CSUN Seeks Pay Dirt Against Allen’s 49ers : College football: Matadors will try to secure playoff berth with win over Cal State Long Beach.

A decision will be made this weekend whether the Cal State Northridge football team will be included in the 16-team NCAA Division II football playoffs.

The question is, will the Matadors take fate into their own hands today or wait until Sunday for a national committee to settle things for them?

A victory by the Matadors over Cal State Long Beach today (1 p.m.) at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach would leave little doubt. Northridge (7-2) already is ranked 13th in Division II and a win over the Division I 49ers (4-5) would enhance the Matadors’ standing among playoff teams.

However, a loss--particularly a lopsided one--could push the Matadors from the postseason field entirely. Theirs is a season on the brink.

Under the NCAA format, Division II football is split into four regions--the West, Midwest, East and South. During the season, advisory committees chart the progress of teams within the four regions.

At the end of the regular season, the committees rank the top five teams from their respective regions and submit them to a national committee for playoff consideration. The top four from each area usually qualify.

Northridge was No. 4, but teetering, in the West this week.

North Dakota State (9-0), the nation’s top-ranked team, and eighth-ranked Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (8-1), which shared the Western Football Conference championship with CSUN, are the West’s top teams.

North Dakota (7-2), the region’s No. 3 team, will play rival North Dakota State today. North Dakota started the week one notch ahead of Northridge in the national rankings.

But the Matadors will get some unexpected help today with the news that All-American tailback Albert Fann will be available for duty on kickoff returns. Early in the week, Coach Bob Burt announced that Fann would not play, but that was before school officials discovered that Fann needed 24 yards to become only the fifth player in NCAA history to gain 7,000 all-purpose yards.

Fann sustained an ankle injury three weeks ago in a 10-7 win over Santa Clara.

Today’s other game of interest for Northridge takes place in Davis, Calif., where the Aggies will play host to Sonoma State in a game for the Northern California Athletic Conference championship. Sonoma (7-2), ranked 15th, currently is the No. 5 team in the West, but UC Davis (6-3) has won 19 consecutive NCAC titles and 49 conference games in a row at home dating to 1971.

A UC Davis victory over Sonoma would strongly enhance Northridge’s playoff chances even if the Matadors lose to Long Beach. Both UC Davis and CSUN would then be 7-3, but the Matadors defeated the Aggies, 14-10, at North Campus Stadium on Sept. 29.

“If Davis is 7-3 that puts Northridge in a strong position,” said Roy Love, Portland State athletic director and a member of the West region’s advisory committee. “But if Sonoma is 8-2, that leaves things up to subjective opinion, which I have no control over. Between the two, in my view, Northridge should go because of strength of schedule.”

The Matadors are 7-1 against Division II teams this season, their only loss coming to San Luis Obispo, 6-3, last week. CSUN’s other loss came in its opener, on the road against Division I-AA Northern Arizona, 37-3. San Luis Obispo beat Sonoma, 32-7, in a nonconference game.

“It would be ludicrous for us not to go,” Burt said. “We beat seven legitimate Division II teams in a row. . . . We played well both at home and on the road and we lost a helluva ballgame to another Top 10 team. If we played a couple of schools that we’ve played in the past, or a couple of schools Cal Poly has played, we’d be 9-1 and there would be no doubt about us going to the playoffs. I hope that is taken into consideration.”

Love said it will be.

“Even if they lose (to Long Beach) they have a decent shot because of their schedule,” Love said. “Their losses have been to quality teams and they’ve beaten some good teams.”

The strength and reputation of the Western Football Conference should contribute to CSUN’s cause. Conference teams have advanced to the championship game in two of the past three seasons.

In 1988, the last time two WFC teams made the playoff field, both Portland State and Cal State Sacramento made it to the semifinals, and Portland advanced to the title game. WFC teams continued to fare well against other Division II opponents this season, winning 17 of 18 nonconference games.

Northridge, however, hopes it need not rely on such evidence to make the playoffs. A victory over Long Beach would make things a great deal more clear-cut, but the 49ers are not without inspiration.

Long Beach needs wins over Northridge and Nevada Las Vegas in its final two games to post a winning season. If the 49ers don’t, George Allen, their 72-year-old first-year coach, will endure his first losing season since 1954.

Long Beach will be missing linebacker Pepper Jenkins, who was suspended from the team this week for “violating team rules.”

Allen personally scouted Northridge’s game against San Luis Obispo last week and came away convinced that CSUN would be competitive with any team in the Big West Conference other than Fresno State and San Jose State.

“They have athletes,” he said of the Matadors. “They have three or four guys who could play in the pros.”

Fann is one of them, but most of the time he will be watching from the sidelines. In his place will be Victor DeVaughn, a 6-foot, 210-pound senior who has rushed for 125 yards in 21 carries.

Matador Notes: CSUN linebacker Mario Hull had surgery on his right knee last week and is out for the season. . . . The rest of the Matadors’ injury outlook is more optimistic. Safety Clayton Bamberg, captain of CSUN’s secondary, returns to the starting lineup after missing the past two games with an injured right knee. . . . Kevin Burt, the Matadors’ long snapper for extra points and field goals, has been fitted with a soft cast and is expected to play. He has multiple fractures in fingers on his right hand. . . . Long Beach holds a 9-3 advantage in its series with CSUN. The 49ers have won four in a row, including a 28-9 decision over the Matadors last season. . . . Today’s game will be broadcast live on KGIL 1260 and KORG 1190, beginning at 12:45 p.m.