Northridge Football Eliminated

Cal State Northridge’s checkered 40-year history of football is just that--history. In a move long expected but only delivered Tuesday, Northridge President Jolene Koester accepted Athletic Director Dick Dull’s recommendation and eliminated the program in a move to address looming budget concerns.

Northridge closed its season with a 3-7 record and a 50-43 loss to Portland State in its final game Saturday. Koester delivered the news in a meeting with players and coaches at the team’s athletic facility outside North Campus Stadium. “It’s a pretty dark day for the athletic department,” Matador Coach Jeff Kearin said. “It’s a complete dismissal of everything we’ve done.”

Koester said she concluded that the $1.3 million annual cost of football was too much for a department expected to be $725,000 in the red by the end of this fiscal year and $1 million by 2004-2005. She added the university is expected to return $1.5 million to the state of California per a mandate from Gov. Gray Davis. Northridge will honor the scholarships for players who remain at the university through the duration of their NCAA eligibility, she said.

“Decisions are rarely made at one fixed point in time,” she said. “The theme [of this decision] is one of resources. We, as an intercollegiate athletic program, are looking at a major deficit next year. That was clear from [Dull’s] report and, frankly, it was clear from history.

“We are looking at major budget cuts from the state this year. We anticipate that we will be in a very reduced budget stance next year.... The decision is meant to address a continuing problem with the [athletic] budget being out of balance.”

Dull submitted a report to Koester on Oct. 1 outlining a three-year plan to fulfill the president’s request to reduce the deficit. Two college sports experts, former NCAA president Joseph Crowley and Cincinnati Athletic Director Bob Goin, agreed with Dull. The the campus faculty senate and an advisory board also supported his recommendation. Kearin submitted his own plan to Koester last week, which included boosting the number of scholarships from 45 to 60 in order for the Matadors to schedule Division I-A opponents on the road and bring in revenue for the ailing athletic department.

“I know Jeff and I will disagree on this but the financial viability of the plan was not strong enough for me to accept the risks attached to it,” Koester said, “because the plan would have meant that I would have had to find another $600,000 to put into intercollegiate athletics for next year in addition to the projected deficit that we have. Given the overall state budget situation, I couldn’t commit to doing that.”

Kearin, who has two years remaining on a four-year contract that pays him $96,000 per year, said the department’s financial problems aren’t the football program’s fault. “I don’t think in my heart of hearts that the solution of eliminating football is going to answer any of the issues present today,” he said. “My model is as full of holes as any of them but my model produces revenue.”

Community activist Duke Russell, who has championed athletic programs at several colleges, said supporters of the football program weren’t given enough time to formulate more plans for survival.

“It’s not fair,” Russell said. “Four years ago, it was four sports. They don’t have any fund-raiser. That’s why they don’t have any money.”

The players weren’t surprised.

“I was kind of expecting it, especially with the way things were going last week,” sophomore defensive back Bryson Atkins said. “Once she said she was dropping the program, I was thinking about the season and everything that we went through. I’ve got a lot to think about now.”

Northridge competed its last season as a Division I-AA independent after six years in the Big Sky Conference. The athletic program joined the Big West Conference last year, leaving the football team without a conference affiliation.

In existence since 1962, the program’s lowlights often clouded their few successes, particularly in recent years. They won as many as eight games only twice, in 1976 and 1986 while competing in Division II. They couldn’t win consistently despite having Marcus Brady, one of I-AA’s top quarterbacks, the last four years. The program was known more for its missteps. In 1999, Northridge was put on probation for recruiting violations and it cost former coach Ron Ponciano his job. In 1996, then-coach Dave Baldwin lied about a player who was shot.

Kearin, who took the job in 1999, lobbied the Los Angeles City Council and the Cal State University board of trustees to help keep the program.

On Tuesday, he looked worn out.

“I think the hardest thing is the naysayers are going to say they were right,” Kearin said. “That’s the hardest part for me.”