As state legislators shrink its appropriations, it's hard enough for the University of California-Berkeley to maintain the nation's highest academic ranking among public colleges.

But there now looms a financial threat from another, somewhat unlikely quarter: the university's football program.

Until now, the years-old effort to renovate the school's football stadium, which sits on an earthquake fault line, never raised many alarms. Although its $321 million price tag would make it one of the most expensive renovations in college sports history, the university said the project would be funded privately, largely through long-term seat sales and naming rights.

But three years into the fund-raising effort, the school was far from its goal of raising $270 million from the sale of seats. At the end of December, the school had collected $31 million in cash. It had secured another $113 million in long-term seat agreements, the majority of which will be paid over 30 years and all of which are nonbinding. In recent interviews, university officials acknowledge that if revenue projections fall short and won't cover the bond payments, the shortfall "would have to come from campus."

The idea that money for the football stadium could come from campus funds, which include student fees, is an admission likely to stir outrage at a school that's already facing possible double-digit tuition increases. "It is disconcerting that the university may be gambling with student fees and other academic funds to cover a massive financial commitment for a football stadium," said Cal computer-science professor Brian Barsky.