ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN : Burt’s Team Might Play Catch-Up to Other Sports : Football: Northridge coach stuck playing in Division II, but NCAA plan could serve to elevate his program’s status.

For nearly two years, football has been the “but” end of the Cal State Northridge athletic program.

“Beginning in the fall of 1990,” it was said repeatedly, “Northridge will begin competing at the NCAA Division I level in all sports but football . . .”

That situation could change within the next few years. Through no choice of its own, Northridge may, in effect, be forced into Division I football.

At the NCAA’s annual convention in January, delegates will consider a plan that would require football-playing Division I schools to compete in that sport in one of three classifications--Division I-A, Division I-AA or the proposed Division I-AAA.

Should such an arrangement be approved, it would force the Division II Western Football Conference--of which Northridge is a member--to disband. Five of the WFC’s six members either are or will be competing in Division I by the fall of 1991.

That would leave Northridge with five choices:

* Play Division I-A football (e.g., the Big West Conference).

* Play Division I-AA football (e.g., the Big Sky Conference).

* Enter Division I-AAA and play the equivalent of what is now NCAA Division III football.

* Keep football as it is and return the rest of its teams to the Division II level.

* Eliminate football.

The last three options are not considered viable by school officials. For starters, Northridge would not qualify for Division I-AAA status because the scholarship limit that has been proposed for that level is 20. A state-system school such as Northridge likely would exceed funding for that number in non-athletic financial aid alone.

“We couldn’t live with that,” said Bob Burt, CSUN football coach.

The same could be said for options four and five. Slinking back to Division II would be a public-relations disaster and eliminating football altogether would contradict the school’s stated mission of keeping athletics on par with burgeoning programs in fields such as business and engineering.

Stepping up to 1-A or 1-AA level would not be cheap. A bigger stadium and a larger scholarship budget would be required.

Among NCAA stipulations for a Division I-A independent in football is that the school play in a stadium with a capacity of at least 30,000. Northridge already has plans for such a facility as part of its University Park expansion project.

That leaves a scholarship increase as the most substantial hurdle CSUN must clear. Northridge has 24 athletic scholarships for football, which it slices, dices and distributes--usually in increments of $1,000--among about 70 players.

Counting other need-based financial aid, Northridge will distribute the equivalent of about 35 scholarships for football this season. The NCAA maximum for Division I-A is 95. In Division I-AA, it’s 70.

However, if university presidents have their way--and there is every indication that they will-- scholarship levels in both Division I-A and I-AA will be reduced at January’s convention. The new Division I-A maximum is expected to fall by 10 or 15. The Division I-AA limit may drop to as low as 50.

The formula for CSUN’s competitiveness at a higher level is a simple one, Burt said.

Scholarships plus stadium equals success. “If we have both of those, then I think it’s a very sensible move for our university to make,” he said.

Burt imagines a Pacific 10 Conference school such as Stanford playing Northridge in a modern 30,000-seat stadium filled to capacity.

“It’s a growing process, but it can be done,” he added, recalling that San Jose State once defeated both Cal and Stanford in the same season. “If we had a stadium and were consistently competing on a good level . . . You have to envision the kinds of things that are possible here.”

Until that happens, Burt says he will simply ignore the Division II label the football program carries.

“When we line up to play (Cal State) Long Beach or (Cal State) Fullerton or Northern Arizona it doesn’t make a damned bit of difference what division we are,” Burt said. “If we beat them, fine. If we don’t, well, that’s not good whether we’re Division I or II.

“We’re in a conference. We have a chance to go to a playoff. We have a conference championship to shoot for. What division it’s in doesn’t matter.”