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 10 member schools across the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.
All of the full members are private institutions, with all but one being faith-based. Seven members are Catholic Church affiliates, with four of these schools being Jesuit institutions. Pepperdine is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ. 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. The only secular institution is the University of Denver, which joined in 2026. Although founded by Methodists, it has been nonsectarian from its founding.
History
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".West Coast Conference Official Athletics Site – On Campus . Wccsports.cstv.com (July 1, 2011).
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 (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. Seattle made the NCAA championship game in 1958 behind Elgin Baylor who went on to be a revolutionary player in the NBA. 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, the rise of now-former member Gonzaga 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. 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.
The WCC became the first Division I conference to adopt a conference-wide diversity hiring commitment, announcing the "Russell Rule", based on the NFL's Rooney 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:
In September 2021, BYU announced that it would leave the WCC in 2023 for the Big 12 Conference. 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.
2020s conference realignment On December 22, 2023, the WCC announced that Oregon State University and Washington State University, the two schools left behind by the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference, would become affiliate members in all sports apart from football and baseball through 2025–26. This was followed in May 2024 with the announcement that Grand Canyon University and Seattle University would join in July 2025, with Seattle rejoining after a 45-year absence. On October 1, 2024, Gonzaga announced it would be leaving the conference to join the Pac-12 as a full member.
On November 1, 2024, Grand Canyon announced it was declining the WCC's invitation to join the conference in 2025, instead accepting an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference no later than 2026. On September 2, 2025, after coming off their first NCAA March Madness appearance in their first year of eligibility, the WCC extended an offer to the University of California, San Diego to join in 2027. At the time of announcement, UCSD was set to be the WCC's first public school since 1979, when the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada) left to join the Big Sky Conference.
On October 31, 2025, the University of Denver (DU) announced it would join the West Coast Conference in 2026. DU became the first university in the Rocky Mountain Region to join the conference since BYU left in 2023. It is also the first secular institution to be a full conference member since Nevada's departure; although the school was founded by Methodists, it has been nonsectarian from its founding. The WCC was not done with expansion, announcing on April 10, 2026 that the University of California, Santa Barbara, which had been a member from 1964–1969, would rejoin the conference in 2027 alongside UCSD. This would bring the WCC's full membership to a record of 12.
Member schools Current full members The WCC is made up entirely of private institutions. Before the Methodist-founded but nonsectarian Denver joined in 2026, all were Christian institutions, and all but two of those are Catholic. Pacific is affiliated with the United Methodist Church while Pepperdine is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. This will change in July 2027 with the arrival of the public UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara.
Institution Location Founded Type Enrollment Endowment Nickname Joined Colors University of Denver Denver, Colorado 1864 Nonsectarian 12,894 $1,090.00 Pioneers 2026 Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California 1865 Catholic 10,179 $611.3 Lions 1955 University of the Pacific Stockton, California 1851 UnitedMethodist 6,652 $568.2 Tigers 1952 2013 Pepperdine University Malibu, California 1937 Churchesof Christ 6,000 $1,205 Waves 1955 Portland, Oregon 1901 Catholic 3,200 $297.2 Pilots 1976 Saint Mary's College of California Moraga, California 1863 Catholic 2,775 $215.0 Gaels 1952 San Diego, California 1949 Catholic 7,548 $652.5 Toreros 1979 San Francisco, California 1855 Catholic 10,017 $478.5 Dons 1952 Santa Clara University Santa Clara, California 1851 Catholic 8,300 $1,471.0 Broncos 1952 Seattle University Seattle, Washington 1891 Catholic $241.2 Redhawks 1971 2025
Notes
Future full members Institution Location Founded Type Enrollment Endowment Nickname Joining Colors Currentconference University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California 1960 Public $1,589.86 Tritons 2027 Big West (BWC) University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California 1891 26,421 $665.9 Gauchos 2027
Notes
Associate members Associate member becoming a full WCC member in 2027. Members departing for the Big West Conference in 2027. Institution Location Founded Type Enrollment Endowment Nickname Joined WCCsport(s) Primaryconference USAF Academy, Colorado 1954 Federal 4,304 $98.9 Falcons 2023 Mountain West (MW) Augusta University Augusta, Georgia 1828 Public 9,274 $364.8 Jaguars 2025 Peach Belt (PBC) Creighton University Omaha, Nebraska 1878 Catholic 8,910 $713.0 Bluejays 2010 Big East San Jose State University San Jose, California 1857 Public 33,025 $197.1 Spartans 2023 Mountain West (MW) Davis, California 1905 Public 40,848 $2,172.7 Aggies 2026 Beach volleyball Mountain West (MW) 2026 La Jolla, California 1960 Public 42,376 $1,589.86 Tritons 2026 Big West (BWC)
Notes
Former full members Of the former members of the WCC, only BYU (Latter Day Saints) and Gonzaga (Catholic, more specifically Jesuit) are Christian institutions. The other five, including returning member UC Santa Barbara, are all public universities.
Institution Location Founded Type Nickname Joined Left Currentconference Brigham Young University Provo, Utah 1875 LDS Cougars 2011 2023 Big 12 Fresno, California 1911 Public Bulldogs 1955 1957 Pac-12 Gonzaga University Spokane, Washington 1887 Catholic<br/ > Bulldogs 1979 2026 Pac-12 Santa Barbara, California 1891 Public Gauchos 1964 1969 Big West (BWC) Reno, Nevada 1874 Public Wolf Pack 1969 1979 Mountain West (MW) Las Vegas, Nevada 1957 Public Rebels 1969 1975 Mountain West (MW) San Jose State University San Jose, California 1857 Public Spartans 1952 1969 Mountain West (MW)
Notes
Former associate members