The Big West Conference could soon be asked to get a little bigger.

The conference home to most of the University of Hawaii’s athletic teams could have UC San Diego banging on its door as soon as Tuesday.

That’s the day the Tritons say they will announce the results of a week-long undergraduate referendum on raising the intercollegiate athletic fee to accommodate a move to Division I and the Big West.

If passed — and officials said they are hopeful — UCSD would be required to gain Big West membership before it could impose the fee.

The question in Manoa and elsewhere in the Big West would be: How much would the highly regarded academic institution on the picturesque coastal bluffs of La Jolla bring to the conference’s athletic profile?

How Big West members answer it will make for insight into how they view the conference’s future.

The nine-school conference would like to have the balance of an even 10 members, but has been choosy of late about who it adds to get there. After swiftly moving to bring on UH in 2010 and preparing to take on San Diego State and Boise State a year later until Big East football imploded, it has turned away Cal State Bakersfield and discouraged other suitors.

Conference commissioner Dennis Farrell declined to discuss the merits of a potential UCSD bid but has, over the years, consistently maintained a philosophy of there being “two reasons to consider expansion: opportunity and survival.”

The addition of UH and interest in San Diego State were classified as “opportunity.” And conference members tend to view their current situation as pursuing ascent more than survival.

On one hand UCSD fits the all-California (plus Hawaii) footprint Big West presidents have chosen and would add a toehold in the San Diego area long prized by the conference.

Additionally, it would join four other UC campuses — Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara and Riverside — already on board.

The Tritons have been an across-the-board power in Division II, from where Davis (2008) and Riverside (2002) also made the leap.

But these days the conference seems more concerned with raising its profile, as reflected by the Rating Percentage Index the NCAA employs to help determine postseason selections in sports such as men’s and women’s basketball, than adding depth. (UH is not required to pay travel subsidies for members who join the Big West after Hawaii came aboard).

If approved, the hiking of the intercollegiate athletic fee over a three-year period from $129 per quarter to an eventual $289 would mean upwards of an additional $12 million per year to help finance scholarships, salaries and other expenses. Added to what it already brings in that would put the Tritons among the better financed non-football members of the conference.

A potential concern for those holding the short-term view is that while the school goes through the NCAA-mandated transition period to D-I it could hold down RPI numbers.

If UCSD gets student backing it will be interesting to see how the Big West plots its future.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.