Pac-12 Conference: Difference between revisions

Pacific-12 Conference
	File:Pacific-12 Conference logo.png
Association	NCAA
Commissioner	Larry Scott (since 2009)
Sports fielded	22 men's: 11; women's: 11; ;
Division	Division I
Subdivision	FBS
Region	Western United States
Official website	www.pac-12.com
Locations

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Revision as of 15:12, 6 January 2014

The Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12) is a collegiate athletic conference that 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 12 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 created after the disbanding of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), whose principal members founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959, and went by the names Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, Pacific-10, and became the Pacific-12 in 2011.

Nicknamed the "Conference of Champions," the Pac-12 has won more NCAA National Team Championships than any other conference in history; the three schools with the most NCAA team championships belong to the Pac-12 (UCLA, Stanford, and USC, in that order). With Arizona State's softball title in 2011, the conference won its 400th NCAA Championship.

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.^[1] Prior to joining the Pac-10, Scott was Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association.^[2]

Member schools

Full members

The Pac-12 has twelve full member institutions. Football currently is the only sport where the conference is divided evenly into two geographic divisions, the North Division and the South Division. The Pac-12 spans six states in the Western United States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

Unusual for a major conference, the Pac-12's members are spread evenly between 3 regions, with 4 schools each in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Four Corners region.

Institution	Location and Population	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Endowment^[3]	Nickname	Colors	NCAA Team Championships^[4]
University of Arizona	Tucson, Arizona (520,116)	1885	Public	40,223 ^[5]	$563,655,000	Wildcats	^[6]	18
Arizona State University	Tempe, Arizona (161,719)	1885	Public	59,794 ^[7]	$500,667,000	Sun Devils	^[8]	23
University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley, California (112,580)	1868	Public	36,142 ^[9]	$3.031896×10^⁹^[10]	Golden Bears	^[11]	34
University of Colorado	Boulder, Colorado (97,385)	1876	Public	29,278 ^[12]	$1.5×10^⁹	Buffaloes	^[13]	26
University of Oregon	Eugene, Oregon (156,323)	1876	Public	24,447 ^[14]	$477,599,000	Ducks	^[15]	21
Oregon State University	Corvallis, Oregon (54,460)	1868	Public	26,393 ^[16]	$403,606,000	Beavers	^[17]	3
Stanford University	Stanford, California (13,809)	1891	Private	19,945 ^[18]	$1.7035804×10^¹⁰	Cardinal	^[19]	104
University of California, Los Angeles	Los Angeles, California (3,729,621)	1919	Public	40,675 ^[20]	$2.59×10^⁹	Bruins	^[21]	110
University of Southern California	Los Angeles, California (3,729,621)	1880	Private	38,010 ^[22]	$3.488933×10^⁹	Trojans	^[23]	98
University of Utah	Salt Lake City, Utah (186,440)	1850	Public	32,388 ^[24]	$670,411,000	Utes	^[25]	20
University of Washington	Seattle, Washington (612,100)	1861	Public	43,762 ^[26]	$2.111332×10^⁹	Huskies	^[27]	6
Washington State University	Pullman, Washington (29,799)	1890	Public	21,406 ^[28]	$737,409,000	Cougars	^[29]	2
National average					$491,637,000

Affiliate members

The Pac-12 has five affiliate member institutions, four in California and Boise State University in Idaho.

Institution	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Nickname	Colors	Current Conference	Pac-12 Sports
Boise State University	Boise, Idaho	1932	Public	19,667	Broncos	^[30]	Mountain West	wrestling
California Polytechnic State University	San Luis Obispo, California	1901	Public	19,777	Mustangs	^[31]	Big West	men's swimming & diving wrestling
California State University, Bakersfield	Bakersfield, California	1965	Public	7,493	Roadrunners	^[32]	WAC	wrestling
San Diego State University	San Diego, California	1897	Public	34,500	Aztecs	^[33]	Mountain West	men's soccer
University of California, Santa Barbara	Santa Barbara, California	1909	Public	20,559	Gauchos	^[34]	Big West	men's swimming & diving

Cal State Bakersfield initially announced it would become a men's soccer affiliate starting in 2013,^[35] but never went through with those plans, accepting an invitation to become an all-sports member of the Western Athletic Conference, which sponsors men's soccer, also in 2013. The school will maintain its Pac-12 affiliation in wrestling, which the WAC does not sponsor.^[36]

Former members

No school has left the Pac-12 since its founding as the AAWU in 1959. Two members of the PCC were not invited to join the AAWU or its successors.

