West Coast Conference

West Coast Conference
Formerly	West Coast Athletic Conference (1956–1989); California Basketball Association (1952–1956)
Association	NCAA
Founded	1952
Commissioner	Connie Hurlbut (interim)
Sports fielded	15 men's: 6; women's: 9; ;
Division	Division I
Subdivision	non-football
No. of teams	10 (9 in 2023)
Headquarters	San Mateo, California
Region	Western United States
Official website	www.wccsports.com
Locations

The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ten member schools across the states of California, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

All of the current members are private, faith-based institutions. Seven members are Catholic Church affiliates, with four of these schools being Jesuit institutions. Pepperdine is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ. Brigham Young University is an affiliate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The conference's newest member, the University of the Pacific (which rejoined in 2013 after a 42-year absence), is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, although it has been financially independent of the church since 1969.^[1]

History

Locations of current West Coast Conference full member institutions.

The league was chartered by five northern California institutions, four from the San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, San Jose State) and one, Pacific, from Stockton. It began as the California Basketball Association, playing its first game on January 2, 1953. After two seasons under that name, the conference expanded to include Los Angeles-area schools Loyola (now Loyola Marymount) and Pepperdine in 1955 and became the "West Coast Athletic Conference" in 1956. After more than three decades as the WCAC, the name was shortened in the summer of 1989, dropping the word "Athletic."^[2]^[3]^[4]

During the massive upheaval of conference affiliations in the 1990s, the WCC remained very stable. Before the 2010 realignment that eventually led to Brigham Young joining the conference, the last change of membership was in 1980, when Seattle University left the conference. At the time, only the Ivy League and Pacific-10 Conference (now the Pac-12 Conference) had remained unchanged for a longer period.

The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be a mid-major athletic conference. The conference sponsors 15 sports but does not include football as one of them. San Diego (Pioneer Football League) and Brigham Young (FBS independent) are the only schools fielding a football team. The rest have all dropped the sport, some as early as the 1940s, before the conference existed (Gonzaga and Portland), and one as late as 2003 (Saint Mary's).

Historically, the WCC's strongest sports have been soccer (nine national champions, including back-to-back women's soccer titles in 2001 and 2002) and tennis (five individual champions and one team champion). The conference has also made its presence felt nationally in men's basketball. San Francisco won two consecutive national titles in the 1950s with all-time great Bill Russell. Although the WCAC's stature declined in the 1960s, San Francisco was reckoned as a "major" basketball power until the early 1980s. Also of note was Loyola Marymount's inspired run to the Elite Eight in 1990 following the death of Hank Gathers during that season's WCC championship tournament.

More recently, Gonzaga's rise to national prominence after being invited to the NCAA Tournament every year since their Cinderella run to the "Elite Eight" in 1999 has helped make the WCC a household name. As San Francisco was from the 1940s to the early 1980s, Gonzaga has gained recognition as a major basketball power, despite the WCC being a mid-major conference. Gonzaga has been to 23 consecutive NCAA tournaments—the longest streak for any school in the Western United States, the third-longest active streak, and the sixth-longest streak in history. They have also been to all but one WCC tournament final since 1995, and have played for the conference title every year since 1998. In 2016–17, the Bulldogs advanced all the way to the national championship game—the deepest run by a conference team since San Francisco went to three consecutive Final Fours from 1955 to 1957. The Bulldogs reached the title game again in 2021, this time entering the game unbeaten, but again losing, this time to Baylor.

Saint Mary's has also made marks for the conference as the Gaels appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, and 2021 (making the "Sweet Sixteen" in 2010).

Eventually, with the 2010 realignment opening up new avenues for expansion, the WCC decided to revisit expansion plans. The conference decided that it would only seek out private schools, but would not limit its search to faith-based institutions. Even so, the two additions, Brigham Young University and University of the Pacific are both faith-based institutions, although Pacific has not been financially sponsored by the United Methodist Church since 1969.

