BACKING OR FURTHER HACKING?

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Say this for Cal State Northridge.

Unlike, say, UCLA, the pride of the San Fernando Valley harbors no delusion about whether it's a football school or a basketball school.

Northridge de-emphasized football on Tuesday by eliminating its football team entirely, a cost-cutting move that had been in the works for weeks, or months, or years if you listen to a host of skeptics.

A few hours later, the Northridge basketball team jogged onto its snappily repainted home court and earned its first victory of the season by squashing little Dominican University of San Rafael, Calif.

For the record, Northridge basketball coach Bobby Braswell told a reporter it was ``not appropriate'' for him to comment on the afternoon's announcement, while his glum football colleagues were cleaning out their offices.

But I'll try to read his mind.

If I'm Braswell, on the outside I'm frowning about the loss of the 40- year-old football program; on the inside I'm smiling at the thought that the administration now can focus on improving the campus gym known facetiously as the Matadome; and way deep inside I'm worried that the hope of future glory for Matadors hoops is another breakable promise.

The cutting of football, in response to a projected $1 million athletic-department budget deficit, is disappointing. That disappointment will be compounded if Northridge basketball, the newly confirmed flagship of the 20-sport athletic program, doesn't get bigger and better as a result.

University president Jolene Koester said the right thing in her carefully crafted announcement: ``(The) decision will better enable us to dedicate financial resources to the remaining sports at levels at which they can achieve the greatest measure of success.''

And athletic director Dick Dull said the right thing chatting in his office when he set a goal of building the basketball program into one that will regularly ``vie for the conference championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.''

Dull said that to accomplish that, as Northridge steps up to the Big West Conference following its 2001 NCAA Tournament appearance, improvements must be made in the 1,600-seat Matadome and more out-of-state scholarships must be provided for basketball players.

``I think we need to do what Maryland and Duke do,'' Dull said. ``Obviously, to a lesser extent.''

Dull says Maryland in a breath with Duke because he was the Terrapins A.D. in some of the brightest - and some of the darkest - days of that basketball program.

``I come out of the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), where they play a pretty good brand of football, but basketball's the sport that can get you attention quickly,'' Dull said. ``If you look at what we've done as far as putting resources into men's basketball the last couple of years, you'll find we've done a remarkable amount.''

Dull refers to the addition of about $80,000 to the basketball budget, the new six-year contract awarded to Braswell and the ``three-phase'' plan to add 2,000 seats.

But fund-raising has yet to begin on the expansion plan.

Anyway, from my experience, when an executive talks about more than one ``phase,'' what he really means is, ``not in your lifetime.''

``My words, with the skeptics, will have no meaning,'' Dull admitted. ``The (football) decision will have to stand the test of time.''

He said it.

Dull and Koester, the Bud Seligs of the college sports world, in danger of being remembered for what they destroyed, can talk all they want, but getting Northridge fans to believe them is another matter.

``If I was a basketball coach right now, I'd say, 'That's better for us.' Then, a little while later, I'd say, 'I wonder if they'll come after us,' '' said Duke Russell, the Los Angeles man who agitates on behalf of threatened sports programs.

``As an athlete, I'd be scared,'' said Jennifer Davis, a former Northridge tennis player who serves as liaison between the university's teams and the Associated Students. `` `Who's to say we (another team) won't be next? What if we start spending more money?'

``Dick Dull said he is eliminating football for the benefit of other programs. (But) no one has done anything to reassure other athletes that their programs are safe.''

Northridge sports will get better now that football is out of the way?

``Don't believe it,'' said David Phelps, who was Northridge's 1999-2000 student body president and now is a campaign-finance analyst in Los Angeles.

``Do I think the men's programs will get this money? No. I think it will go to the university general fund or it will go to the women's teams,'' Phelps said, referring to the university's commitment to so-called gender equity. ``The men's teams are still going to be abused.

``It would surprise me if the university actually decided to back the athletic program, instead of only showing itself when the athletic program needs to be put back in line, so to speak. If they upgraded facilities, I guess I'd feel a little better.''

There's no turning back now at the San Fernando Valley's own basketball school.

The administration can do one thing to win its credibility back.

Build something out of the ashes of the football program.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

DOWN TO ELEVEN