The West Coast Conference (WCC) is an NCAA collegiate athletics conference consisting of nine member schools across the states of California, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
All of the current members are private, faith-based institutions: seven are Catholic Church affiliates. One (Pepperdine) is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ and another (Brigham Young University) is an affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Four of the seven Catholic schools are Jesuit affiliates. The incoming University of the Pacific, which will join in 2013, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, although it has not been financially supported by the church since 1969.[1]
During the massive upheaval of conference affiliations in the 1990s, the WCC remained very stable. Before the 2010 realignment that eventually led to Brigham Young joining the conference, the last change of membership was in 1980, when Seattle University left the conference. At the time, only the Ivy League and Pac-10 (now Pac-12) had remained unchanged for a longer period.
The league was chartered by five northern California institutions, four from the Bay Area (San Francisco, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, San Jose State) and one, Pacific, from Stockton. It began as the California Basketball Association, playing its first game on January 2, 1953. After two seasons under that name, the conference expanded to include Los Angeles-area schools Loyola (now Loyola Marymount) and Pepperdine in 1955 and became the "West Coast Athletic Conference" in 1956. The name was then shortened in 1989, dropping the word "Athletic." [2]
The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be one of the better mid-major conferences in the country. The conference sponsors 13 sports but does not include football as one of them. San Diego (Pioneer Football League) and Brigham Young (FBS independent) are the only schools fielding a football team. The rest have all dropped the sport, some as early as the 1940s, before the conference existed (Gonzaga and Portland), and one as late as 2003 (Saint Mary's).
Historically, the WCC's strongest sports have been soccer (nine national champions, including back-to-back women's soccer titles in 2001 and 2002) and tennis (five individual champions and one team champion). The conference has also made its presence felt nationally in men's basketball. San Francisco won two consecutive national titles in the 1950s with all-time great Bill Russell and was reckoned as a "major" basketball power until the early 1980s. Also of note was Loyola Marymount's inspired run to the Elite Eight in 1990 following the death of Hank Gathers during that season's WCC championship tournament.
More recently, Gonzaga's rise to national prominence after being invited to the NCAA Tournament every year since their Cinderella run to the "Elite Eight" in 1999 has helped make the WCC a household name. Like San Francisco before it, Gonzaga has arguably become the closest thing to a major power in a mid-major conference. Saint Mary's has also made marks for the conference as the Gaels appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005, 2008 and 2010 (making the "Sweet Sixteen" in their latest appearance). On May 28, 2009, NBA referee Violet Palmer was hired as coordinator of women's basketball officials for the West Coast Conference and will remain with the NBA, where she has worked for 12 seasons.[3]
Eventually, with the 2010 realignment opening up new avenues for expansion, the WCC decided to revisit expansion plans. The conference decided that it would only seek out private schools, but would not limit its search to faith-based institutions.
On August 31, 2010, Brigham Young University (BYU) announced plans to join the WCC for the 2011-12 season in all sports the conference offers. BYU joined the conference on July 1, 2011.[4] A list of locations for sports not offered by the WCC is found below for all schools, along with the location of where they compete.
On March 27, 2012, the University of the Pacific (UOP), a charter member of the conference, announced that it accepted an invitation to rejoin the WCC on July 1, 2013. The move would remove Pacific from the Big West Conference into the WCC, which contains other small-sized and private universities without a football team.[5]
<timeline>
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1952 till:2020
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
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:1952 till:1971 text:Pacific (1952–1971)
bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1971 till:2013 text:PCAA/Big West (1971–2013)
bar:1 color:Full from:2013 till: end text:(2013–present)
bar:2 color:Full from:1952 till:end text:San Francisco (1952–present)
bar:3 color:Full from:1952 till:1969 text:San Jose State (1952–1969)
bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1969 till:1996 text:PCAA/Big West
bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:1996 till:end text:WAC
bar:4 color:Full from:1952 till:end text:Santa Clara (1952–present)
bar:5 color:Full from:1952 till:end text:Saint Mary's (1952–present)
bar:6 color:Full from:1955 till:1957 text:Fresno State (1955–1957)
bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1957 till:1969
bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:1969 till:1992 text:PCAA/Big West
bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1992 till:2012 text:WAC
bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text:Mountain West
bar:7 color:Full from:1955 till:end text:Loyola Marymount (1955–present)
bar:8 color:Full from:1955 till:end text:Pepperdine (1955–present)
bar:9 color:Full from:1964 till:1969 text:Santa Barbara (1964–1969)
bar:9 shift:(100,-5) color:OtherC1 from:1969 till:end text:PCAA/Big West
bar:10 color:Full from:1969 till:1979 text:Nevada (1969–1979)
bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:1979 till:1992 text:Big Sky
bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:1992 till:2000 text:Big West
bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2000 till:2012 text:WAC
bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text:Mountain West
bar:11 color:Full from:1969 till:1975 text:UNLV (1969–1975)
bar:11 shift:(35,-5) color:OtherC1 from:1975 till:1982 text:Ind.
