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

### Current

The WCC currently has 10 members, all located in West Coast states. 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|||
||Stockton, California|1851|Private (Methodist)  || Tigers || 1952, 2013|||
|Pepperdine University|Malibu, California|1937|Private Churches of Christ || Waves || 1955|||
||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|||
||San Diego, California|1949|Private Diocesan Catholic|| Toreros || 1979|||
||San Francisco, California|1855|Private Jesuit || Dons || 1952|||
|Santa Clara University|Santa Clara, California|1851|Private Jesuit || Broncos || 1952|||
|Seattle University|Seattle, Washington|1891|Private Jesuit || Redhawks || 1971, 2025|||

### Future

Two schools will join the WCC in the near future, one in 2026 and the other in 2027.
|School|Location|Founded|Type|Nickname|Joining WCC|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Denver, Colorado|1864|Private Nonsectarian || Pioneers || 2026|||
|(UC San Diego)|La Jolla, California|1960|Public University of California || Tritons || 2027|||

### Associate members

The WCC has eight "associate members". Five play one sport in the conference, and one plays two sports. All are full members of other Division I conferences except Augusta, an NCAA Division II member that fields Division I teams in men's and women's golf. 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 seven new members, among them current WCC member Gonzaga.

#### Current

|School|Location|Founded|Type|Joined|Sport(s)|Current main conference|Nickname||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|(Air Force)|USAF Academy, Colorado|1954|Federal|2023||Mountain West|Falcons||
|Augusta University|Augusta, Georgia|1828|Public|2025||Peach Belt||Jaguars|
|California Baptist University|Riverside, California|1950|Private (Baptist) || 2023 ||  || WAC||Lancers||||
|Creighton University|Omaha, Nebraska|1878|Private Jesuit || 2010 ||  || Big East || Bluejays||||||
|Oregon State University|Corvallis, Oregon|1868|Public|2024|Multiple|Pac-12|Beavers||
|(Sacramento State)|Sacramento, California|1947|Public|2024||Big Sky||Hornets|
|San Jose State University|San Jose, California|1857|Public (CSU) || 2023 ||  || Mountain West || Spartans||||||
|Washington State University|Pullman, Washington|1880|Public|2024|Multiple|Pac-12|Cougars||