HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i is the Big West Conference's newest member, joining nine other universities, all of whom are located in the state of California. UH returns to the conference which its women's sports called home from 1984-96.
Below is a short biography of the Big West Conference.
ABOUT THE BIG WEST CONFERENCE
The Big West Conference enters the 2012-13 season in its 44
th year of operation. There are 16 conference-sponsored sports in the Big West. Women's sports are comprised of soccer, volleyball, cross country, basketball, golf, tennis, softball, track and field and water polo. Men's sports include soccer, cross country, basketball, golf, tennis, baseball and track and field.
Over four-plus decades, the conference has striven for athletic and academic success, and has accomplished those goals to a large degree. The conference has undergone membership changes throughout its long history, the most recent ones significantly enhancing its stability.
Following the 2004-05 academic year, Idaho and Utah State left the Big West, creating an eight-team league comprised of all California schools: Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific. A ninth school from the Golden State – UC Davis – joined the Big West on July 1, 2007 after completing a four-year reclassification process from Division II to Division I. Hawai'i became the conference's 10
th member on July 1, 2012. Prior to UH's arrival, the Big West owned the distinction of being the nation's only conference with its entire membership located in one state.
No matter what the membership makeup, the Big West always has stacked up well against the rest of the nation. In fact, the conference has claimed 17 team national championships in its history, including six in women's volleyball, two in baseball, one in softball and one in men's basketball. Men's soccer was the newest sport added to the list when UC Santa Barbara claimed the national title in 2006.
Individually, Big West athletes also have claimed several titles in such sports as swimming, track and field, and golf. In fact, UC Irvine's Charles Jock was the 27
th Big West student-athlete to capture a crown when he won the 800-meters competition at this past year's national outdoor meet.
The conference's overall success has been measured through the results of such competitions as the Learfield Sports Directors Cup. Presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the Cup gauges the best overall collegiate athletics programs in NCAA Division I according to their finishes in NCAA postseason play. In 2011-12, UC Irvine (No. 69) placed second among NCAA Division I non-football playing schools and finished in the top five among Division I-AAA schools, and in the top 100 overall, for the sixth straight year The Big West had as many as five schools ranked in the top 100 in 2006-07 and 2007-08.
Big West athletes also have succeeded on a worldwide stage in such international competitions as the Olympics, Pan-American Games and World Cup. A sampling of athletes who have competed at the Olympic level include Long Beach State's Tara Cross-Battle, Tayyiba Haneef and Danielle Scott (women's indoor volleyball), Pacific's Jennifer Joines (women's indoor volleyball), and Misty May (women's beach volleyball); UC Santa Barbara's Jason Lezak (men's swimming), Cal State Fullerton's Leon Wood and Bruce Bowen (men's basketball) and Jenny Topping (softball); Pacific's Elaina Oden (women's volleyball) and Brad Schumacher (men's swimming); UC Irvine's Steve Scott (men's track and field); and Cal Poly's Stephanie Brown-Trafton and Sharon Day (women's track and field).
Brown-Trafton won the gold medal in the discus at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. May won gold in beach volleyball for the second consecutive Olympics, and Joines helped her indoor volleyball team capture silver. Lezak swam the fastest anchor leg in history to help the United States win the 4x100 freestyle relay, helping teammate Michael Phelps eventually break the record for most gold medals in an Olympic Games. UC Santa Barbara men's soccer alum Tony Lochhead competed for his native New Zealand at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
THE BEGINNING
The Big West Conference was formed as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association on July 1, 1969. However, the unofficial history of the conference pre-dates that point of time, extending back to 1967.
Cal State LA, Fresno State, Long Beach State and San Diego State were members of the California Collegiate Athletic Association, long recognized as the nation's premier college circuit.
That conference was classified college division, and therein lay a major source of dissatisfaction. Since 1963, the four institutions had captured 16 national titles. The number swelled to 21 if the mythical football championships were included.
With no more territory to conquer at the college division, a step up to university ranks had to be considered.
At the time, San Jose State, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific were members of the West Coast Athletic Conference but were enduring a strained relationship due to the limit of conference sports sponsored. That, plus the fact that national football figures PAC and SJSU were already competing as independents, led the schools to pursue a more broad-based conference alignment.
Therefore, officials of the seven colleges and universities assembled as a body in May of 1969, tied up loose ends and less than two months later the PCAA was born.
Direction in the early days of the conference came from such men as Dr. Stephen Goodspeed, vice-chancellor at UC Santa Barbara, the first president and chairman of the founders committee. J. Kenneth Fagans provided guidance as the league's first commissioner. Jesse T. Hill, one of the nation's most successful directors of athletics at USC, followed Fagans as the conference's first full-time commissioner.
SJSU was already labeled a university division school in all sports when the PCAA emerged. San Diego State and Pacific were granted university division status in the summer of 1970 and the remaining conference members shed the college division moniker by 1972.
The original PCAA lineup changed in the early years and by 1975, charter members UCSB and CSLA had dropped football and SDSU left the conference in football only. In 1974, Cal State Fullerton moved into the conference. By 1977, UC Irvine joined the Big West and UCSB was back in - both as non-football playing institutions - while Utah State became the first non-California member of the circuit, transforming the PCAA into a regional conference.
UNLV (1981) and New Mexico State (1984) soon followed suit, bringing the league's membership to 10 universities.
In the fall of 1983, the PCAA became the first western conference to incorporate women's athletic programs into the conference. Charter women's members UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UNLV competed in five championships.
By the end of 1985, Pacific, Hawai'i, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, San Diego State, Fresno State and San Jose State had joined the women's conference. The PCAA upped its women's sponsorship to eight championships.
The PCAA began its 20th year of existence in 1988 by changing its name to the Big West Conference. With the inclusion of the states of Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico, the term -Big West- more accurately represented the conference. Since the name Big West has been used, conference teams have won nine NCAA team championships, establishing the Big West's winning identity that is recognized nationally. Even though the Big West is again an all-California conference, the name Big West still embodies the identity, history, and tradition of excellence the conference has achieved, making it a well-known entity in collegiate athletics.
BIG WEST MEMBERSHIP
School Season Joined
Cal Poly 1996-97
Cal State Fullerton 1974-75
Cal State Northridge 2001-02
Hawai'i 1984-85 and 2012-13
Long Beach State 1969-70
UC Davis 2007-08
UC Irvine 1977-78
UC Riverside 2001-02
UC Santa Barbara 1969-70 and '76-77
Pacific 1971-72
