Pacific West Conference

The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is an intercollegiate college athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division II. The PacWest was formed in 1992 when the Great Northwest Conference (a men's conference) merged with the Continental Divide Conference (a women's conference containing some of the same members), in response to several member-departures and new NCAA legislation requiring conferences to have at least six members. Member institutions are currently located in California, Arizona, and Hawaii.

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. In 2005, the non-Hawaii schools left to join the Heartland Conference, leaving the Pacific West Conference two teams short of the NCAA membership requirement for voting rights and automatic qualifying status for tournaments. In July, 2005, the Pacific West Conference voted to admit Notre Dame de Namur University as a provisional member, as it moves from the NAIA to the NCAA Division II. Grand Canyon University, formerly an NCAA DII Independent, will also join the conference, returning the Pacific West Conference to full conference status with six members.

The conference sponsors the following sports: Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's Golf, Women's Tennis, Women's Volleyball and Softball. Brigham Young University-Hawaii has won national championships in Men's and Women's Tennis and Women's Volleyball. Hawaii Pacific University has also won national championships in Volleyball.

On July 6th it was announced that Dixie State College would join the PacWest for the 2007-08 season. [http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060706/NEWS01/60706013 1]

On April 17th it was announced that the PacWest would sponsor baseball as its 11th sport, in addition to the announcement that Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California would join the PacWest in the 2009-2010 Season as the conference's 8th member. [http://www.pacificwestsports.org/sports/baseball/2008/news/PWCADDSBASEBALL]

Current members

The league currently has 8 full members:

New Pacific West Conference

Hawai’i Pacific University, along with the three other Division II schools in Hawai‘i, welcome Notre Dame de Namur University and Grand Canyon University to the Pacific West Conference beginning in fall of 2006. With the departure of Montana State-Billings University and Western New Mexico University last year, the four Hawai‘i schools played this past season as “independents”, receiving a waiver from the NCAA to keep the conference in name, while searching for new members. 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.

To comply with conference membership regulations, HPU, Chaminade University, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i, and the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, will add women’s basketball, and men’s and women’s soccer to their athletics programs. The ten sports HPU will now sponsor on the championship level will be men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s golf, women’s volleyball, women’s tennis, and softball. Men’s tennis and baseball will remain sponsored sports at HPU, but will compete as independent.

Former members

*University of Alaska
*University of Alaska Anchorage
*Central Washington University
*Humboldt State University
*Montana State University-Billings
*Northwest Nazarene University
*Saint Martin's University
*Seattle Pacific University
*Seattle University
*Western New Mexico University
*Western Oregon University
*Western Washington University

External links

* [http://www.pacificwestsports.org/landing/index Official site of the Pacific West Conference]