Matador Backers Plead to Trustees

Supporters of the Cal State Northridge football program, along with Coach Jeff Kearin and members of his staff, appealed Wednesday to the CSU Board of Trustees to keep the school’s football program.

Kearin and other speakers said years of mismanagement within the athletic department and the lack of a fund-raising official for the department are the reasons for a budget deficit that is expected to reach $725,000. They said cutting football will not solve financial woes.

“I see it as a wake-up call long overdue for our athletic and university administration to set up an intercollegiate athletic department that produces significant revenue that provides quality opportunity,” Kearin said.

Associated Students President Tari Hunter said Northridge has mismanaged a $27 fee increase that kept the football program afloat in 1995. Hunter indicated a resolution was passed Tuesday to recommend another fee referendum but suggested that the university can’t keep expecting students to foot the bill.

“By raising our student fees by half, the administration told us that by doing this we would save football,” Hunter said. “Yet here we are again fighting for our football team.”

Kearin has proposed adding football scholarships, which in turn will allow the Matadors to play big-name Division I schools to bring in revenue. The complex plan would also include trimming the total number of male athletes, and would require adding women’s rowing as a sport to adhere to gender-equity guidelines.

Northridge President Jolene Koester said she is considering Kearin’s plan in her decision, which she said will be made by next Thursday. She expressed reservations at whether there was sufficient interest or support to add another sport to meet gender-equity requirements.