| Name | Pacific-10 Conference |
|---|---|
| Short name | Pac-10 |
| Established | 1959 |
| Logo | PAC10logo.png |
| Logo size | 100px |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I |
| Subdivision | FBS |
| Members | 10 (12 starting July) |
| Sports | 22 |
| Mens | 11 |
| Womens | 11 |
| Region | Western United States |
| Former names | Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU, 1959–68)Pacific-8 (1968–78)Pacific-10 (1978-2011)Big Five (1959–62) — unofficialBig Six (1962–64) — unofficialPacific-8 (1964–68) — unofficial |
| Hq city | Walnut Creek |
| Hq state | California |
| Commissioner | Larry Scott |
| Since | 2009 |
| Website | www.pac-10.org |
| Color | 000080 |
| Font color | FFFFFF |
| Map | Pac 10 +2 USA states.svg |
| Map size | 250 |
The Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) is a college athletic conference which operates in the western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two levels of NCAA Division I football competition. The conference's 10 members (which are primarily flagship research universities in their respective regions, well-regarded academically, and with relatively large student enrollment) compete in 22 NCAA sports. It was founded as the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959, and went by the names Big Five, Big Six, and Pacific-8, becoming the Pacific-10 in 1978.
On July 27, 2010, the Conference announced it would rename itself as the Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12), upon addition of Colorado and Utah.
The self-proclaimed "Conference of Champions," the Pac-10 has won more NCAA National Team Championships than any other conference in history; the top three schools with the most NCAA team championships belong to the Pac-10 (UCLA, Stanford and the University of Southern California, in that order). With Arizona State's softball title in 2011, the conference won its 400th NCAA Championships.
The current commissioner of the conference is Larry Scott who replaced Thomas C. Hansen, who retired in July 2009 after 26 years in that position. Prior to joining the Pac-10, Scott was Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association.
One year later, Washington State College (now Washington State University) joined the league, followed by Stanford University in 1918.
In 1922, the PCC expanded to eight teams with the admission of USC and Idaho. Montana joined the Conference in 1924, and in 1928, the PCC grew to 10 members with the addition of UCLA.
For many years, the conference split into two divisions for basketball—a Southern Division comprising the four California schools and a Northern Division comprising the six schools in the Pacific Northwest.
In 1950, Montana departed to join the Mountain States Conference. The PCC continued as a nine-team league through 1958.
On July 1, 1959 the new Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed, with Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington as charter members. The conference also was popularly known as the Big Five from 1960 to 62; when Washington State joined in 1962, the conference was then informally known as the Big Six.
Of Division I conferences, only the Ivy League has maintained its current membership for a longer time than the Pac-10. Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said on February 9, 2010, that the window for expansion by the conference was open for the next year as the conference begins negotiations for a new television deal. Speaking on a conference call to introduce former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg as his new deputy, Scott talked about possibly adding new teams to the conference and launching a new television network. Scott, the former head of the Women’s Tennis Association, took over the conference last July. In his less than eight months on the job, he has seen growing interest from the membership over the possibility of adding teams for the first time since Arizona and Arizona State joined the conference in 1978.
In early June 2010, there were reports that the Pac-10 would be considering adding up to six teams to the conference, including Texas Tech University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and possibly Texas A&M; University.
On June 10, 2010, the University of Colorado at Boulder officially accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference, effective in the 2012–2013 academic year. The school later announced it would join the conference after the 2010-2011 academic year.
On June 15, 2010, a deal was reached between Texas and the Big 12 Conference to keep Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M;, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the Big 12. Following Texas' decision, the other Big 12 schools that had been rumored candidates to join the Pac-10 announced they would remain in the Big 12. This deal effectively ended the Pac-10's ambition to potentially become a sixteen-team conference.
On June 17, 2010, the University of Utah officially accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference, effective in the 2011–2012 school year.
These totals do not include football national championships, which the NCAA does not officially declare at the FBS level. Various polls, formulas, and other third-party systems have been used to determine national championships, not all of which are universally accepted.
Southern California claims 11 national championships, California claims 5, Washington claims 2, and Stanford and UCLA both claim 1.
Each school within the conference has its own in-state, conference rivalry. One is an intracity rivalry (UCLA-USC), and another is within the same metropolitan area (Cal-Stanford). These rivalries (and the name given to the football forms) are:
There are other notable football rivalries within the Pac-10 conference.
All of the California schools consider each other major rivals, due to the culture clash between Northern and Southern California. For USC, the big game is UCLA. For Stanford, their big game is Cal. But for both Stanford and Cal, their second biggest game is USC. Cal and UCLA have a rivalry rooted in their shared history as the top programs within the University of California system. Stanford and USC have a rivalry rooted in their shared history as the only private schools in the Pac-10. Cal and USC also have a long history, having played each other every year in football since 1916.
Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, and Washington State all consider each other major rivals due to the proximity and long history.
Arizona and New Mexico have a recently renewed rivalry game, based upon when they were both members of the WAC and both states were longtime territories before being admitted as states in 1912. They played for the Kit Carson Rifle trophy, which was no longer used starting with their meeting in the 1997 Insight Bowl.
USC and Notre Dame have an intersectional rivalry (See Notre Dame – USC rivalry). The games in odd-numbered years in [[South Bend, Indiana| Indiana]] are played in mid-October, while the games in even-numbered years in Los Angeles are usually played in late November.
The isolated rural campuses of Washington State and Idaho are eight miles (13 km) apart on the Palouse, creating a natural border war. Idaho rejoined FBS in 1996; the football rivalry has been dubbed Battle of the Palouse.
Future members Colorado and Utah have a football rivalry as well that has been dormant since 1962. With the two schools being placed in the same division for football starting in 2011, the rivalry will be revived when the two schools meet for the 58th time during the 2011 Pac-12 season.
With the NCAA permanently approving 12-game schedules in college football beginning in 2006, the Pac-10—alone among major conferences in doing so—went to a full nine-game conference schedule. Previously, the schools did not play one non-rival opponent, resulting in an eight-game conference schedule (four home games and four away). In 2010, the last season before the arrival of Colorado and Utah, the only other BCS conference that played a round-robin schedule was the Big East. The schedule consisted of one home and away game against the two schools in each region, plus the game against the primary rival.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; margin: 1em auto;" ! North Division !! South Division |- | Oregon || Arizona |- | Oregon State || Arizona State |- | Washington || Colorado |- | Washington State || Utah |-style="background: #DDDDDD" | California || UCLA |-style="background: #DDDDDD" | Stanford || USC |}
A nine-game conference schedule is being maintained, with five matches within the assigned division and four matches from the opposite division. The four California teams will play each other every season. Thus, the four non-California teams in each division will only play one of the two California teams from the opposite division, every other year on average.
During the 1970s, UCLA and Notre Dame had an intense men's basketball rivalry. For several years, it was the only non-conference game in Division I basketball that was played twice a season (home-and-home). Unquestionably, the most famous game in the rivalry was on January 19, 1974, when Notre Dame scored the last 12 points of the game to nip UCLA and end the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak. This rivalry is now dormant, partly because Notre Dame is no longer independent in sports other than football (Big East).
In baseball, there are intense rivalries between the four southern schools. Arizona, Arizona State, USC, and UCLA have long and successful histories in baseball and all have won national titles in the sport. The most intense series is widely regarded to be the "Basebrawl" series between USC and Arizona State in 1990. Arizona State swept the series and in the final game a bench clearing brawl spread quickly to the stands and made national headlines. Several were injured and riot police were called to end the fracas.
Washington and California have a longstanding rivalry in men's crew as the two traditionally dominant programs on the West Coast.
Due to the unique geographic nature of the Pac-10 teams, the teams travel in pairs for road basketball games. For example, on Thursday, February 28, 2008, USC played Arizona and UCLA played Arizona State. Two nights later the teams switched and USC played Arizona State and UCLA played Arizona. The teams are paired as followed: USC and UCLA (the L.A. teams), Arizona and Arizona State (the Arizona teams), Cal and Stanford (the Bay Area teams), Washington and Washington State (the Washington teams), and Oregon and Oregon State (the Oregon teams). Usually, the games are played on Thursdays and Saturdays with a game or occasionally two on Sundays for television purposes. This pairing formula is also used in women's volleyball. To make scheduling simpler for men and women's basketball (a sport in which each conference member uses a single venue for both teams' home games), the schedule for women's basketball is the opposite of the men's schedule. For example, when the Oregon schools are hosting the men's teams from the Arizona schools, the Arizona schools host the women's teams from Oregon schools the same weekend.
This formula has made a tradition in conference play to keep track of how a team does against a particular region; and stats are kept at to how successful a team is against, for example, "the Bay Area schools" at home or away. At any given week, four regions are playing against each other, while the remaining one has their rivalry game, usually on the weekend. Those teams get the Thursday off unless they schedule a non-conference game.
Note: future conference members shown in grey. California will use AT&T; Park as their football venue for the 2011 season, returning to Memorial Stadium for the 2012 season. The Washington football team will play the 2012 season as well as the 2011 Apple Cup at Qwest Field.
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