CSUN, Hiegert Interested in Proposal for New League

SAN DIEGO — Bob Hiegert, the Cal State Northridge athletic director, may have found a home for his men’s basketball team.

Before the beginning of the 1991-92 season, CSUN could join five or more schools in what could be the newest NCAA affiliate: the American Conference.

Athletic directors from six independent universities gathered Thursday to discuss plans for a new athletic conference that Al Palmiotto, athletic director at United States International University, has been working on for two years.

After a day of talks, representatives from CSUN, USIU, Southern Utah State, Missouri-Kansas City, Northeastern Illinois and Chicago State agreed to take recommendations for a basketball conference back to their respective school presidents for approval by June 7.

Northridge, which played last season in the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Assn., is moving up to Division I in all sports except football, starting in the fall.

In addition to the six schools attending--the NCAA requirement to form a conference--Sacramento State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Youngstown State (Ohio) and Wright State (Ohio) expressed interest but failed to send a representative.

“We agreed that a basketball conference would be in our best interest,” said Palmiotto, “and right now, it would be a beginning for all of us.”

Hiegert and the other athletic directors decided that forming a basketball-only conference would be beneficial because basketball is the only sport in which all the schools involved consistently have scheduling difficulties.

“The trouble with being an independent,” said Palmiotto, “is that we never know until that year if people will hold to their contract with us. There’s more of a moral commitment in a conference. People in our conference won’t walk out.”

Palmiotto said schools will be required to make a two-year commitment to the conference, a commitment Hiegert can live with.

“The two-year commitment is attractive because we’re not looking into this as a long-range arrangement,” he said. “This conference, for us, is a short and easy solution to our basketball scheduling problems. But we can’t look much beyond this.”

While Hiegert said he was impressed with the balance of sports programs offered by the schools involved, grouping all of CSUN’s teams in the same conference is still his first priority.

“Our first priority is still a full sports program,” he said. “We’re still interested in Big West affiliation, or the Big Sky is still a possibility.”

If six schools agree to move forward with the proposal, the next meeting will be June 10 in Marco Island, Fla., in conjunction with a national meeting for athletic directors.