Institution	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Nickname	Colors	Joined	Left	Current Conference
University of Idaho	Moscow, Idaho	1889	Public	11,957	Vandals	^[37]	1922	1959	WAC (FBS independent in 2013, Sun Belt (football only) Big Sky (all other sports) in 2014)
University of Montana	Missoula, Montana	1893	Public	14,921	Grizzlies	^[38]	1924	1950	Big Sky

Facilities

School	Football stadium	Capacity	Basketball arena	Capacity	Baseball stadium	Capacity
Arizona	Arizona Stadium	56,037^[39]	McKale Center	14,545^[40]	Hi Corbett Field	9,500^[41]
Arizona State	Frank Kush Field at Sun Devil Stadium	71,706^[42]	Wells Fargo Arena	10,754^[43]	Packard Stadium	7,875 ^[44]
California	California Memorial Stadium	62,467^[45]	Haas Pavilion	11,877^[46]	Evans Diamond	2,500^[47]
Colorado	Folsom Field	53,613^[48]	Coors Events Center	11,064^[49]	Non-baseball school
Oregon	Rich Brooks Field at Autzen Stadium	54,000^[50]	Matthew Knight Arena	12,346^[51]	PK Park	3,600^[52]
Oregon State	Reser Stadium	45,674^[53]	Gill Coliseum	9,604^[54]	Goss Stadium at Coleman Field	3,248^[55]
Stanford	Stanford Stadium	50,424^[56]	Maples Pavilion	7,233^[57]	Klein Field at Sunken Diamond	4,000^[58]
UCLA	Rose Bowl	91,936^[59]	Pauley Pavilion	13,800^[60]^[61]	Jackie Robinson Stadium	1,820^[62]
USC	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	93,607^[63]	Galen Center	10,258^[64]	Dedeaux Field	2,500^[65]
Utah	Rice–Eccles Stadium	45,017^[66]	Jon M. Huntsman Center	15,000^[67]	Spring Mobile Ballpark	15,411^[68]
Washington	Husky Stadium	70,138^[69]	Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion	10,000^[70]	Husky Ballpark	2,212^[71]
Washington State	Martin Stadium	32,740^[72]	Beasley Coliseum	11,671^[73]	Bailey-Brayton Field	3,500^[74]

Academics

Eight of the twelve member schools are members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), including all of the conference's California schools.^[75] The only FBS conference with more AAU members is the Big Ten with 11 out of 12 member institutions having AAU membership (to become 13 of 14 with the addition of Rutgers University and University of Maryland, College Park in 2014.)

Additionally, these member schools are also highly ranked nationally and globally by various groups, including the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and Times Higher Education World University Rankings (Times). As of 2011, four Pac-12 institutions are ranked in the top 20 universities in the world, the most out of all conferences outside the Ivy League with Stanford ranked 2nd, UC Berkeley ranked 4th (the highest ranking of any public university), UCLA ranked 12th, and the University of Washington ranked at 16th.^[76]

Schools ranked by revenue

Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights/licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, food and novelties. Total expenses includes coaching/staff, scholarships, buildings/ground, maintenance, utilities and rental fees and all other costs including recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues and insurance costs. Net profit is calculated using the total revenue and total expenses data provided by USA Today, individual institutions and the United States Department of Education.^[77]