On August 31, 2010, BYU announced plans to join the WCC for the 2011–12 season in all sports the conference offers. BYU joined the conference on July 1, 2011.^[5]^[6] BYU's arrival gave the WCC another school with a rich basketball tradition. The Cougars made the NCAA Tournament six straight times before failing to do so in 2013, and had made 26 NCAA Tournament appearances before joining the conference.

On March 27, 2012, the University of the Pacific (UOP), a charter member of the conference in 1952, accepted an invitation to rejoin the WCC, effective July 1, 2013. The move removed Pacific from the Big West Conference back to the WCC, which Pacific left in 1971 in order to pursue its interests in football that it later abandoned in 1995.^[7]

The WCC became the first Division I conference to adopt a conference-wide diversity hiring commitment, announcing the "Russell Rule", based on the NFL's Rooney Rule and named after Basketball Hall of Famer and social activist Bill Russell, a graduate of charter and current conference member San Francisco, on August 2, 2020. In its announcement, the WCC stated:^[8]

The “Russell Rule” requires each member institution to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant coach position in the athletic department.

The WCC announced on July 19, 2022 that it would add men's water polo starting in 2023–24. Full members Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, and Santa Clara will be joined by affiliates Air Force, California Baptist, and San Jose State.^[9]

Member schools

Current full members

Departing members are highlighted in red. BYU will join the Big 12 Conference in 2023.

Institution	Location	Founded	Joined	Type	Enrollment	Endowment (millions)	Nickname
Brigham Young University	Provo, Utah	1875	2011	Private The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	34,737	$1,970	Cougars
Gonzaga University	Spokane, Washington	1887	1979	Private Catholic - Jesuit	7,421	$400	Bulldogs
Loyola Marymount University	Los Angeles, California	1865	1955	Private Catholic - Jesuit	8,972	$611	Lions
University of the Pacific^[10]	Stockton, California	1851	1952; 2013^[a]	Private United Methodist Church	6,652	$568	Tigers
Pepperdine University	Malibu, California	1937	1955	Private Churches of Christ	6,000	$1,205	Waves
University of Portland	Portland, Oregon	1901	1976	Private Catholic - Holy Cross	3,200	$297	Pilots
Saint Mary's College of California	Moraga, California	1863	1952	Private Catholic - De La Salle Brothers	4,768	$214	Gaels
University of San Diego	San Diego, California	1949	1979	Private Catholic - Diocesan	7,548	$530	Toreros
University of San Francisco	San Francisco, California	1855	1952	Private Catholic - Jesuit	10,017	$393	Dons
Santa Clara University	Santa Clara, California	1851	1952	Private Catholic - Jesuit	8,300	$979	Broncos

Notes

^ Pacific left the WCC after the 1970–71 school year to join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now known as the Big West Conference); and re-joined back to the WCC, effectively the 2013–14 school year.

Associate member

Institution	Location	Founded	Joined	Type	Enrollment	Endowment (millions)	Team	Primary conference	WCC sport(s)
Creighton University	Omaha, Nebraska	1878	2010–11	Private Jesuit	8,910	$713	Bluejays	Big East	Women's rowing

Future associate members

Institution	Location	Founded	Joining	Type	Enrollment	Endowment (millions)	Team	Primary conference	WCC sport(s)
United States Air Force Academy (Air Force)	USAF Academy, Colorado	1954	2023–24	Federal	4,304	$98.9	Falcons	Mountain West	Men's water polo
California Baptist University	Riverside, California	1950	2023–24	Private (Baptist)	11,491	$82.9	Lancers	WAC	Men's water polo
San Jose State University	San Jose, California	1857	2023–24	Public (CSU)	33,025	$197.1	Spartans	Mountain West	Men's water polo

