Pacific West Conference

Pacific West Conference
Data
Classification	NCAA Division II
Established	1992
Members	9
Sports fielded	10 (5 men's, 5 women's)
Region	Pacific States
States	4 - Arizona, California, Hawaii, Utah
Commissioner	Bob Hogue
Locations

The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is an intercollegiate college athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division II. 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 several member-departures and new NCAA legislation requiring conferences to have at least six members. Member institutions are currently located in California, Arizona, Utah, and Hawaii.

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. In 2005, all remaining non-Hawaii schools left to join the Heartland Conference, leaving the Pacific West Conference two teams short of the NCAA membership requirement for voting rights and automatic qualifying status for tournaments.

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 DII Independent, also joined the conference, returning the Pacific West Conference to full conference status with six members.

Dixie State College joined the conference for the 2007-08 season.1 In 2008, it was announced that Academy of Art University would join the conference in the 2009-2010 Season as the conference's 8th member. In 2009 it was announced that Dominican University of California would join the conference in the 2009-2010 season as the conference's 9th member.

The conference sponsors the following sports: Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's Golf, Women's Tennis, Women's Volleyball and Softball. Brigham Young University-Hawaii has won national championships in Men's and Women's Tennis and Women's Volleyball. Hawaii Pacific University has also won national championships in Volleyball.

In 2008, it was announced that the conference would sponsor baseball as its 11th sport, with Hawaii Pacific University, University of Hawaii-Hilo, Dixie State College of Utah, and Grand Canyon University competing on a Division II level. [1]

Current members

The league currently has 9 full members:

New Pacific West Conference

With the departure of Montana State University-Billings and Western New Mexico University, the four Hawaii universities remaining in the conference played one season as “independents”, 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.

To comply with conference membership regulations, HPU, Chaminade University, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i, and the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, added new sports to their programs. The conference regained full conference status in NCAA Division II by gaining new member universities, including Notre Dame de Namur University, Grand Canyon University, Dixie State College of Utah, and Academy of Art University. The conference hopes to increase the number of universities in the conference with intercollegiate baseball programs in the near future, possibly by adding more universities to the conference.

Conference arenas

Facility capacities taken from conference website [2].

Former members

• University of Alaska (public)
• University of Alaska Anchorage (public)
• Central Washington University (public)
• Humboldt State University (public)
• Montana State University-Billings (public)
• Northwest Nazarene University (private)
• Saint Martin's University (private)
• Seattle Pacific University (private)
• Seattle University (private)
• Western New Mexico University (public)
• Western Oregon University (public)
• Western Washington University (public)

External links

• Official site of the Pacific West Conference