The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of nine member schools across the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.
All of the current full members are private, faith-based institutions. Seven members are Catholic Church affiliates, with four of these schools being Jesuit institutions. Pepperdine is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ. The conference's newest member, the University of the Pacific (which rejoined in 2013 after a 42-year absence), is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, although it has been financially independent of the church since 1969.[1]
History
West Coast Conference logo from 2011 to 2019
The league was chartered by five northern California institutions, four from the San Francisco 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. After more than three decades as the WCAC, the name was shortened in the summer of 1989, dropping the word "Athletic."[2][3][4]
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 Pacific-10 Conference (now the Pac-12 Conference) had remained unchanged for a longer period.
The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be a mid-major athletic conference. The conference sponsors 15 sports but does not include football as one of them. San Diego (Pioneer Football League) is the only school 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. Although the WCAC's stature declined in the 1960s, San Francisco 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. As San Francisco was from the 1940s to the early 1980s, Gonzaga has gained recognition as a major basketball power, despite the WCC being a mid-major conference. Gonzaga has been to 23 consecutive NCAA tournaments—the longest streak for any school in the Western United States, the third-longest active streak, and the sixth-longest streak in history. They have also been to all but one WCC tournament final since 1995, and have played for the conference title every year since 1998. In 2016–17, the Bulldogs advanced all the way to the national championship game—the deepest run by a conference team since San Francisco went to three consecutive Final Fours from 1955 to 1957. The Bulldogs reached the title game again in 2021, this time entering the game unbeaten, but again losing, this time to Baylor.
Saint Mary's has also made marks for the conference as the Gaels appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, and 2021 (making the "Sweet Sixteen" in 2010).
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. Even so, the two additions, Brigham Young University and University of the Pacific are both faith-based institutions, although Pacific has not been financially sponsored by the United Methodist Church since 1969.
On August 31, 2010, 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.[5][6] BYU's arrival gave the WCC another school with a rich basketball tradition. The Cougars made the NCAA Tournament six straight times before failing to do so in 2013, and had made 26 NCAA Tournament appearances before joining the conference.
On March 27, 2012, the University of the Pacific (UOP), a charter member of the conference in 1952, accepted an invitation to rejoin the WCC, effective July 1, 2013. The move removed Pacific from the Big West Conference back to the WCC, which Pacific left in 1971 in order to pursue its interests in football that it later abandoned in 1995.[7]
The WCC became the first Division I conference to adopt a conference-wide diversity hiring commitment, announcing the "Russell Rule", based on the NFL'sRooney Rule and named after Basketball Hall of Famer and social activist Bill Russell, a graduate of charter and current conference member San Francisco, on August 2, 2020. In its announcement, the WCC stated:[8]
The “Russell Rule” requires each member institution to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant coach position in the athletic department.
In September 2021, BYU announced that it would leave the WCC in 2023 for the Big 12 Conference.[9] The WCC announced on July 19, 2022 that it would add men's water polo starting in 2023–24. Full members Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, and Santa Clara were joined by affiliates Air Force, California Baptist, and San Jose State.[10]
^Pacific left the WCC after the 1970–71 school year to join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now known as the Big West Conference); and rejoined the WCC, effective with the 2013–14 school year.
^The Pepperdine campus has a Malibu mailing address but lies entirely within unincorporated Los Angeles County.
^Both schools will compete as associate members in men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s golf, women’s cross country and women’s rowing. Additionally, Oregon State will compete as an associate in men’s soccer and softball, while Washington State will compete as an associate in women’s tennis and men’s cross country
^Includes only enrollment at the main Pullman campus. Washington State has four other physical campuses.
^The UCSB campus has a Santa Barbara mailing address, but is outside the city limits in the unincorporated community of Isla Vista.
^The UNLV campus lies outside the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated community of Paradise. The U.S. Postal Service considers all unincorporated areas within the Las Vegas Valley to have a Las Vegas address.
^The school started the process of rebranding its athletic program as Bakersfield in 2023–24.
^USIU dropped its athletics program following the end of the 1990–91 school year.
Membership timeline
Full members Associate member (basketball)Associate member (other sports)Other Conference Other Conference
Due to space limitations, the following affiliations are not linked within the timeline:
Fresno State had dual membership with the California Collegiate Athletic Association during their tenure in the WCAC before committing full-time with the CCAA from 1957 to 1969:
Pepperdine was an independent school for the 1954–55 season.
UC Santa Barbara joined what was then the Big West Conference in 1969. It left in 1974 to become independent and returned in 1976.
USIU was a full independent after departing the WCC conference before dropping all collegiate athletics in 1991.
Oregon State and Washington State have a two-year agreement with the WCC for associate memberships in various sports. It has not been announced which conference the associate sports will join in 2026.
