COLLEGE DIVISION : Matadors’ II-for-I Switch Will Be Rough

For Cal State Northridge, 1992 might be a good time to remember what Division II football is like.

The Matadors should think fondly of last Saturday’s 16-14 victory over UC Davis.

That’s because next year Northridge, and the rest of the Western Football Conference, will move into Division I-AA.

Northridge got a taste of Division I the first week of the season when it was defeated by Cal State Fullerton, 28-7. Fullerton’s program has been so shaky that it narrowly escaped being discontinued the last two seasons.

So is this what the WFC has to look forward to? Losing to Division I weaklings?

Probably.

Much depends on how many non-WFC games each team decides to schedule.

“You understand that we will probably not be competitive for the I-AA championship because I-AA financial aid is at 65 (full athletic scholarships),” said Vic Buccola, commissioner of the WFC. “Our schools are at 44, and that will be going down to 32.

“We were pleased and happy with where we were (as a Division II conference), but the NCAA legislation is causing us to make the move.”

That legislation says that by 1993, Division I universities must conduct all their sports at the Division I level. Thus, schools such as Northridge, which is Division I in every other sport, will have to move its football program to Division I.

The least painful way to do it is to move into Division I-AA, which has a lower scholarship limit than Division I-A.

“As we go on to Division I-AA, we’re going to go much below (32 scholarships),” Buccola said. “In April we sent out a letter indicating a conference will be established with scholarship models of 20 full-equivalent scholarships, based on athletic ability, with a cap at 38, counting all aid.”

However, that letter brought only four schools that would align with the WFC. Santa Clara decided to drop out of the WFC this year and Portland State will remain in Division II, though both will continue to play WFC schools. That leaves Northridge, Southern Utah, Cal State Sacramento and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as the teams moving up. UC Davis indicated that it intends to join, but not immediately.

Cal State Long Beach and UC Santa Barbara both were to join the new conference, too, but those programs folded.

“But the details have to be worked out,” Buccola said. “We’re trying to get all the presidents together to determine what it’s going to take to move to Division I.”

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Northridge is coming off a 3-7 season and is not expected to challenge for the conference championship, so a loss to Fullerton was expected. Portland State will probably win the conference title with a little pressure from Cal State Sacramento.

But after defeating UC Davis, Northridge can be optimistic about challenging, since Davis and Sonoma State are considered the top teams in the Northern California Athletic Conference.

Cal Poly SLO and Southern Utah opened their seasons with defeats and are question marks. They could beat one another and Northridge, but probably are not strong enough to challenge Portland State or Cal State Sacramento.

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Redlands will try for its third consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship after finishing 7-2 overall and 5-0 in the conference last season. After a 21-16 victory over Menlo College last Saturday, it seems as if things are headed that way again.

Three-year starter Brian Harmon returns at quarterback after completing 59% of his passes for 1,453 yards and nine touchdowns last season. So does Brett Wixom, the conference’s defensive player of the year, so there is little reason to expect a drop-off.

A challenge could come from Cal Lutheran, in its first football season in the SCIAC. Cal Lutheran defeated Redlands in the last game of last season, 21-10, depriving Redlands of an NCAA playoff bid.

But Cal Lutheran gave up 13 fourth-quarter points and lost its opening SCIAC game to Pomona-Pitzer, 27-21. Quarterback Adam Hacker passed for 248 yards and a touchdown in the loss.

Cal Lutheran went 5-5 last season and although tailback Cassidy O’Sullivan returns, the Kingsmen will have to be more consistent to unseat Redlands.

La Verne will go as far as quarterback Willie Reyna can take it. Reyna led Division III in passing yardage and total offense last season, but the rest of the team hasn’t been as spectacular. Saturday, La Verne and San Diego tied, 21-21. Pomona-Pitzer, which went 2-6 last season, should be improved, as it showed in its upset of Cal Lutheran. The Sagehens are led by Josh Spitzen, who threw for one touchdown and ran for another against Cal Lutheran.

Occidental opens its season Saturday against Cal Lutheran. Whittier and Claremont-Mudd don’t figure to challenge for the title.

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Reyna’s passing at La Verne last season was enough to get him a mention in Sports Illustrated’s college preview edition--something that doesn’t happen at La Verne every year.

“My friends tease me,” Reyna said. “They’ll say, ‘Oh look out, here he comes, he’s big,’ but they also think it’s a great accomplishment. It’s neat.”

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Azusa Pacific continues as the only NAIA team in the Southland playing football, which makes it difficult to schedule and strains the travel budget.

For example, Azusa Pacific went to Austin College in Sherman, Tex., last weekend and lost, 24-17, dropping to 0-2 this season. Although the Cougars should be above .500 this season, two defeats will probably keep them out of the NAIA playoffs. Azusa Pacific would have to finish in the top 12 in the rankings and two losses would seem to preclude that.

College Division Notes

Cal Poly Pomona’s new women’s volleyball coach is Rosie Wegrich. She replaces Gene Krieger, who resigned last spring. Wegrich had been the coach at Arizona for the last 15 seasons. Her new team won the season-opening Christ College Irvine tournament for the second consecutive season. Pomona defeated Westmont College in five games for the championship of the 16-team tournament. Mitsue Tomoyasu, Amy Sodek and Tami Chick were named to the all-tournament team for the Broncos. Chick sat out the pool play after undergoing oral surgery on four impacted wisdom teeth but played in last Saturday’s matches. . . . Stephanie Benitez led Azusa Pacific as it won the Whittier volleyball tournament last Saturday by defeating Redlands in the final. . . . Redlands hired Pete Alvanos as strength and fitness coordinator and assistant football coach on Sept. 4. . . . Cal State Northridge backup kicker Jason Camp and starting strong safety Kevin Carmichael were born seven months apart on the U.S. Air Force base in South Rislip, England.

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