THE COLLEGES : Division I-AA League of Southland Football Teams Carries Merit

Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton, among others, should be realistic and forget about playing Division I-A football.

Both schools spend too much money and energy trying to be competitive against all odds. And to what advantage? Their records are average, at best, and attendance is still poor.

When the music stops and college football’s teams and conferences finally fall in place, presumably in the next few years, Fresno State will leave the Big West Conference for the greener--as in more profitable--pastures of the Pacific 10 Conference. At that time, the rest of the Big West should consider joining the ranks of Division I-AA football. And Cal State Northridge and Cal State Sacramento should join them.

Other than Fresno--and San Jose State this year--the Big West plays football at a level similar to that of the Division I-AA Big Sky Conference--a level only slightly better than the Division II Western Football Conference, of which Northridge and Sacramento are members.

When Fresno leaves, the Big West will be left with eight schools--only six of which play football. Pick up Northridge and Sacramento and the numbers to go to 10 and eight.

Northridge and Sacramento don’t have far to go in football to be on par with Big West schools, whose scholarship levels are more along the lines of Division I-AA anyway.

In basketball, the Big West--with the likes of Nevada Las Vegas and New Mexico State--still would be considered big time, and perhaps be even more balanced because its athletic programs no longer would be wasting money while hopelessly trying to become respectable in football.

Such an alliance makes a lot of sense geographically, financially and competitively.

Practice makes perfect: Most major-college basketball programs play preseason exhibitions against teams with religious affiliations or from foreign countries.

Not Northridge.

Before Friday’s opener at Colorado, the Matadors had played no one but themselves.

“We’re sick of playing against each other,” point guard Keith Gibbs said. “It is hard to tell how good we are.”

Indeed, intra-squad scrimmages give a team of newcomers little opportunity to familiarize themselves in a game situation. Without another team to compare itself to, Northridge had no idea what it needed to work on nor how well its new Loyola Marymount-style offense would work.

Colorado, meanwhile, played the Australian National Team on Nov. 6 and the Spirit Express on Nov. 17. Colorado State, which Northridge faces tonight in Fort Collins, Colo., also has played two exhibitions.

CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said he attempted to schedule an exhibition against New Zealand, but those plans fell through.

Northridge’s women’s basketball team didn’t play an exhibition, either, but Coach Janet Martin found an alternative. She broke up the monotony of intra-squad scrimmages by having her team play against men from the school’s intramural program.

School of coaching: The Notre Dame High class of 1962 had three pretty good football coaches in its ranks--Glendale College’s John Cicuto, former Glendale coach and current assistant Jim Sartoris and UCLA’s Terry Donahue. Cicuto was an offensive tackle and nose tackle, Sartoris played quarterback and Donahue played offensive guard and linebacker.

Cicuto and Sartoris have stayed especially close since meeting at Notre Dame in 1958. When Sartoris became the head coach at Glendale, he hired Cicuto to be his defensive coordinator. And when Sartoris stepped down as coach before last season to concentrate on his duties as athletic director, Cicuto replaced him.

Glendale struggled through a 5-4-1 campaign last season, leading Cicuto to fear the worst. “For a while I thought I’d be the first coach Jim would fire as an A. D.,” Cicuto said.

Fat chance. After two losses to open this season, Glendale has won eight in a row.

Briefly: Here’s a particularly forgettable quote by Coach Pete Cassidy out of last season’s Northridge basketball media guide: “He is a good defensive player and when all is said and done I know Eugene will be there for the team.”

In the stands maybe. On Nov. 6, Eugene Humphrey, CSUN’s starting point guard, quit the team. . . .

So Coach Mel Hankinson is predicting a top 10 finish for The Master’s College basketball team. Seems like only last season that Hankinson was saying the Mustangs would be galloping off to Kansas City, site of the NAIA championship tournament. Make sure those flight reservations are refundable. . . .

A decade ago, in its last postseason appearance, the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football team won the Division II national championship. The Mustangs’ coach: Joe Harper, who concluded his first season at Cal Lutheran a week ago. . . .

In an interview after San Luis Obispo’s football playoff victory over Northridge, Mustang Coach Lyle Setencich seemed to take a backhanded swipe at CSUN tailback Albert Fann. In praising his own tailback, Joe Fragiadakis, Setencich pointedly singled out Fragiadakis and Portland State’s Curtis Delgardo as “the toughest running backs” in the Western Football Conference. . . .

Two years ago, when Fragiadakis was being recruited out of DeAnza College, CSUN was one of his suitors. “We wanted him,” CSUN Coach Bob Burt said. “But I think he took a look at (Fann) and decided he might not get much of a chance to play.”. . . .

Words of Wisdom, II: Setencich also stated the obvious--that Cal Poly’s defense was tailor-made to stop Northridge’s tailback-oriented I formation offense.

The Matadors, to a fault, seemed intent on proving otherwise. CSUN called a running play to Fann on the first play on all but three of its 15 possessions. Fann gained 26 yards on those 12 runs and finished with 80 yards in 31 carries. Jason Ferguson, with two yards in two carries, was the only other Matador running back to carry the ball. . . .

Kenny Vaughn led the team in tackles and Kenny Wallace topped the list in sacks, but the key player on defense for Northridge was the Matadors’ own Mr. T--Terrell Taylor. After one of CSUN’s last practices, an unusually sloppy effort, a players-only meeting was called. The team captains called for the meeting, but Taylor did most of the talking. Said Burt: “He’s not a captain, just the leader.”. . . .

Before Burt became coach in 1986, CSUN had seven winning seasons in 24 years of playing football. Burt’s teams have finished above .500 five years in a row and his record with CSUN is 34-21, a .618 winning percentage. . . .

Freshman Albert Razo appears to be Northridge’s punter of the future. In the Matadors’ final two football games he punted 15 times for 637 yards, an average of 42.5 yards a kick. Razo, formerly a quarterback at La Habra, also faked a punt and threw a 13-yard pass to Eric Treibatch for a first down. . . .

Gene Urcan, CSUN’s latest volleyball recruit, reminds Coach John Price of another 6-5 middle blocker--Matador sophomore Coley Kyman. . . .

Mike Kane, CSUN’s former career rushing leader, has not given up on his professional football aspirations. Kane, who completed his CSUN eligibility in 1986, reportedly will give the World League of American Football a try. . . .

Julie Arlotto, a senior from Simi Valley High, has started 86 consecutive games for the Northridge women’s basketball team. After averaging 12.6 points and 5.4 rebounds a game last season, Arlotto is No. 4 on CSUN’s career scoring list with 1,018 points and is second with 280 free throws. . . .

Walt Ker, coach of the CSUN women’s volleyball team for 12 seasons, won match No. 350 last week against U. S. International. He has a career record of 352-113, a winning percentage of .757. . . .

Words of the wise: There’s a cliche that says you’re only as good as your last man. In cross-country, it’s altered slightly to “. . . fifth man.” Glendale College found that out the hard way last week in the state championships.

No team had a better one-two punch than Glendale, but the Vaqueros still finished a disappointing sixth. Hugo Allan Garcia and Obed Aguirre finished first and seventh, respectively, but Vaquero runners three through five placed 54th, 69th and 80th.