Western Athletic Conference

Current members

The following institutions are the full members of the Western Athletic Conference.

Notes

1. With the elimination of football as a WAC-sponsored sport, New Mexico State's football program is currently an FBS Independent member.
2. In July 2015, UTPA merged with the University of Texas at Brownsville to create the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV).^[3] The University of Texas System stated in July 2014 that "the UTPA athletics program will be converted into the athletics program at UTRGV."^[4] On November 5, 2014, UTRGV's new nickname of Vaqueros was announced.^[5]
3. The founding date for UTRGV listed in this table reflects that of Edinburg College, the institution that eventually became UTPA.
4. Chicago State's continued membership is problematic. Considering the school's current strained financial situation and the needs of the athletic program, in April 2016, the University Budget Committee recommended that the Athletic Department "... study the benefits of being Division I or another division." ^[6]
5. Championships title totals are through Spring 2016.
6. California State University, Bakersfield will be leaving for the Big West Conference in 2020.^[7][8]

Affiliate members

The following 10 schools field programs in the WAC for sports not sponsored by their primary conferences.

Institution	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Nickname	Primary Conference	WAC Sport(s)	Joined	WAC Titles[2]	Former Full Member
United States Air Force Academy (Air Force)	Colorado Springs, Colorado	1955	Federal	4,413	Falcons	Mountain West	men's soccer, men's swimming	2013–14m.soc 2013–14m.sw	10	Y
California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State)	Sacramento, California	1947	Public	27,972	Hornets	Big Sky	baseball	2005–06	6	N
Houston Baptist University	Houston	1960	Private	2,567	Huskies	Southland	men's soccer	2013–14	0	N
University of Idaho	Moscow, Idaho	1889	Public	12,312	Vandals	Big Sky	women's swimming	2014–15	17	Y
University of the Incarnate Word	San Antonio	1881	Private	8,455	Cardinals	Southland	men's soccer	2014–15	0	N
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)	Paradise, Nevada	1957	Public	29,069	Rebels	Mountain West	men's soccer, men's swimming	2013–14m.soc 2013–14m.sw	7	Y
Northern Arizona University	Flagstaff, Arizona	1899	Public	18,824	Lumberjacks	Big Sky	women's swimming	2004–05	4	N
University of Northern Colorado	Greeley, Colorado	1889	Public	10,097	Bears	Big Sky	baseball, women's swimming	2013–14bs. 2012–13w.sw	1	N
San Jose State University	San Jose, California	1857	Public	30,448	Spartans	Mountain West	men's soccer	2013–14	18	Y
University of Wyoming	Laramie, Wyoming	1886	Public	12,496	Cowboys	Mountain West	men's swimming	2013–14	24	Y

Notes

1. Four schools became affiliate members in men's soccer in July 2013; the WAC announced on January 9, 2013 that it would reinstate the sport, which it had sponsored from 1996 to 1999. Because the conference dropped football, it was necessary to add a new men's team sport to maintain its Division I status. It chose men's soccer because three of the confirmed members for 2013–14 (CSU Bakersfield, Grand Canyon, and Seattle) already sponsored the sport, and filled out its soccer ranks by attracting four schools from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Three of these schools have past WAC connections—former full members Air Force, UNLV and San Jose State.^[9] After the WAC announced it would add men's soccer, the conference gained an eighth soccer school for the 2013 season when UMKC, which already sponsored the sport, joined. In addition, Utah Valley added the sport for 2014, UT-Pan American (now known as UT Rio Grande Valley) added it for 2015, and Chicago State is slated to add it for 2016.
2. Four schools (three of which are former WAC full members: Air Force, UNLV and Wyoming; and North Dakota) became affiliate members in men's swimming and diving in July 2013; the WAC announced on May 16, 2013 that it would reinstate the sport, which it had sponsored from 1962 to 2000.^[10]
3. Northern Colorado joined the WAC for baseball for the 2014 season (2013–14 academic year).^[11]
4. Sacramento State was formerly an associate member of the WAC in baseball from 1992–93 to 1995–96.
5. Championships title totals are through Fall 2014.

Former full members

The WAC has 27 former full members.

Former affiliate members

Membership timeline

Full members Full members (non-football) Other conference Other conference Associate Member

• Prior to the 1996–97 season, both Air Force and Hawaii had most to all of their women's sports competing in other conferences before joining the WAC full-time with their men's sports counterparts. At that time, Air Force was in the Colorado Athletic Conference, and Hawaii was in the Big West Conference.

Formation

Arizona

Arizona State

BYU

New Mexico

Utah

Wyoming

Locations of WAC founding schools

The WAC formed out of a series of talks between Brigham Young University athletic director Eddie Kimball and other university administrators from 1958 to 1961 to form a new athletic conference that would better fit the needs and situations of certain universities which were at the time members of the Border, Skyline, and Pacific Coast Conferences. Potential member universities who were represented at the meetings included BYU, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Arizona State, and Wyoming. While the three Washington and Oregon schools elected to stay in a revamped Pac-8 Conference that replaced the scandal-plagued PCC, the remaining six schools formed the WAC. The Border and Skyline conferences, having each lost three of their stronger members, dissolved at the end of the 1961–62 season. The charter members of the WAC were Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. New Mexico State and Utah State applied for charter membership and were turned down; they would eventually become WAC members 43 years later.

