If Campaign Fails, Football May Be in Jeopardy

Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon is so convinced the Titan athletic department will raise $2.3 million in the next two years that he won’t even discuss contingency plans should the campaign fall short.

But if the drive is not successful, the school will probably face the same dilemma it tackled last month--whether to discontinue football or drop the program to a lower, less-expensive level.

One option might be Division I-AAA, a proposed non-scholarship classification that will be voted on at the 1992 NCAA convention.

“In the worst-case scenario, if this fund-raising campaign is not successful, the athletic program will be back to where it was when this came about,” Fullerton Athletic Director Ed Carroll said. “That means decisions will have to be made concerning priorities in athletics.”

Decisions Carroll, no doubt, is glad he won’t have to make. Under enormous strain from a month of huge budget cuts, his recommendation to drop football and Gordon’s decision to retain it, Carroll resigned Feb. 14 to take a job at UC Irvine.

But one look at the Fullerton athletic budget and a briefing on NCAA and Title IX requirements might turn Carroll’s replacement into a stress monster, too.

How would you trim $500,000 from the budget?--a task Carroll attempted in January.

Of the Titans’ nine men’s teams, five--cross-country, fencing, gymnastics, track and wrestling--receive a bare minimum of $5,000 (excluding coaches’ salaries) in school-allocated support--not even enough to fund one full scholarship. Soccer gets only $12,000.

Basketball receives a mere $5,681, but coaches’ salaries and most of the team’s expenses are covered by revenue from the NCAA’s tournament television contract.

The only men’s teams that receive significant school support are football, which is the most costly sport but hardly has the resources to compete in Division I-A, and baseball, which has been the school’s meal ticket to national prominence.

Next, take a look at the women’s budget. Still pretty lean by most Division I standards, but looking mighty tasty if you’re a Titan men’s coach. Basketball gets $204,736, softball gets $169,016, gymnastics gets $154,766, volleyball gets $113,409.

But try taking a knife to it and you might jeopardize the school’s compliance with Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

The next inclination might be to drop some of those non-revenue sports, which Fullerton has done in the past, but new NCAA legislation requires schools to offer at least seven men’s sports and seven women’s sports to remain in Division I.

Fullerton has nine men’s teams and eight women’s teams, and even if it trimmed two non-revenue men’s teams and one women’s team, it wouldn’t amount to a significant savings.

About the only area of the budget that could be tinkered with is the women’s program, and this would involve a de-emphasis of the school’s Title IX commitment.

Title IX’s “substantially proportionate assistance formula,” which takes into account NCAA scholarship limits and ideal team sizes, required that at least 31% of the department’s state funds be allocated to women’s teams.

Fullerton, however, went well beyond that requirement and now allocates 52% ($787,785) of its state funds to men’s athletic teams and 48% ($736,251) to women’s teams.

Officials still must trim $500,000 from the budget without crippling the entire program. The most practical answer for Carroll was dropping football, which cost the school $432,774 this year.

But the athletic department is embarking on this two-year, $2.3-million campaign, so it can keep the Titans, football and all, in Division I.

CSF’S PROJECTED 1990-91 ATHLETIC BUDGET Key to budget categories: Generated Income Column 1--Titan Athletic Foundation, special projects Column 2--Guarantees, gate receipts, TV revenue Allocated Support (including coaches salaries) Column 3--State funds, student fees, undesignated TAF Total Expenditures Column 4--Projected expenditures (does not necessarily equal income)

Generated Income Support Expenditures Sport Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 MEN’S SPORTS Baseball 157,500 18,000 174,832 360,482 Basketball 51,000 373,500 5,681 428,819 Cross-country 4,800 0 13,541 19,341 Fencing 2,075 0 22,081 24,156 Football 46,000 768,950 432,774 1,237,224 Gymnastics 6,650 3,750 39,162 65,562 Soccer 36,500 9,500 46,962 94,962 Track 5,500 0 13,540 19,040 Wrestling 95,000 8,000 39,162 146,162 Men’s Totals 405,025 1,181,700 787,785 2,395,748 WOMEN’S SPORTS Basketball 16,000 11,500 204,236 215,236 Cross-country 1,600 0 16,041 19,991 Fencing 1,800 0 22,081 23,381 Gymnastics 64,500 10,000 154,766 231,266 Softball 35,000 23,000 169,016 219,516 Tennis 6,100 0 41,662 45,262 Track 1,850 0 14,540 16,890 Volleyball 27,800 12,000 113,409 145,209 Women’s Totals 154,650 56,500 736,251 816,751 TOTALS FOR MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SPORTS 17 Sports 559,675 1,238,200 1,524,036 3,212,499