Bring Back Titan Football

The scheduled meeting with the Bring Back Titan Football Committee, the CSUF Director of Athletics Brian Quinn, and CSUF Senior Associate Athletic Director Allison Rich lasted nearly 90 minutes. Committee members were joined by a handful of current students that are also in support of reinstating the Titan Football program. The meeting was rather informal and was more of a question and answer session to determine the best and most feasible plan of action for bringing back football. Following are a few notable highlights that came out of the meeting:

The major answer coming out of the meeting was “money solves all problems.” (This is not a direct quote from Brian Quinn or Allison Rich. This just sums up the general consensus of the quickest and easiest way to reinstate football.) With increased revenue, a football team could be properly fielded, along with women’s programs bolstered, to stay in compliance with Title IX. Increased funding would also solve the facilities issues that would definitely come into play by adding a football team. Where that money will come from and how much will be needed was not determined.

The meeting started with a few introductions of everyone in attendance. Brian Quinn then opened the meeting and was quite frank about his position on bringing back football to Cal State Fullerton. Quinn stated that his and Allison Rich’s attendance at the meeting was not an endorsement nor opposition to bringing back football. Quinn and Rich reserved a portion of time to offer answers to potential questions, and stated that their current positions within the CSUF Athletic Department does not allow them to take a side one way or the other.

Regarding the effort to reinstate the Titan Football Team, Quinn said, “Anything is possible.” Quinn also added, “If you are going to do this, it has to be done right,” referring to putting together a proposal that would eventually be presented to the CSUF administration.

Questions were raised in regards to the potential impact a football team would have on CSUF’s compliance with Title IX. Since the current campus population at Cal State Fullerton is made up of roughly 62% women, in order to stay in compliance with title IX, more opportunities in women’s sports would need to be added. Many thought that this would mean adding new sports like women’s crew or women’s water polo. Allison Rich and Brian Quinn both confirmed that if football was added, Fullerton could stay in compliance with Title IX by fully funding existing female sports. The women’s Track & Field program, Cross Country program, and Tennis program are currently underfunded. Rather than add another woman’s sport, Title IX could be met by adding more female athletes to these three existing, yet underfunded sports. By fully funding those women’s programs, additional scholarships could be offered, thus increasing the number of female athletes participating. The increase in female athletes within these existing sports would help balance the number of potential male athletes football would bring in.

The issue of impacted facilities was brought up during the meeting as well. Currently, the locker rooms in the Titan Football Stadium are currently utilized by the soccer teams. All agreed that kicking those teams out of their locker rooms would be unfair. One major obstacle to bringing back football at Cal State Fullerton would be the addition of locker rooms to accommodate the influx of football players needing them. This issue then pointed back to the quick fix answer that is funding. With an increased athletic budget, new facilities could be constructed to accommodate this need.

The meeting’s discussion turned towards the possibility of using a student fee referendum to help subsidize a football team, along with fully fund other women’s sports to comply with Title IX. A suggestion of a $50 per semester student fee, along with a $25 fee for those attending summer courses, would raise roughly $4 million. Brian Quinn said that an additional $4 million would be a good start and without crunching numbers, seems to be a reasonable dollar figure to potentially bring back Titan Football. (Keep in mind these dollar amounts were round figures thrown out as examples for the sake of conversation and debate. More study needs to go into what needs to be done and how much it will cost before an arbitrary figure like $4 million becomes the standard by which everyone assumes is the correct dollar figure.)

The meeting ended about 5:30 pm, and everyone in attendance came away with the belief that a lot of questions had been answered and that the meeting was positive. The next step for the committee is to work out a potential budget that would enable football to be brought back to Cal State Fullerton. No definitive future meeting date was set for the Bring Back Titan Football Committee; however, a meeting in March was suggested.