bar:11 color:OtherC2 from:1982 till:1996 text:Big West
bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:1996 till:1999 text:WAC
bar:11 color:OtherC2 from:1999 till:end text:Mountain West
bar:12 color:Full from:1971 till:1980 text:Seattle (1971–1980)
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1980 till:1997 text:NAIA independent
bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:1997 till:1999
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1999 till:2001
bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2001 till:2008 text:GNAC
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:2008 till:2012 text:D-I Ind.
bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text:WAC
bar:13 color:Full from:1976 till:end text:Portland (1976–present)
bar:14 color:Full from:1979 till:end text:Gonzaga (1979–present)
bar:15 color:Full from:1979 till:end text:San Diego (1979–present)
bar:2 color:Full from:1985 till:end
bar:16 color:Full from:2011 till:end text: BYU (2011–present)
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fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)
text:^"West Coast Conference Membership History"
- > 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>
Full members Other Conference Other Conference
- Due to space limitations, the following affiliations are not linked within the timeline:
- Fresno State was a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association from 1957 to 1969:
- UC Santa Barbara left what was then the PCAA for one academic year, 1974–75.
- Seattle was a member of the Northwest Conference, then affiliated with the NAIA, from 1997 to 1999. The school then returned to the NCAA as a Division II institution and played as an independent until 2001.
Locations of current West Coast Conference full member institutions.
| Institution |
Nickname |
Location |
Founded |
Type |
Enrollment |
Joined |
| Brigham Young University |
Cougars |
Provo, Utah |
1875 |
Private - LDS Church |
34,100 |
2011 |
| Gonzaga University |
Bulldogs |
Spokane, Washington |
1887 |
Private - Catholic; Jesuit |
7,229 |
1979 |
| Loyola Marymount University |
Lions |
Los Angeles, California |
1865 |
Private - Catholic; Jesuit/Marymount |
8,972 |
1955 |
| Pepperdine University |
Waves |
Malibu, California |
1937 |
Private - Churches of Christ |
6,000 |
1955 |
| Portland !University of Portland |
Pilots |
Portland, Oregon |
1901 |
Private - Catholic; Congregation of Holy Cross |
3,200 |
1976 |
| Saint Mary's College of California |
Gaels |
Moraga, California |
1863 |
Private - Catholic; De La Salle Brothers |
4,768 |
1952 |
| San Diego !University of San Diego |
Toreros |
San Diego, California |
1949 |
Private - Catholic |
7,548 |
1979 |
| San Francisco !University of San Francisco |
Dons |
San Francisco, California |
1855 |
Private - Catholic; Jesuit |
8,722 |
1952 |
| Santa Clara University |
Broncos |
Santa Clara, California |
1851 |
Private - Catholic; Jesuit |
8,300 |
1952 |
The WCC sponsors intercollegiate competition in 13 sports, though not every school participates in every sport.
- men’s baseball (all schools)
- men’s basketball (all schools, see also WCC Men's Basketball Tournament)
- women’s basketball (all schools, see also WCC Women's Basketball Tournament)
- men’s cross country (all schools)
- women’s cross country (all schools)
- men’s golf (all schools, except Portland)
- women’s golf (Brigham Young, Gonzaga, Pepperdine, USF and Santa Clara)
- men’s soccer (all schools except Brigham Young and Pepperdine; BYU fields a semi-pro team in the USL Premier Development League)
- women’s soccer (all schools)
- men’s tennis (all schools)
- women’s tennis (all schools)
- women’s rowing (Gonzaga, LMU, Portland, Saint Mary's, San Diego, and Santa Clara)
- women’s volleyball (all schools)
Pacific will sponsor baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's cross country, men's golf, women's soccer, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball upon joining the WCC in 2013. By 2015, a men's soccer team will be sponsored, plus another core women's sport.
WCC schools also sponsor varsity sports not sponsored by the WCC. These schools participate in other conferences or as independents for these sports.
