San Diego College Review / Rick Hazeltine : USIU Women Are Left Without a Conference After WCAC Decision

The United States International University women’s athletic teams will have to find another conference at the end of their 1986-87 seasons.

Because of an NCAA rule that forces women’s basketball programs to play more demanding schedules, USIU and Nevada Reno have been voted out of the West Coast Athletic Conference by member school presidents.

The rule requires Division I women’s basketball teams to play no more than four non-Division I opponents like the men. Gonzaga, Portland and St. Mary’s did not participate in the women’s league but fielded teams in the men’s league.

“It was tough for USIU and Reno because nobody anticipated this,” said Michael Gilleran, WCAC commissioner.

The Gulls were admitted to the WCAC when the conference was formed for the 1985-86 season.

Gilleran said the school presidents decided that if the women’s program could not meet the requirement, the NCAA might take action against the men’s teams, and possibly, the conference. They decided that a 10-team league was too large, and that USIU and Nevada Reno would have to leave.

Nevada Reno has joined the Mountain West Conference. USIU will have to play an independent schedule until it finds another conference.

USIU is attempting to become part of a new league tentatively called the American West Conference, which is trying to get together enough teams to start men’s and women’s play in 1989-90.

USIU women’s teams won four of the five WCAC championships in 1985-86. USIU won the cross-country, basketball, tennis and softball titles. Volleyball was the only sport that USIU did not win the championship.

The USIU men’s team has not been a member of a conference since the school became Division I in 1981. Athletic Director Al Palmiotto hopes that the American West Conference will fill the void.

The American West is being spearheaded by Southern Utah State, a Division II school that has declared its intentions of being upgraded to Division I. Under NCAA rules, a school must declare it is going Division I and then operate as a Division I program for two years before being allowed to move up.

Sacramento State is another Division II school that has declared Division I status and is looking to join the proposed conference. Other Division II schools considering the change to Division I status are Cal State Northridge, Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Bakersfield. Grand Canyon of Arizona, an NAIA member, also is looking into the possibility of joining the conference.

“It looks very good right now,” Palmiotto said. “It would be good for us. We hopefully can get a couple more California schools involved.”

Which teams are admitted to the proposed conference will be decided by the charter members’ presidents, according to M. L. Smith, assistant to the president at Southern Utah. Gerald R. Sherratt, president of Southern Utah, was noncommittal on USIU’s chances of joining the proposed league.

“We don’t know,” Sherratt said. “We’re just gathering information. We’re exploring all kinds of schools.”

Earnest Riggins, San Diego State women’s basketball coach, was hoping to be help at the guard position with the addition of freshman Demetrice Davis of Los Angeles Fairfax High School.

Davis spent the fall semester at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa to improve her grades. She reportedly has good enough grades and ACT score to be admitted to the university. But since she is under the school’s special admittance policy, she has been denied eligibility for the spring semester. Davis, however, would be eligible next season.

The NCAA apparently doesn’t believe that USIU’s hockey victory over previously No. 1-ranked North Dakota, in Fargo, is enough to consider the Gulls for its postseason tournament.

The hockey coaches decided last year to select one independent team to the NCAA tournament. But the coaches reversed their decision just before the recent NCAA meetings in San Diego. They now say that next season they will select an independent team to the postseason tournament.

USIU has been the top-ranked independent team the past two seasons.

The Gulls, however, are not out of the running. They were told they would be considered if they won 20 games this season. USIU is currently 13-7-1.