Conference Rank (2012)	National Rank (2012)	Institution	2012 Total Revenue from Athletics^[78]	2012 Total Expenses on Athletics^[78]
1	16	University of Oregon	$94,635,829	$89,709,350
2	24	University of Washington	$82,594,783	$73,833,643
3	30	University of Arizona	$78,024,219	$76,802,678
4	32	University of California, Los Angeles	$71,731,776	$71,731,776
5	33	University of California, Berkeley	$71,183,404	$68,578,362
6	40	Arizona State University	$59,855,508	$65,587,903
7	43	Oregon State University	$58,706,837	$57,819,032
8	49	University of Colorado	$57,098,868	$54,257,246
9	59	Washington State University	$42,729,548	$47,962,255
10	49	University of Utah	$40,838,218	$43,719,503
		Stanford University	Not reported (private university)	Not reported (private university)
		University of Southern California	Not reported (private university)	Not reported (private university)

Head coach compensation (Football)

The total pay of head coaches includes university and non-university compensation. This includes base salary, income from contracts, foundation supplements, bonuses and media and radio pay.^[79]

Conference Rank	National Rank	Institution	2013 Head Coach	2013 Total Pay^[80]
		SEC average		$3,306,078
1	25	University of Southern California	Lane Kiffin(former coach)	$2,575,000
2	26	University of Washington	Steve Sarkisian(former coach)	$2,550,000
3	33	University of Utah	Kyle Whittingham	$2,427,100
4	35	University of Colorado	Mike MacIntyre	$2,403,500
5	12	University of California, Berkeley	Sonny Dykes	$2,394,000
6	37	Arizona State University	Todd Graham	$2,303,020
7	38	University of California, Los Angeles	Jim Mora	$2,300,000
		ACC average		$2,277,665
8	40	Washington State University	Mike Leach	$2,250,000
		BIG 10 average		$2,221,153
		BIG 12 average		$2,187,646
9	45	University of Arizona	Rich Rodriguez	$2,150,000
		PAC-12 average		$2,051,860
10	56	University of Oregon	Mark Helfrich	$1,800,000
11	64	Oregon State University	Mike Riley	$1,417,843
		Stanford University	David Shaw	Not provided

History

Locations of current Pac-12 Conference full member institutions.

Pacific Coast Conference

The roots of the Pacific-12 Conference go back to December 2, 1915, when the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was founded at a meeting at the Imperial Hotel in Portland, Oregon.^[81] Charter members were the University of California (now University of California, Berkeley), the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). The conference began play in 1916.

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 (and baseball) – 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.

AAWU (Big Five and Big Six)

Following "pay-for-play" scandals at California, USC, UCLA and Washington, the PCC disbanded in 1959. When those four and Stanford started talking about forming a new conference, retired Admiral Thomas J. Hamilton interceded and suggested the schools consider creating a "power conference." Nicknamed the "Airplane Conference", the five PCC schools would have played with other major academically oriented schools, including Army, Navy, Air Force, Notre Dame, Penn, Penn State, Duke, and Georgia Tech among others. The effort fell through when a Pentagon official vetoed the idea and the service academies backed out.^[82]

On July 1, 1959 the new Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed, with California, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington as charter members. The conference also was popularly known as the Big Five from 1960 to 1962;^[83] when Washington State joined in 1962, the conference was then informally known as the Big Six.^[83]

Pacific-8

Oregon and Oregon State rejoined in 1964. With the addition of the two Oregon schools, the conference became known unofficially as the Pacific-8 (as there already was a Big Eight Conference). Idaho was never invited to join the AAWU; the Vandals were independent for four years until the formation of the Big Sky Conference in 1963.

In 1968, the AAWU formally renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference, or Pac-8 for short. The Pac-8 did not allow a second bowl team from the conference until 1975.^[84]

Pacific-10

In 1978, the conference added WAC schools Arizona and Arizona State, to create the Pacific-10 Conference or Pac-10.

In 1986, the Pac-10 began sponsoring women's athletics. Prior to this time members' women's teams competed with other large universities on the Pacific coast in either the Northern Pacific Conference or the Western Collegiate Athletic Association.

