West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference ( WCC ) is an NCAA collegiate athletics conference consisting of nine member schools across the states of California , Oregon , Utah and Washington . All of the current members are private , faith - based institutions . Pepperdine is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ and Brigham Young University is an affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints ( LDS ) . The other seven members are Catholic Church affiliates . Four of the seven Catholic schools are Jesuit affiliates . The incoming University of the Pacific , which will join in 2013 , is affiliated with the United Methodist Church , although it has not been financially supported by the church since 1969 . History . 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 Pac - 10 ( now Pac - 12 ) had remained unchanged for a longer period . The league was chartered by five northern California institutions , four from the 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 . The name was then shortened in 1989 , dropping the word " Athletic . " The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be one of the better mid - major conferences in the country . The conference sponsors 13 sports but does not include football as one of them . San Diego ( Pioneer Football League ) and Brigham Young ( FBS independent ) are the only schools fielding a football team . The rest have all dropped the sport , some as early as the 1940s , before the conference existed ( Gonzaga and 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 and 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 , Gonzaga ' s rise 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 . The addition of Brigham Young University ( BYU ) in 2011 gave the WCC another nationally recognized basketball power . In 2011 , BYU player Jimmer Fredette was the National Consensus Player of the Year , as he lead BYU to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament . As San Francisco was from the 1940s to the early 1980s , Gonzaga and BYU are nationally recognized basketball powers . Currently , the longest consecutive NCAA appearance streak in the Western U . S . belongs to Gonzaga ( 14 ) . Gonzaga ' s streak is tied for the fourth longest active streak and is the seventh longest streak in history . BYU made the NCAA Tournament six straight times before failing to do so in 2013 . Saint Mary ' s has also made marks for the conference as the Gaels appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005 , 2008 , 2010 , and 2012 ( making the " Sweet Sixteen " in 2010 ) . On May 28 , 2009 , NBA referee Violet Palmer was hired as coordinator of women ' s basketball officials for the West Coast Conference and will remain with the NBA , where she has worked for 12 seasons . 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 . On August 31 , 2010 , Brigham Young University ( 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 . A list of locations for sports not offered by the WCC is found below for all schools , along with the location of where they compete . BYU is the first member of the WCC since Nevada ' s departure in 1979 to be located within an Interior West state rather than a West Coast state . On March 27 , 2012 , the University of the Pacific ( UOP ) , a charter member of the conference , announced that it accepted an invitation to re - join the WCC on July 1 , 2013 . The move would remove Pacific from the Big West Conference back to the WCC , which Pacific left in 1971 in order to pursue its interests in football , which it later abandoned in 1995 . Both University of Denver and Seattle University have been rumored to be strongly interested in joining the WCC . However , Denver apparently took a WCC move off the table when it announced it would join The Summit League effective in July 2013 . Membership . Membership timeline . Sports . The West Coast Conference sponsors championship competition in six men ' s and seven women ' s NCAA sanctioned sports , with softball to be added for the 2013 - 14 school year . Cal State , Bakersfield is an Associate member for women ' s golf , and Creighton is an Associate member for women ' s rowing . In addition to the WCC sponsored sports , all member schools participate in one or more sports which are not sponsored by the WCC , participating as members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation , as members of other conferences , or as independents . Famous sports figures . Some of the famous athletes who played collegiately for WCC schools , and coaches and executives that attended WCC schools , include : Facilities . † University of the Pacific , currently a member of the Big West Conference , returns to the WCC in 2013 .