Shumard Says Titans Will Have a Place to Play I-AA Football

After attending a meeting Friday of school administrators interested in playing Division I-AA cost-containment football next season, Cal State Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard said he is confident Fullerton will have a conference to play in if university president Milton A. Gordon chooses to downgrade the Titans’ Division I-A program for 1993.

The Western Football Conference hopes to move from Division II to I-AA next season, but administrators from Cal State Northridge, St. Mary’s, Santa Clara, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Southern Utah and Cal State Sacramento still haven’t agreed on scholarship limits.

But at Friday’s meeting, athletic directors narrowed the limit to between 10 to 15 scholarships. However, they also instituted a grandfather clause, allowing schools that currently offer more than that several years to get reach that number.

“That’s a big issue with our kids,” Shumard said, alluding to Titan players’ concerns that they might have their scholarships pulled if the program was downgraded. “They want to know if they’ll have a place to play, and they will. We wouldn’t have to cut any scholarships if we went to this level.”

Shumard and athletic directors from Northern Arizona and Cal State Long Beach attended the meeting as observers. Shumard said Gordon has been invited to a November meeting of Western Football Conference chief executive officers, who will vote on whether to switch the conference from Division II to I-AA.

“I can say more confidently than ever that there will be a (I-AA cost-containment) league,” Shumard said. “The cooperation among schools looking to save football is tremendous. There are a lot of people compromising.”