Logic Doesn’t Favor Return of Football

University President Milton Gordon didn’t come right out and say it Friday, but he said enough to make even the most optimistic Titan football fan realize that the program has about as much chance of coming back next year as it does of hiring Mike Ditka as its coach.

Gordon wants to wait until mid-January to make a decision. That allows him to look at the state budget, which has provided more bad news with each new year. But despite what the money will look like later this winter, it is nearly too late to assemble coaches, players and measure for helmet sizes.

Because Fullerton officials still are reluctant to publicly say they will not field a football team next year--or in coming years--we’ll help them out with six reasons why they shouldn’t:

1. Budget. We’ll start with the most obvious reason. The California State University system’s budget is in bad shape. But, for dreaming purposes, say a miracle occurs. Say schools get a bit more money than expected next year.

Well, each of Fullerton’s sports programs took about a 10% hit with this year’s budget. Men’s basketball Coach Brad Holland had to slash about $45,000 out of his program. Men’s and women’s track and cross-country Coach John Elders lost about $8,000.

So, say extra money is turned loose. Who’s going to look these coaches in the eye and tell them that they still have to live on peanut butter while the extra cash goes to a program that is, as of now, nonexistent?

That will sell like a three-legged horse.

2. Recruiting. The national signing period begins Feb. 2, and if the Titans wait until Jan. 15 to even consider hiring a coach, no way can a staff and players be put together in time to field a team that won’t turn Tuffy the Titan’s trunk red with embarrassment.

Even Chapman University, when it announced several months ago that it would start a football program, set a Dec. 1 deadline for hiring a coach.

3. Spring football. If you’re going to resume a program, you have to have spring football. Fullerton can’t throw out the footballs next August and start playing games three weeks later against schools with established programs.

So, if Fullerton doesn’t recruit some community college transfers now and get them into school in time for the second semester, there won’t be anybody to attend spring drills.

Second semester classes convene Jan. 31.

4. Who cares? Interest in Fullerton football has traditionally been hogged by a few hard-core fans and nobody else. Smart people look at history and learn from mistakes, it is said, so let’s flip the books back to the mid-1980s.

Football at Fullerton reached its pinnacle in 1984, when the Titans went 11-1 and were briefly considered for the Freedom Bowl. The next season, after opening on the road with a 31-30 loss to Montana, a gathering of only 6,300 attended Fullerton’s home opener in the Santa Ana Bowl against Nevada Reno. There was no significant season ticket increase and, by the end of the year, crowds were less than 4,000 again.

If interest in football was ever going to take off at Fullerton, that was the year. It didn’t.

The history lesson: Considering the interest-to-expense ratio, maybe football was actually dropped several years too late.

5. Opponents. That cost-containment conference Fullerton is thinking of joining? This November’s rumors have Cal State Northridge, Sacramento State and San Jose State seriously considering dropping football. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. Either way, Long Beach State and St. Mary’s have recently dropped the sport.

Is it wise to invest in a company when a high percentage of those your size are either declaring bankruptcy or having their accountants look at it?

6. Gender Equity. This lies off in the distance, waiting to move in and zap Fullerton and other universities when they make a wrong move. The California State University system reached an agreement with the National Organization for Women last month whereby, within a five-year period, the ratio for women’s sports participation compared to the student body must be within five percentage points of men’s participation.

Now, Fullerton’s men are at 54% and the women are at 46%--close enough to swing into line within the five-year span.

If Fullerton decides to add football at some point, though, the school will have to sink more cash into women’s programs and scholarships--in addition to the extra dough it will take to run the football program.

And we already know what our parents--and the state--have told us for years: Money doesn’t grow on trees.

For now, while he waits to see the budget in January, Gordon has told the athletic department to hold on to the football equipment. We think it will be only a matter of time before the order--the correct order--is given: Sell it.

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Early line: Looking for a sign as to how the Titan men’s soccer team will fare in their NCAA tournament second-round game at the University of San Diego on Sunday?

Consider this: They will be wearing their new uniforms obtained courtesy of a shoe company.

They are 3-0 in these uniforms.

It started with a late October game against UCLA, which the Titans won. Trouble was, at that time they had only one set of the shoe-company uniforms. So they wore their old uniforms--a different color--and lost to Rutgers.

The new threads were back on two days later against Old Dominion and, voila , the Titans won. Same with Sunday’s NCAA tournament first-round victory at Fresno State.

We sure hope Coach Al Mistri is collecting a good representative’s fee from this shoe company.

Notes

Coach Debbie Ayres’ women’s basketball team opens its season on Friday with an exhibition game against Finland, scheduled to start about 9 p.m. in Titan Gym, after the women’s volleyball team plays. The Titans suffered a blow when freshman Michele Leitner suffered a torn meniscus and a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. She will undergo knee surgery in two weeks and is out for the season.