Cassidy Looks to Upgrade Schedule : College basketball: Northridge might play Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount in future.

If Canisius, Southern Utah State and Boise State don’t excite Cal State Northridge basketball fans, maybe Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton will.

Now that Northridge has arrived in Division I, Athletic Director Bob Hiegert and Coach Pete Cassidy are learning that Southern California schools are more willing to schedule the Matadors.

Northridge will play host to Fullerton in 1992-93 after playing the Titans on the road next season. Loyola Marymount and Long Beach have expressed interest in playing home-and-home series with Northridge. In addition, Pepperdine and Northridge are working toward scheduling a single game.

Dates of the games were not divulged because negotiations are not finished, Hiegert said.

According to Pepperdine Athletic Director Wayne Wright, the teams will meet either next season or in 1992-93.

“We usually do our schedule a couple years in advance so I don’t know if we play them next year or the year after,” said Wright, who spoke to Hiegert on Wednesday at the NCAA convention in Nashville, Tenn.

“I’m sure they’ll be getting better and better and because we are so close it makes sense.”

Wright said he was unaware of attempts by CSUN to play Pepperdine in the past. “Sometimes the coaches talk, though,” he said.

Wright admitted that a few years ago, scheduling a Division II school such as Northridge held little appeal.

“We want to play as many Division I schools as we can,” he said. “In the past we haven’t played many Division II schools. I’m sure that was a factor.”

Northridge has only three games left to schedule for next season. Two vacancies were created when United States International dropped its program from the Division I ranks.

“I have to be careful with those three,” Cassidy said. “I’d like all three to be at home if I can get them at home.”

Currently, Cassidy has scheduled 10 games at home in 1991-92 and 15 on the road. Northridge will play 11 home games and 17 road games this season.

The 1992-93 schedule is largely unfilled, but Northridge has lined up home-and-home series with Montana, Montana State and Boise State. Those Big Sky Conference schools play at CSUN in 1991-92.

The only Division I Los Angeles-area schools willing to play CSUN in its first season at Division I were Long Beach and USC. Neither agreed to a home-and-home arrangement, however.

Northridge lost, 88-73, at Long Beach on Dec. 12 and will play USC on Feb. 4 at the Sports Arena.

“We’d like to satisfy our scheduling problems without going halfway across the United States,” Hiegert said. “Two years ago it was harder to schedule the local people.”

The solution for CSUN at that time was to link up with a group of Division I basketball independents that agreed to play home-and-home series beginning next season.

The “American Alliance,” comprising CSUN, USIU, Southern Utah State, Cal State Sacramento, Wright State, Chicago State and Northeastern Illinois, was formed last spring under the leadership of Al Palmiotto, athletic director at USIU in San Diego.

Since then, USIU has gone bankrupt and announced that all of its athletic teams will leave the Division I ranks after this season.

The demise of USIU’s athletic program “puts us in a tougher travel situation,” Hiegert said.

With CSUN and USIU on its schedule, a team such as Northeastern Illinois could have flown into Los Angeles and bused between Northridge and San Diego. Few teams would agree to fly 2,000 miles for only one game.

Northridge could solve its scheduling problems permanently by finding a conference affiliation.

Cassidy prefers the Big West Conference, which might have room for the Matadors if either Fresno State, San Jose State or Nevada Las Vegas leaves to join another conference.

The Western Athletic Conference, for example, has discussed expansion and could add one of those Big West schools.

“There may be some movement on the West Coast, some opportunities that were not available two years ago,” Hiegert said. “We could move into an existing conference or there may be a new one started from scratch.”

Said Cassidy: “We’ve got the 1992-93 schedule on hold until we can see what comes out of the NCAA meetings and what happens with some of the other conferences.”