Northridge Plans to Join Division 1-AA Conference : College football: Limit of 20 full athletic scholarships per school would keep costs within budgets of programs invited to join.

After months of negotiations, Cal State Northridge appears to have found a conference for its football team. The Matadors are expected to play in a low-budget Division I-AA conference in 1993.

An NCAA regulation that requires its members to play at the same level in all sports has forced CSUN to either drop football or move to the Division I ranks in the sport by 1993.

The only remaining hitch is the makeup of the new conference, which has a working title of Western Football Conference. The Division II WFC, of which CSUN is currently a member, will cease to exist under the new plan.

Officials from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Southern Utah confirmed Friday that they have approved entry into the conference. At least six teams are required to form a conference.

The other schools invited to join the I-AA WFC are St. Mary’s, Cal State Sacramento, UC Davis, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach.

St. Mary’s is already Division I except for football, Sacramento moved to Division I in all sports except football last fall, and Davis is expected to move to Division I in all sports by 1995. CSUN moved to Division I in all sports in the fall of 1990.

Fullerton is having financial difficulties while trying to maintain its current Division I-A football status. Long Beach played Division I-A football until the end of the 1991 season when it dropped the sport because of a lack of funding. It could be revived at a lower level.

A deadline of April 24 has been set for the other schools to make a decision, according to CSUN Athletic Director Bob Hiegert.

CSUN’s entry into the I-AA WFC was approved by the university’s athletic oversight committee after Hiegert and leaders from other schools recently agreed on scholarship limits.

Under the agreement, 20 full athletic scholarships can be offered with a maximum of 38 full rides when athletic scholarship money and federal financial aid are combined.

The I-AA maximum is the equivalent of 65 full rides, but CSUN and the other schools invited to join the I-AA WFC cannot afford that many scholarships.

Moreover, the schools believe that if too many scholarships were allowed, Division II schools would refuse to schedule them for fear of being overmatched.

“We’d like to continue to play Division II schools (in nonconference games),” Hiegert said. “We’d prefer to play Sonoma State, San Francisco State and (Cal State) Hayward than go all over the Midwest and the western United States to play games.”

The move would not require an increase in funding at CSUN because the number of scholarships is similar to its current allotment. CSUN currently divides the athletic scholarship money among 55 football players. Each receives, on average, one-third of a full ride. Players can supplement their scholarships with financial aid, if eligible.