Northridge Gets Conference Call From the Big Sky : College sports: Matadors and Cal State Sacramento are granted membership in what is considered the nation’s top Division I-AA football alliance.

Big Sky Conference presidents voted unanimously on Tuesday to admit Cal State Northridge to the conference starting next season, boosting the Matador football program while leaving questions throughout other parts of the athletic department.

Acceptance into the Big Sky, considered the nation’s top Division I-AA football conference, means the Northridge football team will triple its scholarships, and the school’s sub-par football facilities will be renovated.

The school has three years to meet the Big Sky’s requirements: adding women’s golf and men’s tennis among the 13 core Big Sky sports; improving basketball and football facilities; and increasing football scholarships from 20 to near 63, the Division I-AA limit.

The added sports and football scholarships will force the school to rearrange financing in the athletic department.

“We have some hard decisions to make on how broad-based we are going to be,” Athletic Director Paul Bubb said.

Bubb said Northridge’s athletic budget is similar to those of the other Big Sky schools, but most of those schools have between 14 and 17 sports. Northridge would have 21 after new ones are added.

A task force composed of coaches, faculty members, students and a community member will convene next week to begin researching scenarios for the changeover.

Bubb said he hoped to have a final report from the task force by the end of November.

“I don’t know if [this] means we are going to be dropping anything or just scaling back our sports,” Bubb said. “We will have to take a look at what we are doing with our total sports offering.”

One decision already has been made. Bubb said women’s golf will be added next season, but the men’s tennis team will not begin play until the 1997-98 school year.

The Big Sky Conference includes six members that will be returning next year: Eastern Washington, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Arizona and Weber State. Idaho and Boise State will leave the Big Sky for the Big West after this year.

Conference presidents also voted unanimously to add Cal State Sacramento on Tuesday. Including Portland State, which was granted membership earlier this year, the conference will have nine schools next year.

The Big Sky is reputed to be the nation’s strongest I-AA football conference. Four of eight members are in this week’s top 20. The prospect of competing with such teams on a weekly basis--and eventually getting equal funding--has Coach Dave Baldwin excited.

“I’m ecstatic,” he said. “I took the job because of this possibility. To go into [the Big Sky] now helps us in recruiting.”

Baldwin will have 40 scholarships to use next season, Bubb said.

Sophomore Derek Brown, Northridge’s backup quarterback, said he is looking forward to a higher level of competition.

“I’m real excited about it,” he said. “This is big-time football. . . . It’s probably the best thing that could happen.”

The Northridge men’s and women’s basketball programs will benefit from Big Sky membership because the conference champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The winner of the American West Conference, of which Northridge is now a member, does not get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

“Obviously if you are an independent it is very difficult to recruit,” said Pete Cassidy, Northridge men’s basketball coach. “The Big Sky is a good basketball conference. There is a chance for postseason play and we will be on TV and all that stuff.”

Northridge has one hurdle to clear before being eligible for the Big Sky’s automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament. An NCAA rule mandates that teams moving up to Division I can’t participate in the NCAA tournament for the first eight years.

Northridge’s petition for a waiver, which will be submitted later this month, is based on the precedent that other schools have counted their years of compliance with Division I rules toward the eight years. This will be Northridge’s eighth year in compliance with Division I rules, although only the sixth as a Division I member.

If the waiver is not granted, the Matadors would not be allowed to participate in the Big Sky tournament until it has been a Division I member for eight years.