In the mid-1990s the conference expressed interest in admitting the University of Colorado, as well as the University of Texas after the collapse of the Southwest Conference. Texas expressed an interest in joining a strong academic conference, but joined three fellow SWC schools (Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor) to combine with the Big Eight Conference to form the Big 12 Conference in 1996. Colorado elected at the time to remain in the newly formed Big 12 Conference.^[85]

Also in the mid-1990's and for over 15 years, the PAC-10 Conference brand identity and business development models developed and designed by Dave Behar, were a key component of the Conference of Champions integrated with the member institutions on the field and on the court via uniforms, signage, sideline personnel, increased television revenue, business development, Integrated marketing and licensing - triggering the formation of PAC-10 Properties.

Before the addition of Colorado and Utah in 2011, only one Division I conference, the Ivy League, had maintained its membership for a longer time than the 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 began 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 in July 2009. In his first eight months on the job, he saw 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.

Pacific-12

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, or possibly Baylor University and Texas A&M University.^[86]^[87]

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.^[88]^[89] The school later announced it would join the conference a year earlier than previously announced, in the 2011–2012 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.^[90]

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.^[88] Utah was a member of the WAC with Arizona and Arizona State before those two left for the Pac-10. The Utes joined from the Mountain West Conference. Utah is also the first "BCS Buster" to join a BCS conference, having played in (and won) two BCS games beforehand, and one of the first to leave the MWC, of which Utah was a charter member.

On July 27, 2010, the conference unveiled a new logo and announced that the Pac-10 would be renamed the Pac-12 when two new universities would join the conference. On October 21, 2010 the Pac-12 announced that it would be divided into two divisions for purposes of football, with the North Division consisting of the schools in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California and the South Division consisting of Colorado, Utah, and the schools in Arizona and Southern California. On July 1, 2011 the Pac-12 assumed its current alignment when both Colorado and Utah officially joined as full members.

To this day, the Pac-12 claims the PCC's history as its own. It inherited the PCC's berth in the Rose Bowl, and the eight largest schools in the old PCC all eventually joined the new league. However, the older league had a separate charter.

The Pac-12 is one of the founding members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, a conference organized to provide competition in non-revenue Olympic sports. All Pac-12 members participate in at least one MPSF sport (men's and women's indoor track and field both actually have enough participating Pac-12 schools for the conference to sponsor a championship, but the Pac-12 has opted not to do so), and for certain sports, the Pac-12 admits certain schools as Associate Members.

Membership timeline

Full members

NCAA national titles

School	Team			Individual
School	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total
Arizona	8	11	17	62	84	146
Arizona State	11	12	23	61	43	104
California	26	6	32	135	62	197
Colorado	20	2	22	106	12	118
Oregon	13	8	21	78	24	103
Oregon State	3	0	3	32	7	39
Stanford	61	41	102	262	177	439
UCLA	72	38	110	162	100	262
USC	80	14	94	303	60	363
Utah	11	9	20	70	24	94
Washington	0	6	7	55	15	70
Washington State	2	0	2	80	6	86
Conference total	303	140	452	1406	614	2020

through 2012–13 season (updated at end of school year)^[4]^[92]^[93]
combined championships are counted in the men column

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.

USC claims 11 national football championships,^[94] California claims 5,^[95]^[96] Washington and Stanford claim 2,^[97]^[98] and Colorado and UCLA claim 1.^[99]^[100]^[101]^[101]^[102]^[103]

Conference champions

Football

Each of the 10 schools that were conference members before 2011 has its own in-state, conference rivalry. One is an intracity rivalry (UCLA-USC), and another is within the same metropolitan area (California-Stanford). The two schools that joined in 2011 were historic rivals in the Rocky Mountain region, prior to 1962 when they suspended the series. These rivalries (and the name given to the football forms) are:

Oregon–Oregon State (The Civil War, the Platypus Trophy, not officially recognized by the Universities, is awarded to the winning Alumni Association).
California–Stanford (The Big Game, winner gets the Stanford Axe).
Arizona–Arizona State (The Duel in the Desert, winner gets the Territorial Cup).
Colorado-Utah (Rumble in the Rockies).
Washington–Washington State (The Apple Cup game, since 1962 the winner gets the Apple Cup trophy).
UCLA–USC (The winner of the annual game between these teams gets the Victory Bell; the game itself does not have an actual name, but is commonly referred to by each side as either the "SC Game" or the "UCLA Game").

