CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK / MIKE DiGIOVANNA : Football Could Take Detour

The Cal State Fullerton Athletics Council will deliberate on the Titan football issue for a few more hours today before recommending to school President Milton Gordon a course for the future.

There are three clear-cut paths Gordon could take: Keep football at Division I-A, drop it to a I-AA, cost-containment conference, or drop it completely.

But as decision day nears, a fourth option--it’s more like a detour--appears to be gaining momentum: Suspend football for the 1993 season with tentative plans, if there is sufficient funding, to return at the I-AA level in 1994.

It may not be a final solution--one that puts to rest the football debate on campus--but it’s a compromise that would have many benefits.

Among them:

--Current players wishing to play I-A football could transfer to another school without losing a year of eligibility, and if a player on scholarship transfers, it would reduce athletic department expenses by the cost of that grant.

--Instead of scrambling to hire a new coach in December or January and that coach scrambling to hire a staff and recruit players for 1993, the school could wait until at least next summer or early fall to find a replacement for Gene Murphy.

The new coach could take his time putting his staff together, evaluate high school and community college players and scout the I-AA Western Football Conference during the 1993 season and be fully prepared for the peak recruiting months of December and January.

--Administrators by June or July will have a more clear picture of the state budget, which many predict will be as bad as or worse than this year. This will allow them to make more realistic plans for the future.

--The athletic department would have a chance to stabilize its budget. Administrators project a $351,324 deficit after 1992-93 if the school maintains I-A football, $219,324 if it downgrades to I-AA and a more manageable $59,474 if football is dropped or suspended. The absence of coaching salaries during the spring accounts for almost all the savings.

There are drawbacks to such a plan. If the program is suspended, younger players who might have stayed and formed the foundation for a competitive I-AA team would likely transfer, forcing a new coach to virtually start from scratch.

Boosters might also lose faith in the program and withdraw financial support. As one Titan Athletic Foundation member said at a recent open forum to discuss football: “I didn’t give $25,000 to watch soccer and high school football in the new stadium.”

The potential loss of revenue might not be that significant, though. Financial records indicate that only about $30,000 has been donated specifically for football this year.

By suspending the sport, the school would have ample time to put a referendum for a special football fee increase before students next spring.

The athletic department would need about $250,000 extra a year to play I-AA football, but after years of wringing every drop out of the budget to accommodate a program with football, there is nothing left to squeeze.

With some 25,000 students, an additional annual fee of $10 each--that’s $5 a semester--could keep the Titans in helmets and shoulder pads and keep most of those who want to keep football happy.

It would also greatly reduce the need for outside fund-raising, a sore subject around an athletic department that usually falls well short of its goals.

If the referendum fails, Gordon could at least say he put it to a vote and then take appropriate action--most likely the complete dismantling of the football program, unless some alternative source of income magically appears.

Bottom line: After three consecutive losing seasons, all the negative publicity surrounding the sport and all the financial problems it has created, the school could use a break from football.

And after playing for years at the I-A level on a Division II budget, taking massive budget cuts almost every year and enduring a substandard existence, the football program deserves a break from the school, too.

That’s us: This was the phrase Murphy coined as an all-encompassing exclamation for when something went wrong away from the field, such as a late bus, being bumped from a flight, locked out of a stadium or kicked out of Anaheim Stadium the morning of a game, etc.

It was only fitting that Murphy had one last “That’s us” experience Saturday after coaching the last game of his 13-year Titan career at Nevada Las Vegas’ Silver Bowl.

The Titans bused back to Fullerton after a 33-16 loss, but because Murphy had to move out of his Fullerton townhouse by Saturday night so work could be done on the home’s foundation, he thought he’d save some time by spending about $100 for a one-way flight from Las Vegas to Ontario early Saturday evening.

But the flight was delayed, and by the time Murphy got to Ontario and drove back to campus, the team buses had already arrived. Then Murphy got home and found a note informing him he didn’t have to move out until Sunday.

“That’s us,” he said.

Inside information: If Fullerton fails to win its season-opening basketball game against St. Mary’s Friday night in Titan Gym, it won’t be for lack of preparation.

Titan first-year Coach Brad Holland has the benefit of having Chris Brazier, an assistant at St. Mary’s last season, on his staff, and Brazier is going to scout the Gaels’ opener at Northern Arizona tonight.

“I’ll see tonight whether they run the same stuff they did last season,” Brazier said. “If they do, that should work in our favor.”

Titan Notes

Some five games, including the semifinals and championship, of the 16-team Upper Deck Classic, one of the most prestigious high school baseball tournaments in the nation, will be played in the Titan Sports Complex next spring, Fullerton baseball Coach Augie Garrido said. The agreement with the trading-card company also calls for Upper Deck to provide funding for one Titan baseball scholarship per year (about $7,500) for the next two seasons. . . . Fullerton nose guard Jason Wells has been invited to play in a postseason all-star game, the Japan Bowl in Tokyo in January. . . . Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard has been named to the board of directors of the Los Angeles Sports Council, a nonprofit corporation created as a bidding agent for bringing major sporting events to the five-county Los Angeles area and to support Los Angeles’ established sports organizations. . . . The Titan football team set seven single-season team records during its 2-9 season, including marks for fewest pass attempts (119), fewest pass completions (39), fewest passing yards (836), most fumbles (73) and most fumbles lost (41). The fumbles and fumbles-lost were also NCAA records. Quarterback Trendell Williams led the team in rushing (472 yards) and passing (621 yards), while linebacker Mike Gullo led the team in tackles (81). . . . The Fullerton men’s basketball team has won its season opener in three of the last four years and its home opener in six of the last seven years.