West Coast Conference

The West Coast Conference (WCC) is a college sports conference (group of sports teams that play against each other) in the western United States. There are many sports in the conference. The conference does not have football, and only one of its current members has a football team.

The WCC began in 1952 when five schools in and around the San Francisco Bay Area formed the California Basketball Association. The league was then called the West Coast Athletic Conference from 1956 to 1989.

All nine of its current members were founded by churches. Seven of the colleges are Catholic schools. Only the University of the Pacific, which was started by Methodists, no longer gets money from a church.

Members

The WCC has 9 members, all located in West Coast states. Two other schools, one in a West Coast state and the other in the inland west, will join in 2025. Gonzaga will leave in 2026 for the Pac-12 Conference.

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Joined WCC
Gonzaga University	Spokane, Washington	1881	Private Jesuit	Bulldogs	1979
Loyola Marymount University	Los Angeles, California	1870	Private Jesuit/Marymount/St. Joseph	Lions	1955
University of the Pacific	Stockton, California	1851	Private (Methodist)^[a]	Tigers	1952, 2013^[b]
Pepperdine University	Malibu, California^[c]	1937	Private Churches of Christ	Waves	1955
University of Portland	Portland, Oregon	1901	Private Congregation of Holy Cross	Pilots	1976
Saint Mary's College of California	Moraga, California	1863	Private De La Salle Brothers	Gaels	1952
University of San Diego	San Diego, California	1949	Private Diocesan Catholic	Toreros	1979
University of San Francisco	San Francisco, California	1855	Private Jesuit	Dons	1952
Santa Clara University	Santa Clara, California	1851	Private Jesuit	Broncos	1952

Future members

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Joining WCC
Grand Canyon University	Phoenix, Arizona	1949	Private for-profit^[d] Nondenominational	Antelopes	2025
Seattle University	Seattle, Washington	1891	Private Jesuit	Redhawks	2025^[e]

↑ Pacific remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church, but has received no financial support from the church since 1969.
↑ Pacific left the conference in 1971 and came back in 2013.
↑ Pepperdine's campus has a Malibu mailing address, but is outside the city limits in unincorporated Los Angeles County.
↑ Grand Canyon's for-profit status is disputed. The U.S. Department of Education considers it for-profit, but the Internal Revenue Service, the NCAA, and the state of Arizona all treat it as a nonprofit.
↑ Seattle had been a WCC member from 1971 to 1980.

Associate members

The WCC has six "associate members", four of which play one sport in the conference. All are full members of other Division I conferences. The others are Oregon State and Washington State, which were left behind by the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference in 2024. They are housing most of their sports in the WCC through the 2025–26 school year. After that time, the Pac-12 will resume play with at least six new members, among them current WCC member Gonzaga.

Current

School	Location	Founded	Type	Joined	Sport	Current main conference	Nickname
United States Air Force Academy (Air Force)	USAF Academy, Colorado	1954	Federal	2023	Men's water polo	Mountain West	Falcons
California Baptist University	Riverside, California	1950	Private (Baptist)	2023	Men's water polo	WAC	Lancers
Creighton University	Omaha, Nebraska	1878	Private Jesuit	2010	Women's rowing	Big East	Bluejays
Oregon State University	Corvallis, Oregon	1868	Public	2024	Multiple	Pac-12	Beavers
San Jose State University	San Jose, California	1857	Public (CSU)	2023	Men's water polo	Mountain West	Spartans
Washington State University	Pullman, Washington	1880	Public	2024	Multiple	Pac-12	Cougars

References

"West Coast Conference". wccsports.com. Retrieved 2014-06-10.

[1] Pacific remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church, but has received no financial support from the church since 1969.

[Pacific-2] Pacific left the conference in 1971 and came back in 2013.

[3] Pepperdine's campus has a Malibu mailing address, but is outside the city limits in unincorporated Los Angeles County.

[4] Grand Canyon's for-profit status is disputed. The U.S. Department of Education considers it for-profit, but the Internal Revenue Service, the NCAA, and the state of Arizona all treat it as a nonprofit.

[5] Seattle had been a WCC member from 1971 to 1980.

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