- mixed competitive cheerleading (non-NCAA: LMU)
- men’s football (San Diego in the Pioneer Football League and Brigham Young as an FBS Independent)
- women's lacrosse (Saint Mary's in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
- men’s rowing (Gonzaga, San Diego and Santa Clara in the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association)
- women’s softball (LMU, San Diego, Saint Mary's and Santa Clara in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference; Brigham Young in the Western Athletic Conference but moving to Pacific Coast Softball Conference in 2013)
- women’s spirit team (non-NCAA: San Diego)
- men's swimming and diving (Brigham Young in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
- women’s swimming and diving (Brigham Young, LMU, Pepperdine and San Diego in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
- men’s indoor track and field (Brigham Young in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and Gonzaga, Portland and USF as an Independent)
- women's indoor track and field (Brigham Young in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and Gonzaga, Portland and USF as an Independent)
- men’s outdoor track and field (Brigham Young, Gonzaga, LMU, Pepperdine, Portland, USF and Santa Clara)
- women’s outdoor track and field (Brigham Young, Gonzaga, LMU, Pepperdine, Portland, San Diego, USF and Santa Clara)
- men’s water polo (LMU, Pepperdine and Santa Clara in the Western Water Polo Association)
- women’s water polo (LMU and Santa Clara in the Western Water Polo Association)
- men’s volleyball (Brigham Young and Pepperdine in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
Pacific sponsors these sports that are not sponsored by the WCC: softball, field hockey, men's and women's swimming, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo.
Some of the famous athletes who played collegiately for WCC schools, and coaches and executives that attended WCC schools, include:
- Basketball:
- Danny Ainge, Consensus All-American, Former NBA and Major League Baseball player; Current President for the NBA's Boston Celtics (Brigham Young)
- Rick Adelman, NBA head coach (Loyola Marymount)
- J. P. Batista, current Brazil international playing in France with Le Mans (Gonzaga)
- Bernie Bickerstaff, Former NBA head coach (San Diego)
- Shawn Bradley, Former NBA player, Second draft pick 1993 (Brigham Young)
- Mike Brown, current NBA head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers (San Diego)
- Ricardo Brown, one of the Philippine Basketball Association's 25 Greatest Players
- Bill Cartwright, Former NBA player and head coach, current NBA assistant (San Francisco)
- Doug Christie, former NBA player from 1993–2007, selected 17th overall in the 1992 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics (Pepperdine)
- Darwin Cook, Former NBA player (Portland)
- Jimmer Fredette, NCAA National Player of the year (2010-2011) and was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks at the 11th pick in the first round(was traded to the Sacramento Kings)[12] (Brigham Young)
- Richie Frahm, Former NBA player (Gonzaga)
- Dan Dickau, Former NBA player (Gonzaga)
- Maggie Dixon, Head women's coach at Army at the time of her unexpected death in 2006 (San Diego)
- Hank Gathers, Legendary college sports star (Loyola Marymount)
- Elias Harris, current Germany international (currently playing at Gonzaga)
- Mel Hutchins, Former NBA player and 4 time All Star (Brigham Young)
- Dennis Johnson, Former NBA star (Pepperdine)
- K.C. Jones, Basketball Hall of Famer (San Francisco)
- Bo Kimble, former NBA player (Loyola Marymount)
- Tom Meschery, former NBA all-star (Saint Mary's)
- Patrick Mills, current Australia international with the Portland Trail Blazers (Saint Mary's)
- Adam Morrison, drafted third overall in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Bobcats (Gonzaga)
- Austin Daye, drafted 15th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (Gonzaga)
- Eric Musselman, former NBA head coach (San Diego)
- Steve Nash, current NBA superstar and 2005 and 2006 NBA MVP (Santa Clara)
- Kelly Olynyk, current Canada men's international (currently playing at Gonzaga)
- Kurt Rambis, former NBA player and current NBA head coach (Santa Clara)
- Bill Russell, former NBA superstar and coach, and Basketball Hall of Famer (San Francisco)
- Robert Sacre, current Canada international (currently playing at Gonzaga)
- Omar Samhan, currently playing in Lithuania and the Euroleague with Žalgiris (Saint Mary's)
- Jose Slaughter, Former NBA player (Portland)
