Big West a Big Deal for CSUN : College athletics: Matadors could land in Division I conference by fall of ’96.

Athletic officials from the eight-team Big West Conference appear split as they prepare to meet in Los Angeles on Sunday--and Cal State Northridge’s hopes of being added to the league in the fall of 1996 hang in the balance.

Conference administrators seem to agree that the Big West needs to expand because Nevada Las Vegas and San Jose State defected to the Western Athletic Conference. Which schools to add is the compelling question.

New Mexico State, Utah State, Pacific and Nevada, the conference teams that play NCAA Division I-A football, prefer to consider schools with similar football programs. Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara, schools that do not field football teams, favor additions based on geography.

Northridge, which competes in numerous Division I conferences plus the I-AA American West Conference in football, is interested in becoming a conference member, as reportedly are Cal State Sacramento, Northern Arizona, Boise State, Idaho, North Texas and several others.

Big West officials hope to emerge from Sunday’s meeting with a plan that satisfies all member schools, a difficult task.

“It’s going to be a real open discussion; one of the more important meetings the conference has had since its beginning,” said Steve Allaback, the acting Big West president from UC Santa Barbara.

Northridge seems to have as much chance as any Big West candidate if the conference decides to expand.

“You consider things like compatibility, geography and types of sports,” said Dan Guerrero, the athletic director at UC Irvine.

“All of those factors are compelling with Northridge, if indeed the conference decides to add schools.”

Chris Ault, athletic director and football coach at Nevada, said “a Northridge-Sacramento scenario certainly would be worth looking at.” However, Ault said he prefers the Big West first approach schools with existing major college football teams.

New Mexico State Athletic Director Al Gonzales agreed with Ault.

“You either have a football league playing on a national basis, or you have a West Coast league where you can run up and down the interstate and play people,” he said. “Those are the choices.”

One scenario favored by many conference officials is a four- to six-team expansion that would include schools with Division I-A football teams along with others that make sense geographically and economically.

The Big West would then be one conference for football and a conference split into divisions in basketball and other sports.

Bill Shumard, Cal State Fullerton’s athletic director, said he favors an alignment “that would localize competition in non-revenue sports.” Asked whether Northridge might fit into such a setup, Shumard replied, “I think it might.”