That Big Football Team in the Sky Will Sack Other CSUN Sports

With so many coaches at Cal State Northridge spending sleepless nights wondering if their teams will be around next year, it doesn’t make sense that one program is flourishing at unprecedented levels.

Particularly since that sport is football, which is not likely to do much to improve Northridge’s identity or financial status.

When Northridge joined the Big Sky Conference recently, the football team’s scholarship allotment was doubled, with more to come, because the conference demands competitive football first and foremost.

But if the football emphasis comes at the expense of most other Northridge sports, which it probably will, it’s not worth it.

This is not to say that football Coach Dave Baldwin won’t make good on his promise to turn around the Matadors, who were 2-8 last fall. With 63 scholarships--the Division I-AA maximum--in Southern California, Baldwin ought to recruit enough quality players to compete in the Big Sky.

Three or four years from now, Northridge might even win the Big Sky.

But so what?

Heck, some day Northridge might challenge for a I-AA national title.

Again, who cares?

Quick, which teams played for the I-AA football championship last month? Don’t know? Montana and Marshall, of course. Gives you goose bumps just mentioning Northridge in the same breath with those two, huh?

In a city where USC and UCLA football games are only a short drive away, it is difficult to believe too many people are going to get excited about I-AA football, no matter how good it is.

(Which brings us back to the argument that Northridge might never be good at football, because most players don’t want to go to a college that draws fewer fans than their high schools. But that’s another column.)

The cost for Northridge football, once it has reached the 63-scholarship level the Big Sky requires, will be about $871,000.

What if Northridge didn’t have a football team, and that money was spread around the rest of the athletic department?

Consider: An NCAA basketball tournament berth nets a school about $200,000, even if it loses in the first round. Northridge’s current men’s basketball expenditures are about $297,000.

Yes, Northridge’s current team is a long way from the NCAA basketball tournament. But if you boost the team to the NCAA limit of 13 scholarships (it has 10 now), include out-of-state scholarships (it doesn’t now) and increase the recruiting budget, the Matadors’ chances at postseason play would increase dramatically.

And basketball still would be a lot cheaper than football.

Logic tells you that it’s a much shorter road to building a top basketball team than a top football team, simply because of the number of players needed.

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Another major problem for the basketball team is its facilities, which are woefully inadequate. The school needs a simple 5,000-seat, arena-type facility with nice locker rooms and offices.

There is already a proposal to construct such a building--along with a new football stadium--on the North Campus property. Just scrap the football stadium and put more money into the arena, and Northridge suddenly will be able to recruit the kind of players who can attract fans to fill those 5,000 seats.

Another advantage of not having football is that the gender-equity problems would practically vanish without those 63 male scholarships throwing everything out of balance.

The major obstacle to all of this is that without football, Northridge would have a more difficult time finding a conference. And without a conference, the whole NCAA tournament dream is all but shot.

Back when Northridge first moved to Division I, its administrators should have looked around and realized the conference in which they belonged was the Big West.

They should have at that point done whatever the Big West asked, just the way they are doing whatever the Big Sky asks now.

The Big West soon will include five California schools that don’t play football--Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific--and another that will play I-AA football as an independent, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Northridge would fit in perfectly with this group.

It could still happen. The Big Sky has invited Northridge for only a three-year trial period. If its football team hasn’t made significant progress in that time, Northridge will be conference-shopping again.

So, three years from now, maybe Northridge will be where it belongs: as a non-football-playing member of the Big West.

Let’s hope Northridge’s other sports can survive until then.