CS Northridge Seeks Division I Status

Cal State Northridge will petition the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. to be granted Division I status in all sports but football, school officials said Thursday.

The school has won 33 Division II national championships in 12 sports over the last 30 years.

Northridge has two years to meet scheduling requirements before it can be officially accepted into Division I. A status change in athletics was proposed by Northridge coaches in November, 1986, and a 5-member committee formed to study the idea has recommended that the move be made.

“I really don’t think we can afford to not take advantage of the direction nearly everyone suggests we ought to go,” school President James W. Cleary said.

Cleary said that arrangements for Northridge to be accepted into a Division I conference have not been made but that a nucleus for a new conference exists if Northridge bands together with Cal State Sacramento and Southern Utah State, which are also pointed toward Division I.