Sports
The West Coast Conference sponsors championship competition in seven men's and nine women's NCAA sanctioned sports, with the newest addition being men's water polo in 2023–24.[12]
^ abAt the time Oregon State and Washington State were announced as incoming associate members for 2024–25 and 2025–26, they had a 30-day window to potentially add baseball to their membership. The window expired on January 26, 2024 with no announcement from the WCC or either school.[13]
Notable sports figures
Some of the famous athletes who played collegiately for WCC schools and coaches and executives that attended WCC schools, include:
Basketball:
Mahershala Ali, two-time Academy Award-winning actor who played basketball at Saint Mary's under his birth name of Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore
Dan Dickau, former NBA player (2002-2008) (Gonzaga)
Brandon Davies, former NBA player who currently plays in the Liga ACB. During his sophomore year, he helped BYU rise as high as #3 in the national polls before being suspended for an honor code violation. He was reinstated for his junior and senior seasons and named to the All West Coast Conference team. (2009-2013) (BYU)
Rick Adelman, former NBA head coach (Loyola Marymount)
Dennis Awtrey, former NBA player (1970-1982) (Santa Clara)
Richie Frahm, former NBA player (2003-2008) (Gonzaga)
Hank Gathers, college player who led the nation in scoring and rebounding in 1990 before collapsing and dying during the WCC tournament (Loyola Marymount)
Dennis Johnson, Basketball Hall of Famer, former NBA player (1976-1990) 1979 NBA Finals MVP and 5-Time NBA All-Star. Coached the LA Clippers for one season (2003) (Pepperdine)
Adam Morrison, former NBA player known for being the 3rd overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft by the Charlotte Bobcats and the 2005-06 National College Co-Player of the Year (Gonzaga)
Austin Daye, former NBA player, also with European professional experience. Selected with the 15th pick of the 2009 NBA Draft (Gonzaga)
Filip Petrušev, NBA draft 2021, Philadelphia 76ers; currently plays for Crvena zvezda of the Adriatic League and EuroLeague (Gonzaga)
Kurt Rambis, former NBA player (1981-1995) and NBA head coach (1999 and 2009-2011) (Santa Clara)
Bill Russell, Basketball Hall of Fame Player (12-Time All-Star, 5-Time NBA MVP, and 11-Time NBA Champion) and coach, 1956 College Player of the Year (San Francisco)
Theo Epstein, President of the Chicago Cubs and former general manager of the Boston Red Sox (San Diego – School of Law only; earned bachelor's degree at Yale)
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)
Terry Schroeder – former NCAA player, two-time Olympic silver medal winner (1984 and 1988), and Head Coach of silver medal winning men's water polo team at the 2008 Summer Olympics (Pepperdine)[14][15]
Mike Whitmarsh – winner of 28 AVP beach volleyball events, as well as a silver medal in the sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics (San Diego – volleyball and basketball; however, men's volleyball is not a WCC sport)
Taylor Sander – member of the American US Indoor Volleyball team and a player for Blu Volleyball Verona. Led US national team to an upset of Brazil to win the FIVB World League 2014. Was named best outside spiker and tournament MVP. He holds the BYU all-time single-match record for service aces (nine) and career service aces (182). In the rally-scoring era ranks No. 1 at BYU in career kills (1,743), career attempts (3,464), career service aces (182), season attempts (1,021 in 2014), season service aces (55 in 2014) and aces in a match (nine).[16] (BYU – volleyball; however Men's Indoor volleyball isn't a WCC sport)
Tom Fears – wide receiver and defensive back; Los Angeles Rams (1948–1956). The first Mexican-born player to be drafted into the National Football League. Broke the NFL's single-season record in 1949 with 77 receptions for 1013 yards, and again in 1950 with 84 receptions for 1116 yards. Career totals include 400 receptions for 5,397 yards and 38 touchdowns. Pro Football Hall of Fame (1970). (Santa Clara)
Pete Carroll – current coach of the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL, former head coach of USC Trojans of the NCAA. Led Seattle to Super Bowl XLVIII, where they defeated the Denver Broncos. Led the USC Trojans to 6 BCS Bowl victories.[17] (Pacific)
Ted Leland – a first team PCAA selection as a defensive end in 1969. Current athletic director at Pacific. Served as athletic director at Stanford University for 12 years, leading them to the NACDA Directors' Cup from 1995 to 2005.[18] (Pacific)
John Fassel – special teams coordinator for the St. Louis Rams of the NFL.[19] (Pacific)
Hue Jackson – former head coach of the Cleveland Browns, former offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, former head coach of the Oakland Raiders.[20] (Pacific)
