Great West Conference
Great West Conference logo
Established	2004
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I
Members	6 full-time (5 in 2012, 4 in 2013), 12 affiliate (6 by 2012)
Sports fielded	16 (15 in 2013) (men's: 7 (6 in 2013); women's: 9)
Region	Midwest and West
Former names	Great West Football Conference
Headquarters	Elmhurst, Illinois
Commissioner	Ed Grom
Website	www.greatwestconference.org
Locations

The Great West Conference is an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Formerly a football-only conference, in 2008 it became an all-sports conference. The conference ceased to sponsor football following the 2011 season.

History[link]

Cal Poly, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Southern Utah, and UC Davis began conference play in the Great West Football Conference in 2004. St. Mary's (CA) was slated to join the conference, but dropped football prior to the 2004 season. In 2005 Cal Poly was the conference's first participant in the NCAA Division IAA (now FCS) playoffs.

Northern Colorado left the GWFC to join the Big Sky Conference for all sports for the 2006 season. On March 7, 2007, North Dakota State and South Dakota State announced that they would leave the conference after the 2007 season and join the Gateway Football Conference in 2008;^[1] by the time the two schools joined, the Gateway Conference renamed itself the Missouri Valley Football Conference. On August 2, 2007 the University of North Dakota and the University of South Dakota announced that they would be joining the Great West Conference in 2008.

On July 10, 2008 it was made official in press conferences that the conference would change from a football only conference into an all sports conference. The charter members of the all-sports conference include North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah Valley University, Houston Baptist, Texas-Pan American, and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Chicago State joined the conference October 22, and these new schools will begin all-sports conference play in 2009–2010. Seattle University was considering membership, but in 2011 they accepted an invitation to play instead in the WAC.^[2]

The all-sports version of the Great West officially began conference play in a limited number of sports during the fall sports season of 2008. During the 2008-09 academic year, the Great West will award championships in cross country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, golf, and tennis. Full conference play among all sponsored team and individual sports will begin with the 2009-10 academic year. Despite not playing a conference schedule in team sports, the league began to award "Player of the Week" honors to student-athletes in all sports in the 2008-09 year.

The conference currently does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, but the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament champion has an automatic bid to CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).^[3]

In April 2010 South Dakota announced their intentions to join The Summit League for all sports but football (they later announced their commitment to the Missouri Valley Football Conference for football in November 2010). In September 2010 Cal Poly and UC Davis announced that they would join the Big Sky Conference for football by 2012,^[4] and in November 2010 Southern Utah and North Dakota announced that they would join the Big Sky for all sports by 2012. With these moves, all football members will have left the Great West and the league will cease to sponsor football following the 2011 season. The conference overall will lose two full members and six affiliates by 2012, four football affiliates (Cal Poly, UC Davis, South Dakota and Southern Utah), softball affiliate UN-Omaha and multi-sport affiliate Seattle.

Members[link]

Current[link]

^* Houston Baptist will join the Southland Conference July 1, 2013.^[5]

^** North Dakota will join the Big Sky Conference in 2012.^[6]

^*** North Dakota retired the Fighting Sioux nickname on January 1, 2012 and a new name has not been chosen, as controversy continues over the use or non-use of the name.^[7]

Affiliates[link]

Former members[link]

• North Dakota State University (Missouri Valley Football Conference), 2004–2007
• University of Northern Colorado (Big Sky Conference), 2004–2005
• South Dakota State University (Missouri Valley Football Conference), 2004–2007
• Southern Utah University (Big Sky Conference), 2008–2012
• University of North Dakota (Big Sky Conference), 2008–2012
• University of South Dakota (The Summit League), 2008–2011 (Missouri Valley Football Conference), 2012

Locations of current Great West Conference full member institutions.

Membership timeline[link]

<timeline>

DateFormat = yyyy

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20

Period = from:2004 till:2015

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal

PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#

Colors = id:barcolor

         id:line     value:black

         id:bg       value:white
         id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
         id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
         id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
         id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
         id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
         id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two

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  width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

  bar:1  color:AssocF from:2004 till:2011 text:Cal Poly (2004–2011)

  bar:2  color:AssocF from:2004 till:2011 text:UC Davis (2004–2011)

  bar:3  color:AssocF from:2004 till:2007 text:North Dakota State (2004–2007)

  bar:4  color:AssocF from:2004 till:2005 text:Northern Colorado (2004–2005)

  bar:5  color:AssocF from:2004 till:2007 text:South Dakota State (2004–2007)

  bar:6  color:AssocF from:2004 till:2011 text:Southern Utah (2004–2011)

  bar:7  color:AssocF from:2008 till:2011 text:North Dakota (2008–2011)

  bar:8  color:AssocF from:2008 till:2011 text:South Dakota (2008–2011)

  bar:9  color:Full from:2008 till:end text:Chicago State (2008–present)

  bar:10  color:Full from:2008 till:2013 text:Houston Baptist (2008–2013)

  bar:11  color:Full from:2008 till:end text:New Jersey Institute of Technology (2008–present)

  bar:12  color:Full from:2008 till:2012 text:North Dakota (2008–2012)

  bar:13  color:Full from:2008 till:2011 text:South Dakota (2008–2011)

  bar:14  color:Full from:2008 till:end text:Texas–Pan American (2008–present)

  bar:15  color:Full from:2008 till:end text:Utah Valley (2008–present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2004

TextData =

   fontsize:L
   textcolor:black
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   text:^"Great West Conference Membership History"

1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. Full members Full members (non-football) Assoc. members (football only) Assoc. member (list sports) Other Conference Other Conference <# </timeline>

Associate members (football only) Full members

Football champions[link]

Basketball champions[link]

• In 2011, the Great West Conference held a basketball championship tournament for the second time. Both Men and Women's tournaments were held in Orem, Utah, at the UCCU Center, home of Utah Valley University, whose men's team won the regular season title. The regular-season champion received a first-round bye. The regular season women's champion, Chicago State, won the second Great West Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, defeating North Dakota, 74-66. In the men's title game, North Dakota defeated South Dakota in two overtimes, 77-76. As of 2011, the Great West Conference does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Men or Women's College Tournament but the men's tourney champion does receive an automatic bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

See also[link]

• Great West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
• Great West Conference Women's Basketball Tournament

Conference facilities[link]

Pink indicates departing members.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official website