Newly Formed Conference Might Include CSUN Teams : College athletics: Big West, WAC and Pac-10 officials are expected to offer membership to Northridge’s minor sports.

The minor sports at Cal State Northridge that are without conference affiliation might find a home in the BIGWACPAC, an alignment of schools from the Big West, Western Athletic and Pacific 10 conferences.

The trio of conferences agreed Thursday at the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. convention in Anaheim to unite for the purpose of enhancing competition and controlling costs, according to Pac-10 Commissioner Thomas Hansen and Big West Commissioner James Haney.

WAC Commissioner Joe Kearney was unavailable for comment.

Independents, including Northridge, are expected to be asked to join in certain sports, Haney said Friday.

A committee represented by athletic directors, women’s athletic administrators and conference representatives, will meet Jan. 25 in Los Angeles to discuss the venture.

The conference could begin competition as early as next fall, according to Chris Hoyles, a Pac-10 assistant commissioner.

Men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s soccer, wrestling, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics and men’s volleyball are among the sports under consideration.

“We want to preserve sports that people are thinking about dropping,” Hoyles said.

None of the three conferences have a full complement of schools that field teams in those sports. The Big West, for example, sponsors men’s soccer, but the five schools in the Pac-10 and the three schools in the WAC that field soccer teams play as independents.

The Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn., which was formed by men’s volleyball coaches, was a forerunner of interconference affiliation. The WIVA includes schools from the Pac-10, the Big West, the WAC, the West Coast Conference and Northridge.

In part, concerns among conference officials about the administration of WIVA, which governs itself, prompted the formation of BIGWACPAC.

“There has been some concern about the WIVA by some of our member institutions,” Hoyles said. “There have been scheduling problems because the person making the schedule has no knowledge of Pac-10 schedules.”

Northridge soccer Coach Marwan Ass’ad endorses the new conference proposal, especially after a season in which he could attract only two Division I teams to play the Matadors at Northridge.

“It has been miserable without a conference,” Ass’ad said. “We are at the mercy of all these guys. There’s no one who can make them play us. What a conference does is stops me from having to go begging.”

In its second season at the Division I level, Northridge plays an independent schedule in the following men’s sports--soccer, basketball, baseball, cross-country, indoor/outdoor track and field and golf; and in the following women’s sports--basketball, cross-country, indoor/outdoor track and field, softball, tennis and volleyball.

Northridge’s men’s and women’s swim teams compete in the Pacific Collegiate Conference. The football team competes at the Division II level in the Western Football Conference.