In its constant quest to earn national respect and gain an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, the North Star Conference has turned its volume up a notch in order to be heard.

A notch? Maybe even two.

Behind the new leadership of Commissioner Arnold D. Fielkow, the NSC begins an uphill battle to establish itself as a strong, competitive conference—especially in women’s basketball.

Promotions, schedule strengthening and member consistency play a major role in the conference’s task of achieving NCAA recognition as a basketball conference worthy of an automatic postseason bid.

Currently, the NCAA allows 22 conferences to send its top team to the NCAA Tournament in March. Bielkow said the NSC is “very close” to becoming one of those institutions. The NCAA plans on adding two or three more conferences to the tournament list in the near future.

Since the NSC’s inception in 1983, there has been a lot of moving in and out of the conference by various collegiate institutions. By the ‘86-87 season, the NSC fell to a mere four members. DePaul University, who won the conference title three times in six seasons, is the sole survivor of the first group. Notre Dame, no longer an NSC affiliate, captured the title twice. Loyola was the conference’s first champion with a 23-4 overall record, which ties DePaul for the best mark in the NSC’s short history.

This season, the NSC boasts eight institutions—NIU, DePaul, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Akron, Cleveland State, Valparaiso, Illinois-Chicago and Wright State. However, Wright State will not compete officially until the fall of 1990.

In order for the NSC to reach its goal, the members have to play more competitive Division I teams and be willing to spend more money in the process. By playing stronger teams, the universities might have to travel further than they ever have.

Fielkow said, “NIU is leading the pack in terms of committment. NIU is an outstanding institution; they’re putting a lot of time and money into the program and that’s what we’re looking for.”

The NSC falls short of being an all-around strong conference. Fielkow said there is some “disparity” in the conference. “We have two outstanding teams, three good teams and a couple of mediocre teams. I think we have a nucleus now and I don’t see it expanding.”

It comes as no surprise to many people that NIU and DePaul are the universities setting the style. Both institutions have quality programs and support that enable them to be the main representatives to the NCAA.

Cary Groth, NIU senior associate athletic director and NSC president, works from the NIU end of things, as well as the NSC side, attempting to promote the conference.

“We’re doing a number of things to get the conference recognized,” Groth said. “NIU has a lot of support all-around and that helps.”

Although the NSC sponsors softball, tennis and volleyball, the main reason the conference began was because of basketball. The NSC will use basketball as the main promotion block to spread its name around the country.