Big West Conference

This article is about an American college sports organization. For the Japanese advertising agency see Big West Advertising.

Big West Conference
Established: 1969
NCAA	Division I Non-Football
Members	9
Sports fielded	18 (men's: 8; women's: 10)
Region	West Coast (California-only conference)
Former names	Pacific Coast Athletic Association
Headquarters	Irvine, California
Commissioner	Dennis Farrell (since 1992)
Website	http://www.bigwest.org/
Locations

The Big West Conference (BWC) is an NCAA-affiliated Division I mid-major college athletic conference. When the conference began in 1969, its name was the "Pacific Coast Athletic Association" (PCAA). After nineteen years, in 1988, its name was changed to the Big West Conference.^[1] The conference stopped sponsoring college football after the 2000 season. It is the nation’s only Division I conference with its entire membership located in one state.

History

Creation of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association

The Big West Conference was formed on July 1st, 1969, under the name Pacific Coast Athletic Association. The charter members of the PCAA were Cal State Los Angeles, Fresno State, Long Beach State, San Diego State, San Jose State, and UC Santa Barbara.

Four of these charter members (Cal State Los Angeles, Fresno State, Long Beach State, and San Diego State) had previously been members of the nation's premier college-level conference, the California Collegiate Athletic Association. After capturing multiple national championships, the members sought a higher level of play, which could be found within the university ranks. Likewise, San Jose State and UC Santa Barbara, as well as the University of the Pacific, were becoming dissatisfied with being independents due to the restriction of the number of sports they could participate in per year.

The seven schools formally met in May of 1969 and finalized the birth of the PCAA less than two months later. Six of the seven schools who were involved in the creation of the league started athletic play straightaway, with Pacific joining them 2 years later.

Evolution

Since its inception as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, the conference has seen many changes throughout the years. Utah State was the first institution outside of California to join the conference in 1978. This opened the floodgates for many other schools to affiliate with the PCAA; Notable schools include UNLV, Nevada, Louisiana Tech, and Boise State among others.

In 1983, the PCAA became the first western conference to introduce women's athletic programs, giving the opportunity for all its members to have their women student-athletes compete at the same level as their male counterparts. This proved vital for Hawaiʻi as their only participation in the conference was for their women's basketball team.

However, turnover of universities started to take its toll. Many left to join conferences that were perceived as more well-known, such as the Western Athletic Conference or the Mountain West Conference, while others did not see the benefit of travel since historically many of the teams have been California-based. Since the departures of Idaho and Utah State in 2005, all members have been based in California reducing both the travel time and cost between the universities. Between full and associate members, there have been no less than 25 members in the conference's history while only three of the original seven charter members remain (Long Beach State, University of the Pacific, and UC Santa Barbara).

The change to the Big West

To mark its 20th year as an athletic conference, in 1988 the Pacific Coast Athletic Association decided to change its name to the Big West Conference. The move signaled the changing landscape within the conference. With such schools as Utah State, UNLV, Nevada, New Mexico State, and Hawaiʻi now in the fold, the name change was more representative of the population. Despite the departure of all non-California based teams, the much widely known "Big West Conference" name has remained constant.

Membership

Current members

All nine members of the conference are located in California. Only one member is a private institution; the other eight are public schools, divided equally between the California State University and University of California systems.

Locations of current Big West Conference full member institutions.

Membership timeline

Notes

• Powder blue bars denote full members.
  
• Red bars denote football only members.
  
• Green bars denote women's basketball only members.

Former members

Many of the former members of the Big West are now members of the Western Athletic Conference. Of the nine current members of the WAC, only Hawaii has not spent some time in the Big West as a football participant – it was in the Big West as a women's basketball only member. Only one has reverted back to NCAA Division II: CSU at Los Angeles.

Sports

As of fall 2002, the BWC sponsors intercollegiate competition in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball. As of the 2008-2009 school year the BWC has sponsored Women's Water Polo.

The Big West is strong in several sports. Baseball and Women's Volleyball have been the strongest sports because of the number of championships won. Cal State Fullerton has won 4 College World Series in 1979, 1984, 1995, and 2004. Long Beach State has won 5 Women's Volleyball championships in 1972, 1973, 1989, 1993, 1998, the last three being NCAA sanctioned titles. In 1998 Misty May-Treanor helped guided the 49ers to a 36-0 record on route to the programs most recent title. Pacific won back to back Women's Volleyball titles in 1985 and 1986.

When UNLV won the school's lone Division 1 Basketball Championship in 1990, by beating Duke University by a record setting margin of 30 points in the 103-73 victory, they were a member of the Big West Conference.

The current members of the Big West have won a total of nine NCAA national championships including UC Santa Barbara’s most recent Men’s Soccer Championship in 2006. The other was softball by Fullerton in 1986.

The conference does not sponsor football; the only two conference members which participate in the sport (UC Davis and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) participate as members of the Great West Conference.

Champions

Men's Basketball

The most recent winner of the Big West Tournament is Cal State Northridge, who also won the regular season crown.

Football

An asterisk denotes the participant in the bowls that invited the Big West champion: Pasadena (1969-70), California (1981-91), Las Vegas (1992-96), and Humanitarian (1997-2000)

Conference facilities

See also

• California Collegiate Athletic Association, an all-California school conference that competes in Division II. Eight out of nine members of the Big West are former members of the CCAA.

References

External links

• Official website