discontinue football. There were 10 abstentions.

But Gordon expressed confidence that the school could raise, through private funding, the $500,000 necessary to cover the projected shortfall. This method would not cut into the annual TAF drive or fund-raising efforts for the Titan Sports Complex.

“I believe there’s a real possibility for the community to raise additional funds for athletics,” Gordon said at the Academic Senate meeting. “A lot of people say we’ve never raised that kind of money in the past, and that’s a fact. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done now. I don’t want to be tied to past failures. We can move forward.”

Several senate members were more skeptical. Titan football has generated little fan interest--Fullerton has been at the bottom portion of the NCAA’s Division I-A home attendance rankings for the past 10 years--and the most a TAF drive has ever generated is about $450,000.

Now, the athletic department expects to raise $500,000 on top of the $500,000 it shoots for during its TAF drive?

“People say they want to save football, but there’s no money on the table,” said Barbara Shell Stone, who also chairs the athletics council. “Based on that and the past, there’s not a snowball’s chance (in hell) that fund-raisers can generate $1 million between now and July.”

Stone is concerned that if Fullerton keeps football, other athletic programs will suffer, and some academic senators were concerned that, if the athletic department can’t raise enough money for football, it would take funds away from other school programs.

The university is facing a $14.1-million shortfall under the terms of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed state budget for 1991-92.

But Gordon assured the senate that athletic funds would not come from academic programs, and Fullerton City Councilman Richard Ackerman, the driving force behind the Titan Sports Complex project, is confident enough private funds can be generated.

“Our consultant believes we can raise $4 million over 18 months for the stadium and athletic programs,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman told Senate members that the city would never have agreed to support the joint city-university sports complex project without the football program.

The stadium is being funded largely through city redevelopment agency dollars, to be repaid by taxes and lease revenue from a 225-room Marriott Hotel that was built on the Fullerton campus in the late 1980s.

Gordon said that, during sports complex negotiations between the city and university, there was an implicit agreement made for a commitment to football on the school’s part.

“I think there could be a real perception of a breach of faith on the part of this institution (if we drop football),” Gordon said.

Now that the decision has been made to keep football, Titan coaches will have a formidable job of rebuilding a 1-11 team with a minimal influx of new talent. Drevno said that assistants were picking up recruiting efforts Thursday night.

There will be at least 20 new players who redshirted last season, but Murphy said this week that many of the players he received oral commitments from “had bailed already.” Murphy called this one of his best recruiting classes in his 11 years as Titan coach.

Because of the budget shortfall, it is also uncertain how many scholarships Fullerton will have available for recruits.

Times staff writer Kris Lindgren contributed to this story.