Northridge Must Make Conference Call Soon

By July 1 of next year, the Big West Conference could have its future shaped, but a realignment that might include Cal State Northridge and other state universities wouldn’t take place until 2001 at the earliest.

The pieces are falling into place for an all-California conference that could include Northridge, which is struggling to meet budget and gender-equity requirements as a member of the travel-heavy, nine-team Big Sky Conference.

With two football-playing schools, Boise State and Nevada, set to leave the 12-school Big West in the next two years and New Mexico State and North Texas seeking a move to the Sun Belt Conference, the Big West could be down to eight schools. That would give the six California schools a 75% majority voting bloc needed to make changes and the capability of realigning as they see fit.

Before any member of a conference can change affiliations, it must inform its current league by July 1 of its plans. The school would have to play the following sports season in its conference before making a move.

“There are several possibilities,” said Athletic Director Rance Pugmire of Utah State of conference realignment. “[Non-California schools] could be invited to join another league, or do something different with other schools.

“Still, I don’t think we need to do anything hasty. Whatever happens, we want it to be amiable to the California schools and the football schools as well.”

The California schools in the Big West--Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Pacific, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara--have already discussed realignment that could include UC Riverside, a Division II school looking to move up, and either Northridge or Cal State Sacramento, another member of the Big Sky that plays baseball in the Big West.

A move to the Big West might force the Matadors to play football as a Division I-AA independent, as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo does, or look for another conference for football.

With Nevada and Boise State joining the Western Athletic Conference and New Mexico State and North Texas all but assured a spot in the Sun Belt, which voted last week to expand, Utah State and Idaho would be the only football-playing schools in the Big West.

Idaho and Utah State, which have been extended invitations into the Sun Belt as football-playing members, have natural rivalries with schools in the Western Athletic and Mountain West conferences.

Northridge administrators have been adamant about keeping football and staying in the Big Sky, but recently have said they had discussions with Big West officials about that conference’s future.

“We’ve always been closely interested with what’s going on with all the conference alignments,” Northridge Athletic Director Dick Dull said. “But we would have to evaluate the situation before making any decision.”

University officials are struggling to fund a new stadium for football, which it will need by 2002 when expansion of the biotech compound will force the destruction of North Campus Stadium. Playing temporarily at Pierce College is an option the Big Sky supports and one that would work as an independent football program.

Either way, Northridge must address the stadium issue as well as budget and gender-equity problems with Big Sky membership.

If Northridge decides by July the Big West is a better fit than the Big Sky, it could seek to join the Big West by the fall of 2001, the year most of the non-California schools would be in new conferences.