An Inevitable Doomsday

As budget and gender-equity concerns forced an ax to fall on four men’s athletic programs at Cal State Northridge on Wednesday, angry coaches, athletes and supporters lashed out.

At anyone they could find.

“I would feel a lot better about things if I thought the university did all it could to create opportunity or raise money for gender equity,” said men’s volleyball Coach John Price, whose team was eliminated.

“There was no fight. No battle. They just caved in.”

Similar feelings were expressed by those in the baseball, golf and swimming programs, each of which was sacrificed to help Northridge crawl out of an $800,000 budget deficit and meet gender-equity regulations resulting from a lawsuit filed by the California chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Athletic Director Paul Bubb, who labored for weeks on the dilemma, said this was the only solution. The school was simply too far in debt and too far from meeting the gender-equity regulations it must meet within 15 months for any minor adjustments to work.

Bubb was right. Black Wednesday could not have been avoided with any last-minute maneuvers.

Northridge’s athletic department has never been on strong financial footing. Since the school’s move to Division I competition in 1990, the department had been teetering on the verge of disaster.

This was a day that had been coming for 10 years, as a series of unfortunate events--some poor Northridge decisions, some out of its control--kept pushing the school into a corner.

THE EARTHQUAKE

By destroying much of the campus in 10 seconds that January morning in 1994, the temblor caused enrollment at Northridge to plummet. From approaching the 30,000-student range in the late 1980s, the post-earthquake enrollment dropped to around 24,000. It has since rebounded to about 26,000.

A reduced student body caused a decrease in the athletic department’s income from fees, and from the Northridge Corporation.

The Corporation, which draws its income from students via the bookstore and campus vending machines, had given as much as $475,000 to the athletic department before the earthquake. But a smaller enrollment decimated the Corporation’s budget, and it was able to give only $280,000 a year after the quake.

THE STUDENT BODY

In the year following the earthquake, Northridge students narrowly defeated two referendums, each of which could have resuscitated the athletic department.

The second referendum, in the fall of 1994, would have pumped about $2.2 million a year into the athletic budget. But that $49-a-semester fee hike was rejected.

Even when a referendum was passed in the spring of 1995, the students might have made the wrong choice, one that was endorsed by Blenda J. Wilson, the university president.

The option that students selected was a $27-a-semester fee increase with the continuation of the football program. The fees now pump about $1.5 million a year into the department, but $900,000 of that goes toward football.

Two choices the general student body never got to vote on--because the Associated Students didn’t put them on the ballot--were semesterly fee hikes of $19 or $15, with the elimination of the football team. Had the $19 hike been selected, the athletic department would have generated about $1.2 million, with none needed for football.

THE BIG WEST

Whenever someone suggests that Northridge should drop football, athletic officials respond by saying that would mean the school would not have a conference.

The Big West Conference, which includes several Cal State and Southern California schools, seems to be the the most logical home for Northridge. But Northridge had only one brief window of opportunity to join the Big West without a Division I-A football team, which is far too expensive for the school.

In 1994, when Northridge was still recovering from the earthquake and after the first referendum had been defeated, the Big West had an opening for a California school that didn’t necessarily have to play I-A football.

With the losses of Nevada Las Vegas and San Jose State to the Western Athletic Conference, and the gains of Idaho, Boise State and North Texas, the Big West had seven I-A football members, 11 overall. It was looking for one more school in California to fill out its divisional alignment for sports other than football.

Either Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or Northridge could have joined. But Cal Poly’s president and athletic director aggressively lobbied the Big West for membership. The school had firm plans for major renovations to its athletic facilities. And in 1991, Cal Poly’s students approved a $43-a-quarter fee that pumps about $2.5 million a year into athletics.

Northridge never seriously courted the Big West, said commissioner Dennis Farrell. And Northridge’s financial situation was still shaky, with referendum No. 2 approaching.

Bob Hiegert, Northridge’s athletic director at the time, blames the university’s top administrators for not giving him the support he needed to pursue the Big West. Ronald Kopita, Northridge’s vice president in charge of student affairs, declined to comment on Hiegert’s claim.

Had Northridge joined the Big West, its baseball and softball teams would have had a conference, although the softball team was admitted anyway; the basketball teams would have had stronger natural rivals that might have generated more fan interest and revenue; and the football team would not have had to increase its budget so dramatically, as mandated by the Big Sky Conference.

THE BIG SKY TASK FORCE

Once the Big Sky became Northridge’s only conference alternative, late in 1995, a task force was created to study whether the school could make the transition without having to cut other sports.

Releasing its report in January 1996, the conclusion was that Northridge could keep all its sports. Bubb now admits that the committee did a poor job of estimating revenues and expenses, and he takes some of the blame for not scrutinizing the report more thoroughly.

If the projections had been accurate, the coaches, community and administration might have had a longer time to determine if being in the Big Sky was truly better than being an independent.

THE NCAA

At its convention in 1991--a year after Northridge moved to Division I competition--the NCAA voted to change the rule that allowed schools to compete in football in a different division from their other sports, effective in 1993.

That, in essence, forced Northridge to move its football program to Division I-A or I-AA. A proposal to create a Division I-AAA, with non-scholarship football, was defeated in 1992.

THE LAWSUIT

Female representation in athletics, throughout the Cal State University system, had dropped from 36% in the mid 1980s to 30% by 1993, prompting the lawsuit by the California Chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The settlement of the suit mandated that schools be in full proportionality in five years, a much stiffer standard than Title IX, a federal law which requires only that schools move toward proportionality.

Other schools, with lower percentages of female athletes than Northridge, have been able to meet Title IX’s requirements by adding one women’s sport every two years or so.

*

Now it’s done, presumably once and for all.

Bubb and Kopita both said Wednesday that the drastic cuts should put the school on track for permanent balance in the budget and in gender equity.

They say this will be the last significant athletic cutting.

They hope to build from here, counting on increased revenue from the improving basketball and football teams, rising enrollment and a recovering economy.

They say the department is healthy. And all it took was a major bloodletting.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What’s Left

A comparison of men’s and women’s sports after cuts at Cal State Northridge

MEN’S SPORTS

*--*

PLAYERS SCHOLARSHIPS Basketball 15 12 Football 85 45 Golf 8 1.5 Track* 32 8 Totals 140 66.5

*--*

WOMEN’S SPORTS

*--*

PLAYERS SCHOLARSHIPS Basketball 18 14 Golf 10 4 Soccer 25 10 Softball 20 12 Swimming 24 7.8 Tennis 11 6 Track* 40 16 Volleyball 16 12 Totals 164 81.8

*--*

* Indoor and outdoor track and cross-country