CSUN Signs Transfer From Oregon State : College football: Cunningham, a safety, is the first Matador recruit to commit in the current signing period.

A recruiting drought ended for the Cal State Northridge football program Wednesday when Coach Bob Burt signed Doug Cunningham, a safety who will transfer from Oregon State. The signing is the Matadors’ first during the current signing period, which began a month ago.

Cunningham (6-foot-2, 225 pounds), who played two seasons at Golden West College, has two years of eligibility remaining after taking last fall at Oregon State as a redshirt season.

Burt’s recruiting emphasis is on linemen, but because last season’s starting safeties, all-time tackling leader Eric Treibatch and All-Western Football Conference selection Gerald Ponder, completed their eligibility, the program needed an experienced safety.

“Doug is a Treibatch-type,” Burt said. “A good hitter and he’s real smart.”

Budget limitations restrict Burt from signing any more than six or seven more players, primarily junior college transfers, by Friday’s signing deadline.

Under Division II rules, which CSUN must follow for the last time, junior college transfers are not required to have completed their Associate of Arts degrees. Therefore, those players can enroll for the spring semester and participate in spring workouts.

In 1994, Northridge will be subject to Division I rules, which require junior college players to obtain their Associate of Arts degrees before transferring to a Division I school.

Burt attributes the lack of signees to inadequate funding. Because scholarship money currently used by 1992-93 seniors doesn’t become available until after the spring semester, recruiting efforts are hamstrung, he said. Burt said he plans to sign half a dozen more players, including high school seniors, after the conclusion of the spring semester.

Although a blue-ribbon panel is studying the athletics program at CSUN, Burt said he has had little trouble attracting recruits. “We’ve got a bunch of kids who want to come,” he said. “None of them are concerned with that. There are so many kids who need places to go. So many need a scholarship.”

Among those are players at Cal State Fullerton, which dropped its program in November. A few former Titans are considering transferring to Northridge, according to Burt, including Tim Ryan, a freshman fullback. Ryan rushed for 212 yards in 50 carries last season.

The Matadors, who will play at the Division I-AA level next fall for the first time, open with their most competitive schedule in school history: Sept. 4 at San Diego State, Sept. 11 at Nevada Las Vegas, and Sept. 18 at Northern Arizona.

Guarantees for those games total $122,000, a boon to the financially strapped athletic program. Last season, the Matadors earned just $47,000 in guarantees.

A vote is scheduled for Friday or Saturday at the NCAA Convention in Dallas that will affect the eligibility of eight Northridge players, including sack leader Angel Chavez and Saadite Green, the team’s leader in receiving yardage.

Unless the NCAA invokes a grandfather clause at the convention, those players will be subject to Division I rules and thus become ineligible. Unlike Division II rules that allow student-athletes eligibility for 10 full-time semesters and an unlimited number of part-time semesters, student-athletes at the Division I level must complete four years of athletic eligibility in an uninterrupted five-year period.

Burt is hopeful that the clause is invoked. “I think it is only fair to the kids,” he said. “It wasn’t that (Northridge) elected to go (Division I-AA). It was mandated. We recruited them under rules that would allow them to finish their career here.”