Big Sky Officials Start at CSUN to Find Potential New Members

NORTHRIDGE — Four Big Sky Conference officials will visit Cal State Northridge Monday and Tuesday to evaluate the school and its second attempt to join the Division I-AA conference.

“They will tour the facility and drop by and speak with coaches,” Northridge sports information director Bob Cloud said.

The visit is a step in the Matadors’ quest to join the eight-member conference, which will lose Boise State and Idaho to the Big West Conference after the 1995-96 season.

Eastern Washington, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, Weber State and Northern Arizona will remain indefinitely in the conference. Portland State, a Division II school, has been admitted to the Big Sky, but will not be eligible to compete until it fulfills Division I requirements.

Northridge hopes to join the Big Sky in 1996-97 for all sports, except men’s and women’s swimming, baseball, soccer, softball and men’s volleyball.

“It’s very important for us to get in,” said Paul Bubb, the Matadors’ interim athletic director since July 19. “For the last five years we’ve had a Division I program and our goal is to get into a Division I conference.”

The next Big Sky administrators’ meeting is scheduled for December and Bubb anticipates that a decision will be made to determine Northridge’s admittance.

In 1992, the Big Sky showed interest in Northridge as a potential member, but did not expand after conference administrators visited the campus. “It’s a good time for them to look at us again,” Bubb said. “Their Division I-AA football is a good fit for us.”

The administrators who will visit Northridge beginning Monday are: Mark Drummond, president of Eastern Washington; Sam McClanahan, faculty athletic representative from Northern Arizona; Doug Fullerton, Big Sky commissioner, and Kathy Noble, Big Sky assistant commissioner for compliance.

The same group also will visit Cal State Sacramento, another candidate to join the Big Sky.