West Coast Conference

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West Coast Conference
(WCC)
West Coast Conference logo
Established 1952
Association NCAA
Division Division I non-football
Members 9
Sports fielded 13 (men's: 6; women's: 7)
Region Western United States
Headquarters San Bruno, California
Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich (since 2008)
Website wccsports.com
Locations
West Coast Conference locations

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. Four of the seven Catholic schools are Jesuit affiliates.

Contents

[edit] History

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 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." [1]

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.[2]

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[3] 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.

[edit] Membership timeline

Brigham Young University University of San Diego Gonzaga University University of Portland Seattle University University of Nevada, Las Vegas University of Nevada, Reno University of California, Santa Barbara Pepperdine University Loyola Marymount University California State University, Fresno Saint Mary's College of California Santa Clara University San Jose State University University of San Francisco University of the Pacific

[edit] Current members

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 - Jesuit 7,229 1979
Loyola Marymount University Lions Los Angeles, California 1865 Private - Jesuit/Marymount 8,972 1955
Pepperdine University Waves Malibu, California 1937 Private - Churches of Christ 6,000 1955
University of Portland Pilots Portland, Oregon 1901 Private - Roman Catholic 3,200 1976
Saint Mary's College of California Gaels Moraga, California 1863 Private - Roman Catholic 4,768 1952
University of San Diego Toreros San Diego, California 1949 Private - Roman Catholic 7,548 1979
University of San Francisco Dons San Francisco, California 1855 Private - Jesuit 8,722 1952
Santa Clara University Broncos Santa Clara, California 1851 Private - Jesuit 8,300 1952

[edit] Current affiliate members

Institution Nickname Location Founded Type Enrollment Sport
California State University, Bakersfield[4] Roadrunners Bakersfield, CA 1970 Public 8,000 women's golf
Seattle University[5] Redhawks Seattle, WA 1891 Private 7,500 women's golf
Creighton University[6] Bluejays Omaha, NE 1878 Private 7,300 women's rowing

[edit] Former members

[edit] Sports

The WCC sponsors intercollegiate competition in 13 sports, though not every school participates in every 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)

[edit] Famous sports figures

Some of the famous athletes who played collegiately for WCC schools, and coaches and executives that attended WCC schools, include:

[edit] Conference facilities

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
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

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://wccsports.cstv.com/school-bio/west-school-bio.html
  2. ^ http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/052809aaa.html
  3. ^ Katz, Andy (August 31, 2010). "BYU leaving MWC for 2011–12 season". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5517305. Retrieved September 1, 2010. 
  4. ^ http://www.wccsports.com/sports/w-golf/spec-rel/120111aaa.html
  5. ^ http://www.wccsports.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/082610aaa.html
  6. ^ http://www.gocreighton.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1000&ATCLID=204977263
  7. ^ http://seattleredhawks.cstv.com/genrel/102406aaa.html
  8. ^ http://www.goseattleu.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205159883&DB_OEM_ID=18200
  9. ^ Patrick, Bryan (9 June 2011). The Sacramento Bee. http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/23/3723815/jimmer-fredette-selected-by-kings.html. Retrieved 1 July 2011. 
  10. ^ http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-baseball/jack-morris
  11. ^ http://www.pepperdine.edu/pr/releases/2008/august/olympics.htm
  12. ^ a b c http://www.usawaterpolo.org/NationalTeams/MensNationalTeam.aspx

[edit] External links

West Coast Conference
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