- Mike Smith, 2nd team All-American and former NBA player
- Erik Spoelstra, current head coach of the Miami Heat (Portland)
- Blake Stepp, Former NBA player drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2004 NBA Draft (Gonzaga)
- John Stockton, former NBA superstar & Basketball Hall of Famer (Gonzaga)
- Stew Morrill, Current College Head Coach Utah State (Gonzaga)
- Ronny Turiaf, current Washington Wizards player (Gonzaga)
- Courtney Vandersloot, current WNBA player with the Chicago Sky (Gonzaga)
- Erin Thorn, current WNBA player with the Chicago Sky (Brigham Young)
- Soccer:
- Conor Casey, USA men's national team player (Portland)
- Brandi Chastain, member of the USA national team that won the 1999 Women's World Cup (Santa Clara)
- Steve Cherundolo, USA men's national team player (Portland)
- Brian Ching, USA men's national team player (Gonzaga)
- John Doyle, general manager of the San Jose Earthquakes, former USA men's national team player (San Francisco)
- Kasey Keller, USA men's goalkeeper (Portland)
- Shannon MacMillan, member of the 1999 Women's World Cup winners (Portland)
- Tiffeny Milbrett, member of the 1999 Women's World Cup winners (Portland)
- Christine Sinclair, two-time Hermann Trophy winner and all-time leading goal scorer for the Canadian women's national team (Portland)
- Aly Wagner, 2002 Hermann Trophy winner and member of the US women's soccer team that won gold at the 2004 Olympics (Santa Clara)
- Shauna Rohbock, 6th all-time in NCAA scoring, former player for the San Diego Spirit and an olympic silver medalist in 2006 Torino Olympics bobsleigh (Brigham Young)
- Baseball:
- Jason Bay, current New York Mets outfielder and 2004 National League Rookie of the Year (Gonzaga)
- Randy Winn, current New York Yankees outfielder and teammate of Steve Nash on Santa Clara University's NCAA Basketball Tournament team (Santa Clara)
- Dan Haren, 2007 American League All-Star Game starting pitcher (Pepperdine)
- Noah Lowry, major-league pitcher (currently a free agent) and former college roommate of Dan Haren (Pepperdine)
- Jack Morris, major-league pitcher, hall of fame candidate and 4-time World Series winner (Brigham Young) [13]
- Mike Redmond, current major-league catcher (Gonzaga)
- Mark Teahen, current Chicago White Sox third baseman (Saint Mary's)
- Tom Candiotti, former major-league pitcher (Saint Mary's)
- Mike Scott, former major-league pitcher (Pepperdine)
- Randy Wolf, major-league pitcher currently with the Milwaukee Brewers (Pepperdine)
- Brian Matusz, current major-league pitcher drafted 4th overall in 2008 by the Baltimore Orioles (San Diego)
- Theo Epstein, MLB general manager (San Diego — School of Law only; earned bachelor's degree at Yale)
- Bill Bavasi, MLB general manager (San Diego)
- Ken Dayley, former major league pitcher, 1980 1st round draft pick, 3rd overall, pitched in both the '85 and '87 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals (Portland)
- Bill Krueger, former major league pitcher (Portland)
- Pat Casey, current Oregon State baseball head coach, his team winning both the 2006 and 2007 College World Series (Portland)
- Von Hayes, former major league outfielder/first baseman (Saint Mary's)
- Water Polo:
- Volleyball:
| School |
Soccer Stadium |
Capacity |
Basketball Arena |
Capacity |
Baseball Stadium |
Capacity |
| Brigham Young |
The Stadium at South Field |
3,800 |
Marriott Center |
22,700 |
Larry H. Miller Field |
2,710 |
| Gonzaga |
Gonzaga Soccer Field |
2,000 |
McCarthey Athletic Center |
6,000 |
Washington Trust Field and Patterson Baseball Complex |
1,500 |
| Loyola Marymount |
Sullivan Field |
2,000 |
Gersten Pavilion |
4,156 |
George C. Page Stadium |
1,200 |
| Pacific !Pacific † |
Stagg Memorial Stadium |
28,000 |
Alex G. Spanos Center |
6,150 |
Klein Family Field |
2,500 |
| Pepperdine |
Tari Frahm Rokus Field |
1,000 |
Firestone Fieldhouse |
3,104 |
Eddy D. Field Stadium |
1,800 |
| Portland |
Merlo Field |
4,892 |
Chiles Center |
4,852 |
Joe Etzel Field |
1,000 |
| Saint Mary's |
Saint Mary's Stadium |
5,500 |
McKeon Pavilion |
3,500 |
Louis Guisto Field |
1,000 |
| San Diego |
Torero Stadium |
6,000 |
Jenny Craig Pavilion |
5,100 |
John Cunningham Stadium |
1,200 |
| San Francisco |
Negoesco Stadium |
3,000 |
War Memorial Gymnasium |
5,300 |
Dante Benedetti Diamond at Max Ulrich Field |
2,000 |
| Santa Clara |
Buck Shaw Stadium |
10,300 |
Leavey Center |
4,500 |
Stephen Schott Stadium |
1,500 |
† University of the Pacific, currently a member of the Big West Conference, returns to the WCC in 2013
