Evolving Big West Adds Northridge, Riverside

The Big Change, err, Big West Conference was at it again Wednesday.

The ever-mutating conference announced the addition of UC Riverside and Cal State Northridge as full members, effective for the 2001-2002 sports season. Football will not be offered by the Big West following the 2000 season.

Idaho, a Big West member whose football team will join the Sun Belt Conference in 2001, considers the additions a benefit.

“It helps solidify the Big West Conference,” UI athletic director Mike Bohn said.

The 2000-2001 basketball season will see the departure of Nevada to the WAC and North Texas and New Mexico State to the Sun Belt, leaving the Big West with nine men’s teams and eight women’s teams (Utah State doesn’t offer the sport). The current East-West divisional format in basketball and volleyball will be scrapped. Teams will play a double-round-robin schedule.

The 2001 Big West basketball tournaments, to be held at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center, will probably remain at eight teams for both men and women, commissioner Dennis Farrell said. That means all eight women’s schools will qualify and only one men’s team will be left home.

In the 2001-2002 season, the Big West will lose Boise State to the WAC and will add Riverside and Northridge, bringing men’s basketball membership to 10 and women’s to nine.

Northridge currently is a member of the Big Sky Conference. Riverside plays in Division II, but has announced Division I plans. UCR won’t be eligible for the Big West men’s basketball tournament until 2004.

Idaho volleyball, in particular, figures to be encouraged by the two additions.

Playing double-round-robin schedules means facing powers Long Beach State, Pacific and UC Santa Barbara twice instead of once, which won’t help UI’s win-loss record. However, adding Riverside and Northridge means four potentially winnable matches. Riverside was barely above .500 in Division II last season. Northridge finished sub-.500 in the Big Sky.

In basketball, Northridge’s men and women are near the top of the Big Sky standings. Riverside’s men and women are roughly .500 this season. Their resumes, though, pale when compared to Big West power New Mexico State and emerging North Texas.

At this point, the long-standing rumor of the Big West becoming an all-California league remains just that.

“I can only speak for myself, but I won’t be part of … . trying to eliminate those two (non-California) schools,” Long Beach president Robert Maxson said.