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Pacific West Conference

The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in California and Hawaii.

The conference sponsors the following sports: basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and track & field outdoor for both men and women; baseball for men only; softball and volleyball for women only. The newest PacWest sports are men's tennis and women's golf, both added in 2012–13.[1]

History

Formation

PacWest Conference (California)
150km
100miles
Academy of Art
Vanguard
Jessup
Westmont
Menlo
Point Loma Nazarene
Fresno Pacific
Dominican
Concordia
Biola
.
Azusa Pacific
  
Location of PacWest members: current
PacWest Conference (Hawaii)
150km
100miles
Chaminade
Hawai‘i–Hilo
.
Hawai‘i Pacific
  
Location of PacWest members: current

The PacWest was formed in 1992 when the Great Northwest Conference (a men's conference) merged with the Continental Divide Conference (a women's conference containing some of the same members), in response to the departures of several members and new NCAA legislation requiring conferences to have at least six members.[2] In addition, some Hawai'i-based colleges joined the new conference.

At one point the conference expanded to 16 members, but in 2001, member schools from Washington, Alaska, California, and Oregon left to form the new Great Northwest Athletic Conference.[2]

With the departure of the final two mainland members, Montana State University–Billings and Western New Mexico University, to join the Heartland Conference in 2005, the four Hawai'i universities played one season as “independents” after receiving a waiver from the NCAA to keep the conference in name, while searching for new members, because in order to be eligible for conference membership in the NCAA, a conference must consist of a minimum of six member institutions who sponsor at least ten sports, with two team sports for each gender.

New PacWest Conference

To comply with conference membership regulations, Hawai'i Pacific (HPU), Chaminade, BYU–Hawai'i and Hawai'i–Hilo added new sports to their programs. In July 2005, the Pacific West Conference voted to admit Notre Dame de Namur University as a provisional member, as it moved from the NAIA to the NCAA Division II. Grand Canyon University, formerly an NCAA D-II Independent, also joined the conference, returning the Pacific West Conference to full conference status with six members. Dixie State College of Utah joined the conference for the 2007–08 season. In 2008, it was announced that Academy of Art University would join the conference in the 2009–10 season as the conference's 8th member. In 2009 it was announced that Dominican University of California would join the conference in the 2009–10 season as the conference's 9th member.[3] That same year, the conference announced it would sponsor baseball as its 11th sport, with Hawai'i Pacific University, University of Hawai'i–Hilo, Dixie State College of Utah (now Utah Tech University), and Grand Canyon University competing on a Division II level.[4]

Recent expansion and contraction

The conference began expansion in 2010 when the PacWest invited California Baptist University, from the NAIA's Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) to join the conference beginning with the 2011–12 school year.[5] On June 1, 2011, the conference announced the additions of Azusa Pacific University, Fresno Pacific University and Point Loma Nazarene University, all members of the GSAC,[1] which began Pacific West Conference play during the 2012–13 season. Holy Names University was also added to the PacWest in 2011, but did not begin the NCAA Division II membership process from the NAIA until July 13, 2012.[6] As part of the transition process from NAIA to NCAA Holy Names remained ineligible for NCAA postseason play through 2015–16.[1] On November 27, 2012, Grand Canyon announced it would leave the PacWest after the 2012–13 school year to accept an invitation to join the Division I Western Athletic Conference.[7] In July 2016, it was announced that Biola University would join the PacWest for the 2017–18 season. In October 2016, Dixie State announced that it would transition from the PacWest to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after the 2017–18 school year. On January 13, 2017, California Baptist announced that it will leave the PacWest in favor of moving up to NCAA Division I.[8] On March 23, 2020, Notre Dame de Namur announced the cessation of all its athletics after the 2019–20 school year.[9]

Chronological timeline

Member schools

Current members

The PacWest currently has 14 full members, all but one are private schools. Reclassifying members listed in yellow.


Affiliate members

The PacWest currently has four affiliate members, all are public schools:

Former members

The PacWest had 19 former full members, all but seven were public schools:

Notes
  1. ^ BYU–Hawaii dropped its athletics program after the 2016–17 school year.
  2. ^ a b c d e Currently an NCAA Division I athletic conference.
  3. ^ Now known as Utah Tech University.
  4. ^ Grand Canyon's for-profit status is disputed. The U.S. Department of Education considers it for-profit, but the NCAA, the state of Arizona, and the Internal Revenue Service consider it a nonprofit.
  5. ^ Holy Names University closed following the 2022–23 school year, which discontinued its athletics program in the process.
  6. ^ Currently known as California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt since January 26, 2022.
  7. ^ Notre Dame de Namur dropped its athletics program after the 2019–20 school year.
  8. ^ Portland State joined the PacWest only for women's sports.
  9. ^ SFU's nickname during its PacWest tenure was Clan.

Former affiliate members

The PacWest had one former affiliate member, which was also a public school:

Membership timeline

 Full member   Associate member  

National championships

Academy of Art

Azusa Pacific

BYU–Hawai'i

Grand Canyon

Hawai'i Pacific

Point Loma Nazarene

Sports

Men's sponsored sports by school

Women's sponsored sports by school

Other sponsored sports by school

Future members indicated in gray.

  1. ^ a b c d De facto Division I sport. The NCAA men's volleyball championship is open to members of Divisions I and II, and the NCAA championships in beach volleyball and men's and women's water polo are open to members of all three NCAA divisions.
  2. ^ De facto Division I sport as part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program.
  3. ^ Jessup joins MPSF men's volleyball in a later year.

Conference facilities

  1. ^ At Orange Coast College.

References

  1. ^ a b c Staff (June 2, 2011). "PacWest conference expands to 14 schools". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "About the GNAC". Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  3. ^ "PacWest adds Dominican University of California as 9th conference program". Pacific West Conference. June 12, 2009. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  4. ^ "PWC Adds Baseball". Pacific West Conference. 2008. Archived from the original on May 30, 2008.
  5. ^ Broughton, Bob (January 3, 2011). "Five Southern California schools headed for Division II". Courtesy Runner. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  6. ^ "HNU enters NCAA II member process". July 13, 2012. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
  7. ^ "Grand Canyon University to Join WAC" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. November 27, 2012. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
  8. ^ "CBU Announces D1, WAC Move". California Baptist University. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  9. ^ "NDNU Athletics Will Not Continue Past Spring 2020". ndnuargos.com. March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  10. ^ "PacWest History: The Megaconference Era". Pacific West Conference. July 28, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  11. ^ "Westmont Begins NCAA Division II Membership Process". Westmont Warriors. July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  12. ^ As of July 6, 2019. "Term Enrollment summary".

External links