Former full members

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Joined	Left	Current conference
California State University, Fresno (Fresno State)	Bulldogs	Fresno, California	1911	Public	22,565	1955	1957	Mountain West
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)	Gauchos	Santa Barbara, California	1891	Public	21,927	1964	1969	Big West
University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada)	Wolf Pack	Reno, Nevada	1874	Public	18,227	1969	1979	Mountain West
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)	Rebels	Paradise, Nevada	1957	Public	28,203	1969	1975	Mountain West
San Jose State University (SJSU)	Spartans	San Jose, California	1857	Public	30,448	1952	1969	Mountain West
Seattle University	Redhawks	Seattle, Washington	1891	Private (Jesuit)	7,500	1971	1980	WAC

Former associate members

Institution	Team	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Joined	Left	Primary conference	WCC sport(s)
California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB)	Roadrunners	Bakersfield, California	1965	Public	8,317	2012–13	2012–13	Big West	women's golf
California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA)	Golden Eagles	Los Angeles, California	1947	Public	23,258	1975–76	1975–76	CCAA (NCAA Division II)	baseball
University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada)	Wolf Pack	Reno, Nevada	1874	Public	18,227	1984–85^bs.; 1985–86^w.sp.	1990–91^bs.; 1986–87^w.sp.	Mountain West	baseball, women's basketball, women's tennis, women's volleyball
United States International University (USIU)	Gulls	San Diego, California	2001	Private	3,871	1985–86	1986–87	n/a^[a]	women's basketball, women's tennis, women's volleyball

Notes

^ USIU dropped its athletics program following the end of the 1990–91 school year.

Membership timeline

Full members Other Conference Other Conference

Due to space limitations, the following affiliations are not linked within the timeline:
- Fresno State had dual membership with the California Collegiate Athletic Association during their tenure in the WCAC before committing full-time with the CCAA from 1957 to 1969:
- UC Santa Barbara joined what was then the PCAA in 1969. It left in 1974 to become independent and returned in 1976.
- Seattle was a member of the Northwest Conference, then affiliated with the NAIA, from 1997 to 1999. The school then returned to the NCAA as a Division II institution and played as an independent until 2001.

Sports

The West Coast Conference sponsors championship competition in six men's and nine women's NCAA sanctioned sports, with the newest addition being softball in 2013–14.^[11]

**Teams in West Coast Conference competition**
Sport	Men's	Women's
Baseball	10	-
Basketball	10	10
Beach Volleyball	-	7
Cross Country	9	10
Golf	9	5
Rowing	-	7
Soccer	8	10
Softball	-	6
Tennis	10	10
Volleyball	-	10

Men's sports

Departing members are highlighted in red.

Men's sponsored sports by school
School	Baseball	Basketball	Cross Country	Golf	Soccer	Tennis	Total Sports
BYU	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	5
Gonzaga	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	6
Loyola Marymount	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	6
Pacific	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	5
Pepperdine	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	5
Portland	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	5
Saint Mary's	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	6
San Diego	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	6
San Francisco	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	6
Santa Clara	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	6
Totals	10	10	9	9	8	10	56

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the West Coast Conference which are played by WCC schools
School	Football	Rowing^[a]	Swimming & Diving	Track & Field (Indoor)	Track & Field (Outdoor)	Volleyball	Water Polo^[b]
BYU	FBS Independent	No	MPSF	MPSF	Independent	MPSF	No
Gonzaga	No	WIRA	No	Independent	Independent	No	No
Loyola Marymount	No	WIRA	No	Independent	Independent	No	WWPA
Pacific	No	No	MPSF	No	No	No	Golden Coast
Pepperdine	No	No	No	No	Independent	MPSF	Golden Coast
Portland	No	No	No	Independent	Independent	No	No
Saint Mary's	No	No	No	No	Independent	No	No
San Diego	Pioneer League	WIRA	No	No	No	No	No
San Francisco	No	No	No	Independent	Independent	No	No
Santa Clara	No	WIRA	No	Independent	Independent	No	WWPA

^ The NCAA sanctions rowing only for women. Men's college rowing is governed by the Intercollegiate Rowing Association.
^ The WCC will sponsor water polo starting in the 2023–24 school year, with the four full members sponsoring that sport joined by associates Air Force, California Baptist, and San Jose State.

Women's sports