The two newest members, Colorado and Utah, have a football rivalry as well that had been dormant since 1962 – both were conference rivals previously in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (now a Division II conference), and later the now-defunct Mountain States Conference (also known as the Skyline Conference). Even after Colorado joined what became the Big 12 in 1948 (the conference was then known popularly as the Big 7 Conference), the two schools continued their football rivalry for over a decade before ending it after the 1962 season. With the two schools being placed in the same division for football starting in 2011, the rivalry was revived with their 58th meeting during the 2011 Pac-12 season. Colorado leads the series 31–24–3.

There are other notable football rivalries within the Pac-12.

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 California. But for both Stanford and California, their second biggest game is USC.^[104] California 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-12. California 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. The Oregon – Washington rivalry is sometimes referred to as the Border War.^[105]

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.^[106]^[107]

USC and Notre Dame have an intersectional rivalry (See Notre Dame – USC rivalry). The games in odd-numbered years in 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.

Utah and BYU have a fierce rivalry that goes back to 1896 that until recently was an intra-conference rivalry nicknamed the Holy War.

Colorado also has a rivalry with in-state rival Colorado State which is called the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

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.

Divisions

On October 21, 2010 the Pacific-10 announced the football divisions to be used when Utah and Colorado move from the Mountain West Conference and Big 12 Conference respectively, forming the new Pac-12 effective July 1, 2011. Divided into "North" and "South" divisions, each has the following schools in the divisions only for football – a North Division comprising the Pacific Northwest and Bay Area schools, and a South Division comprising the Mountain Time Zone and Los Angeles schools.^[108] However, the four California schools (gray background below) will still play each other every season.

North Division	South Division
Oregon	Arizona
Oregon State	Arizona State
Washington	Colorado
Washington State	Utah
California	UCLA
Stanford	USC

A nine-game conference schedule is being maintained, with five games within the assigned division and four games 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 each year, facing the same school every other year on average.

The Pacific-12 Football Championship Game features the North Division Champion against the South Division Champion. The divisional champions are determined based on record in all conference games (both divisional and cross-divisional). The Championship Game is played at the home stadium of the divisional champion with the best record in all conference games (both divisional and cross-divisional).^[109] The first Championship Game was played on December 2, 2011 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, between Oregon and UCLA with the Ducks winning 49-31 over the Bruins.

Bowl games

Starting in the 2014 college football season, the following is the bowl selection order and the teams involved in each bowl:

Pick	Name	Location	Opposing conference	Opposing pick
1	Rose Bowl	Pasadena, California	Big Ten	1
2	Alamo Bowl	San Antonio, Texas	Big 12	3
3	Holiday Bowl	San Diego, California	Big Ten	4
4	Fight Hunger Bowl	Santa Clara, California	Big Ten	6
5	Sun Bowl	El Paso, Texas	ACC	4
6	Las Vegas Bowl	Las Vegas, Nevada	MWC	1
7	Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl	Tempe, Arizona	Big 12	5

Rivalries in other sports

All of the intra-conference rivalries in football are carried over into other sports.

During the 1970s, UCLA and Notre Dame had an intense men's basketball rivalry. For several years, it was one of a small number of non-conference games in Division I basketball that was played twice a season (home-and-away). 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; moving to the ACC in 2013).

In baseball, there are intense rivalries between the four southern schools. Arizona, Arizona State, and USC 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-12 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 follows: USC and UCLA (the L.A. teams), Arizona and Arizona State (the Arizona teams), California and Stanford (the Bay Area teams), Washington and Washington State (the Washington teams), Oregon and Oregon State (the Oregon teams), and Colorado and Utah (the Rocky Mountain 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. Effective in the 2011-12 season, with the expansion into 12 teams, a 10-year rotation model has been developed to maintain the existing 18-game conference schedule. Teams remained paired with their regional rival. Each school plays its regional rival and six other teams both home and away, and the other four teams once – two at home and two away. The newest members, Colorado and Utah, are paired with each other. The single play opponents rotate every two years.^[110]

Commissioners

PCC

Edwin N. Atherton 1940–44
Victor O. Schmidt 1944–59