Athletic Department at CSUN Is a Big Joke

Mike Hiserman’s excellent March 21 story on the idiotic firing of longtime Cal State Northridge basketball Coach Pete Cassidy contained an especially interesting sentence, “Interesting logic.”

When discussing CSUN, and especially what is laughingly called its athletic department, “logic” is an oxymoron.

This is truly the gang that can’t shoot straight.

Remember, this is a department that didn’t fund its Division II programs to what other schools did. Cassidy had two and three full scholarships to spread over 12 players in those days, compared to 10 at some schools.

The rest of the programs were also underfunded.

So in a bizarre decision, CSUN decided to move up to Division I in 1990.

And to prove that buffoonery is the norm at CSUN, the school decided to keep football in a city that has two of the best Division I programs in the country, USC and UCLA.

The smart Division I schools in Southern California--Fullerton, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount--long ago realized the stupidity of throwing money away on football programs that didn’t come close to paying for themselves and were a tremendous drain on their athletic programs.

Instead they invested their money in basketball programs and built real fieldhouses and facilities to help in recruiting players.

Have you been to what is laughingly called the “MataDome” lately?

Now we have wanna-be athletic director Paul Bubb taking credit for getting CSUN into the Big Sky conference.

Of course, to get in the Big Sky it was a requirement to keep football and increase scholarships to 63.

And the successful baseball program has to find another conference because the Big Sky doesn’t play baseball or women’s softball.

In addition, a great deal of money will be spent to build a new football stadium or renovate old, rundown Devonshire Downs.

After all, you need a place for those “huge” football crowds of 4,000-5,000.

Where’s the money coming from?

Remember this is the school with the worst record for fund-raising in the state college system!

By the way, didn’t Bubb used to be the fund-raiser?

As to charges that Cassidy can’t coach any more, remember in the last six years he has beaten Loyola, Long Beach State, Fullerton and UC Irvine.

All are well-funded, longtime Division I programs.

Cassidy has done it with less talent. His record in Division II was 282-225 and included four California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships.

What CSUN has done to a fine man and an excellent coach over the past six years is criminal.

And getting fired by Bubb, someone who doesn’t have a clue, is the ultimate indignity.

DAVE WRIGHT

Van Nuys