Please, oh please refer to the school as Cal State Northridge, we are told. CS Northridge is OK, too.
However, do not use any hyphens. Don't use Cal State AT Northridge, either. And, for heavens sake, never ever use the CSUN acronym. CSN -- although it sounds like some kind of cable television network -- is preferred.
Did you know Cal State Northridge is the third largest university in the Los Angeles area? I didn't, either. I think I can name the other two and so can you.
Fact is, Cal State Northridge has an estimated 27,000 students which means the school once known as San Fernando Valley State College has approximately the same number of students as Kansas University.
Enrollment, however, does not mean equality. Kansas is an established NCAA Div. I-A university. Cal State Northridge is a Div. I-AA school headed for oblivion. If you're in Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, you'll quite likely be among the last to watch the Matadors play football.
Yes, the program's predicted demise is partly because the NCAA is investigating the school for numerous alleged violations under the regime of Ron Ponciano who is now, coincidentally, working in Kansas as an assistant coach at McPherson College.
Mainly, though, Cal State Northridge officials are expected to drop football because Angelenos would rather commute in a snowstorm than go to a Matadors' game.
Cal State Northridge ranked dead last in Big Sky Conference home attendance last season. Are you ready for this? The Matadors averaged 4,482 fans a game. Whew. Hard to maintain a college football program that way. No wonder CSN's hierarchy jumped at the $200,000 guarantee to show up in Lawrence on Saturday night.
Not that Cal State Northridge plays bad football. The Matadors have won eight of their last 10 home games. Trouble is, the school's football stadium is, uh, a dump.
North Campus Stadium is what they call it, which pretty much tells you that if you're looking for it on the south side of the campus you won't find it.
In one sense, North Campus Stadium may be unique. It was originally known as Devonshire Downs. Sounds like a race track, doesn't it? Well, it was. Today the home of the Matadors seats 6,500 fans -- no horses -- but without the original roof and press box from the bang-tail days of yore.
Lawrence and Northridge, Calif., both claim populations of about 80,000. Lawrence had Quantrill's raid. Northridge had the devastating earthquake of Jan. 17, 1994. That tremor so badly damaged the roof and press box they had to be torn down. Today the Matadors are making do with a temporary press box.
By the way, months after the earthquake, the CSN student body voted overwhelmingly to reject a suggestion to change the school's nickname to Quakes. (Did the headline in the student paper read: "Quakes quashed"?)
Once upon a time the Matadors played night games. Then two years ago the school shifted its kickoffs from 6:05 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. According the football media guide, the change was made to accommodate the media, "especially in the area of film as the games will be played in natural sunlight."
Translation: The lights at North Campus Stadium have a better chance of registering on the Richter scale than they do on a photographer's light meter.
So when Terry Allen talks about Cal State Northridge coming in here with everything to gain and nothing to lose, you know he isn't just a woofin'.
-- Chuck Woodling's phone message number is 832-7147. His e-mail address is cwoodling@ljworld.com.
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