Talks to Form Conference at Standstill : Northridge Stymied in Attempt to Devise Plan to Facilitate Move to Division I

Representatives from six universities huddled at Cal State Northridge on Thursday to discuss the formation of a new Division I athletics conference but no progress was made.

James W. Cleary, Cal State Northridge president, and Bob Hiegert, the school’s athletic director, met with officials from Weber State, Northern Arizona, Southern Utah State, Cal State Sacramento and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

It marked the third time Northridge has been involved in formal discussions about the creation of a new conference. CSUN is scheduled to complete its final year in the NCAA Division II during the 1989-90 academic year. Beginning in the fall of 1990, the school plans to play a Division I schedule in all sports but football.

In March, Cleary chaired a meeting of more than a half-dozen college presidents and that was followed by a gathering of athletic directors in Sacramento last month.

However, Hiegert said after Thursday’s talks: “We’re no closer to settling things now than we were before these meetings started.”

Weber State and Northern Arizona, members of the Big Sky Conference, are awaiting word from a task force their conference has formed to study cost-cutting measures. Both schools are experiencing financial difficulty in their current situations, but results from the Big Sky’s study won’t be available until the fall.

Meanwhile, the four other schools are left hanging and another meeting has not been planned.

Hiegert said that Sacramento and Southern Utah have expressed a willingness to form a conference with only four or five member schools in the hope that others will join once given the option. A conference must have a membership of six for a minimum of eight years before it is eligible for an automatic berth in the financially lucrative Division I men’s basketball postseason tournament.

Northridge likely would become a Division I independent rather than align with only three or four other schools.

“A small conference doesn’t solve scheduling problems and it causes money problems,” Hiegert said, citing the cost of establishing a conference office and full-time commissioner. “It seems to me like it’s a lot of trouble that might not be worth the eventual gain.”

Northridge was involved in the formation of the Division II Western Football Conference eight years ago. The WFC started with five teams, dropped to four after one season, reached a high-water mark of seven and is now down to six after Cal Lutheran pulled out after last season.

“It’s a good football conference,” Hiegert said, “but even now it’s still not what we’d like it to be.”

If a new conference cannot be formed Northridge likely will try to place as many teams as possible within Division I conferences as allied members.

For example, the school’s volleyball team, which already plays a Division I schedule, is affiliated with the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. along with USC, UCLA and Pepperdine among others.

CSUN would prefer to join an existing conference in a best-case scenario, but the ones that are best-suited geographically--Big West, Pacific 10 and West Coast Athletic conferences--have not expressed plans to expand.

“It may be best for us to take a step back and take a hard look at independence status,” Hiegert said. “I’d feel better about the chances of a new conference if there were six or seven institutions beating the door down.”

Northridge would be well-suited for adoption by an existing major-college conference should an opening become available, Hiegert said, because of the school’s broad-based program, the size of its enrollment (30,000-plus) and its plans for a new 30,000-seat multipurpose outdoor athletics facility.

Hiegert said he was still confident that Northridge teams will find their rightful place in Division I athletics, despite the frustration of three fruitless meetings.