Pacific West Conference


The Pacific West Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II level. Member institutions are located in California and Hawai'i.
The conference sponsors the following sports: basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and track & field outdoor for both men and women; baseball for men only; softball and volleyball for women only. The newest PacWest sports are men's tennis and women's golf, both added in 2012–13.

History

Formation

The PacWest was formed in 1992 when the Great Northwest Conference merged with the Continental Divide Conference, in response to the departures of several members and new NCAA legislation requiring conferences to have at least six members. In addition, some Hawai'i-based colleges joined the new conference.
At one point the conference expanded to 16 members, but in 2001, member schools from Washington, Alaska, California, and Oregon left to form the new Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
With the departure of the final two mainland members, Montana State University–Billings and Western New Mexico University, to join the Heartland Conference in 2005, the four Hawai'i universities played one season as “independents” after receiving a waiver from the NCAA to keep the conference in name, while searching for new members, because in order to be eligible for conference membership in the NCAA, a conference must consist of a minimum of six member institutions who sponsor at least ten sports, with two team sports for each gender.

New PacWest Conference

To comply with conference membership regulations, Hawai'i Pacific, Chaminade, BYU–Hawai'i and Hawai'i–Hilo added new sports to their programs. In July 2005, the Pacific West Conference voted to admit Notre Dame de Namur University as a provisional member, as it moved from the NAIA to the NCAA Division II. Grand Canyon University, formerly an NCAA D-II Independent, also joined the conference, returning the Pacific West Conference to full conference status with six members. Dixie State College of Utah joined the conference for the 2007–08 season. In 2008, it was announced that Academy of Art University would join the conference in the 2009–10 season as the conference's 8th member. In 2009 it was announced that Dominican University of California would join the conference in the 2009–10 season as the conference's 9th member. That same year, the conference announced it would sponsor baseball as its 11th sport, with Hawai'i Pacific University, University of Hawai'i–Hilo, Dixie State College of Utah, and Grand Canyon University competing on a Division II level.

Recent expansion and contraction

The conference began expansion in 2010 when the PacWest invited California Baptist University, from the NAIA's Golden State Athletic Conference to join the conference beginning with the 2011–12 school year. On June 1, 2011, the conference announced the additions of Azusa Pacific University, Fresno Pacific University and Point Loma Nazarene University, all members of the GSAC, which began Pacific West Conference play during the 2012–13 season. Holy Names University was also added to the PacWest in 2011, but did not begin the NCAA Division II membership process from the NAIA until July 13, 2012. As part of the transition process from NAIA to NCAA Holy Names remained ineligible for NCAA postseason play through 2015–16. On November 27, 2012, Grand Canyon announced it would leave the PacWest after the 2012–13 school year to accept an invitation to join the Division I Western Athletic Conference. In July 2016, it was announced that Biola University would join the PacWest for the 2017–18 season. In October 2016, Dixie State announced that it would transition from the PacWest to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after the 2017–18 school year. On January 13, 2017, California Baptist announced that it will leave the PacWest in favor of moving up to NCAA Division I. On March 23, 2020, Notre Dame de Namur announced the cessation of all its athletics after the 2019–20 school year.

Membership

Current members

  1. Dropping athletics after 2019–20 academic year.

    Affiliate members

Former members

Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1992 till:2024
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:20 top:5
Colors =
id:line value:black
id:Full value:rgb # all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb # non-football
id:AssocF value:rgb # football-only
id:AssocOS value:rgb # associate
PlotData =
width:15 textcolor:darkblue shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:FullxF from:1992 till:2001 text:Alaska–Anchorage
bar:2 color:FullxF from:1992 till:2001 text:Alaska–Fairbanks
bar:3 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2017 text:BYU–Hawai'i
bar:4 color:FullxF from:1992 till:end text:Chaminade
bar:5 color:FullxF from:1992 till:end text:Hawai'i–Hilo
bar:6 color:FullxF from:1998 till:end text:Hawai'i Pacific
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1992 till:2005 text:Montana State–Billings
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1992 till:1996 text:Portland State
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1992 till:2001 text:Seattle Pacific
bar:10 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2001 text:Central Washington
bar:11 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2001 text:Humboldt State
bar:12 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2001 text:Saint Martin's
bar:13 color:FullxF from:1999 till:2001 text:Seattle U
bar:14 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2001 text:Western Oregon
bar:15 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2005 text:Western New Mexico
bar:16 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2001 text:Western Washington
bar:17 color:FullxF from:1999 till:2001 text:Northwest Nazarene
bar:18 color:FullxF from:1992 till: 1994 from: 2005 till:2013 text:Grand Canyon
bar:19 color:FullxF from:2006 till:2020 text:Notre Dame de Namur
bar:20 color:FullxF from:2007 till:2018 text:Dixie State
bar:21 color:FullxF from:2009 till:end text:Academy of Art
bar:22 color:FullxF from:2009 till:end text:Dominican
bar:23 color:FullxF from:2011 till:2018 text:California Baptist
bar:24 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:Azusa Pacific
bar:25 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:Fresno Pacific
bar:26 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:Holy Names
bar:27 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:Point Loma Nazarene
bar:28 color:AssocOS from:2013 till:end text:Sonoma State
bar:29 color:AssocOS from:2014 till:end text:Cal State Los Angeles
bar:30 color:AssocOS from:2014 till:end text:Cal State Stanislaus
bar:31 color:FullxF from:2015 till:end text:Concordia–Irvine
bar:32 color:FullxF from:2017 till:end text:Biola
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1993

National championships

BYU–Hawai'i
Grand Canyon
Hawai'i Pacific
Academy of Art
SportMen'sWomen's
Baseball
Basketball
Cross Country
Golf
Soccer
Softball
Tennis
Track & Field Outdoor
Volleyball

Men's sponsored sports by school

Women's sponsored sports by school

Other sponsored sports by school

Conference facilities

TeamBasketball ArenaCapacity
Academy of ArtKezar Pavilion4,000
Azusa PacificFelix Events Center3,500
BiolaRichard Chase Gymnasium2,400
ChaminadeMcCabe Gymnasium2,800
Concordia–IrvineCU Arena2,400
DominicanConlan Center1,285
Fresno PacificFresno Pacific University Special Events Center1,500
Hawai'i PacificBlaisdell Center
St. Andrew's Priory		7,500
530
Hawai'i–HiloAfook-Chinen Civic Auditorium3,800
Holy NamesTobin Gymnasium300
Notre Dame de NamurWalter Gleasen Gym800
Point Loma NazareneGolden Gym1,600