ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Time Out Down on the Field

Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon delivered a painful but appropriate message to the university community this week. It will be time out down on the field, as the TV football announcers say.

The school’s hapless Division 1-A football program will be dropped for a year with the intention of resuming in Division 1-AA. Such a lower status, which could contain costs, makes sense.

The football faithful were buoyed this past season by the festive opening of a new stadium on campus. But the celebration was short-lived and gave way to financial squeeze and a grim procession of losing Saturdays.

The football program has been having a hard time on and off the field against much bigger, better-funded opponents; meanwhile, the university has been losing ground everywhere in the face of state budget cuts. School officials properly read the handwriting on the scoreboard.

A look at the numbers shows the wisdom of the decision announced this week. By dropping the program, the athletic department can cut its projected budget deficit from about $350,000 to $60,000 this year. Without football, the department actually projects a small surplus by the end of the 1993-94 school year.

The school’s realistic assessment of the program is more than a sports story. It demonstrates a fact of life on the Cal State University system campuses. Sports programs like Cal State Fullerton’s exist in a difficult university financial environment, and schools must get their priorities straight.

Fullerton tried in vain to raise funds for football even as the campus was taking its well-publicized hits on the budget during the last couple of years.

On the same day that the football program’s demise was announced, the campus health center reported that it would have to charge fees for some services as early as the spring semester. At a time when students are scrambling not only to find a Band-Aid but to get the courses they need for graduation, Cal State Fullerton’s reconciliation with reality on the gridiron sends the right signal.