Success and first expansion

The conference proved to be an almost perfect fit for the six schools from both a competitive and financial standpoint. Arizona and Arizona State, in particular, experienced success in baseball with Arizona garnering the 1963 College World Series (CWS) runner-up trophy and ASU winning the CWS in 1965, 1967, and 1969. Colorado State and Texas-El Paso (UTEP), at that time just renamed from Texas Western College, were accepted in September 1967 (joined in July 1968) to bring membership up to eight.^[12][13]

With massive growth in the state of Arizona, the balance of WAC play in the 1970s became increasingly skewed in favor of the Arizona schools, who won or tied for all but two WAC football titles from 1969 onward. In the summer of 1978, the two schools left the WAC for the Pac-8, which became the Pac-10, and were replaced in the WAC by San Diego State and, one year later, Hawaii. The WAC further expanded by adding Air Force in the summer of 1980. A college football national championship won by Brigham Young in 1984 added to the WAC's reputation as one of the best NCAA Division I conferences. This nine-team line-up of the WAC defined the conference for nearly 15 years.

Second wave of expansion

Fresno State expanded its athletic program in the early 1990s and was granted membership in 1992 as the nationwide trend against major college programs independent of conferences accelerated. The WAC merged with the High Country Athletic Conference, a parallel organization to the WAC for women's athletics, in 1990 to unify both men's and women's athletics under one administrative structure.

⇙ Hawaii

Fresno State

San Diego State

San Jose State

UNLV

Air Force

Colorado State

Wyoming

BYU

New Mexico

Utah

UTEP

Tulsa

TCU

SMU

Rice

WAC member locations during the four-pod system (1996–1999)

In 1996, the WAC expanded again, adding six schools to its ranks for a total of sixteen. Rice, TCU, and SMU joined the league from the Southwest Conference, which had disbanded. Big West Conference members San Jose State and UNLV were also admitted, as well as Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference.^[14] Also, two WAC members for men's sports at the time, Air Force and Hawaiʻi, brought their women's sports into the WAC. With the expansion, the WAC was divided into two divisions, the Mountain and the Pacific.

To help in organizing schedules and travel for the far-flung league, the members were divided into four quadrants of four teams each, as follows:^[14]

Quadrant one was always part of the Pacific Division, and quadrant four was always part of the Mountain Division. Quadrant two was part of the Pacific Division for 1996 and 1997 before switching to the Mountain Division in 1998, while the reverse was true for quadrant three. The scheduled fourth year of the alignment was abandoned after eight schools left to form the Mountain West Conference.

The division champions in football met from 1996 to 1998 in the WAC Championship Game, held at Sam Boyd Stadium (also known as the Silver Bowl) in the Las Vegas Valley.

Turbulence at the turn of the millennium

Increasingly, most of the older, pre-1996 members —particularly Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming— felt chagrin at this new arrangement. Additional concerns centered around finances, as the expanded league stretched from Hawaiʻi to Oklahoma and now included four time zones in nine states. With such a far-flung league, travel costs became a concern. The presidents of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming met in 1998 at Denver International Airport and agreed to split off to form a new league. The breakaway group invited old-line WAC schools New Mexico and San Diego State and newcomer UNLV to join them in the new Mountain West Conference, which began competition in 1999.^[14]

A USA Today article summed up the reasons behind the split. "With Hawaii and the Texas schools separated by about 3,900 miles and four time zones, travel costs were a tremendous burden for WAC teams. The costs, coupled with lagging revenue and a proposed realignment that would have separated rivals such as Colorado State and Air Force, created unrest among the eight defecting schools."^[15][16]

BYU and Utah would later leave the MWC for the West Coast Conference and Pac-12 Conference, respectively; BYU football is an FBS independent.

WAC in the 2000s

⇙ Hawaii

Fresno State

San Jose State

Boise State

Louisiana Tech

Idaho

New Mexico State

Utah State

Nevada

Locations of WAC full members from 2005 through 2011

In 2000, the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada) of the Big West joined as part of its plan to upgrade its athletic program.

TCU left for Conference USA in 2001 (it would later leave C-USA to become the ninth member of the Mountain West in 2005, and joined the Big 12 in 2012).

The Big West announced that it would drop football after the 2000 season, but four of its football-playing members (Boise State, Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State) were unwilling to drop football. Boise State was invited to join the WAC and promptly departed the Big West, while New Mexico State and Idaho joined the Sun Belt Conference (NMSU as a full member, Idaho as a "football only" member) and Utah State operated as an independent D-IA program. At the same time, Louisiana Tech (LA Tech) ended its independent D-IA status and also accepted an invitation to join the WAC with Boise State.

In 2005, Conference USA sought new members to replenish its ranks after losing members to the Big East, which had lost members to the ACC. Four WAC schools, former SWC schools Rice and SMU, as well as Tulsa and UTEP, joined Conference USA. In response, the WAC added Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State – all former Big West schools which left the conference in 2000 along with Boise State when that conference dropped football. The three new schools were all land grant universities, bringing the conference total to five (Nevada and Hawaiʻi).

Membership changes and the elimination of football

The decade of the 2010s began with a series of conference realignment moves that would have trickle-down effects throughout Division I football, and profoundly change the membership of the WAC. Boise State decided to move to the Mountain West Conference (MW) for the 2011–12 season,^[17] and to replace departing BYU, the MW also recruited WAC members Fresno State and Nevada for 2012–13.^[18][19] WAC commissioner Karl Benson courted several schools to replace those leaving, including the University of Montana, which declined,^[20][21] as well as the University of Denver, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and Texas State University-San Marcos, which all accepted effective 2012–13.^[22]

But the resulting eastward shift of the conference's geographic center led Hawaiʻi to reduce travel expenses by becoming a football-only member of the MW and joining the California-based Big West Conference for all other sports.^[23][24] Further invitations were then issued by the WAC to Seattle University^[25] and the University of Texas at Arlington.^[26] These changes meant that the conference would have 10 members for 2012–13,^[27] seven of which sponsored football, and Benson announced that the WAC planned to add two additional football-playing members to begin competition in 2013.^[28] A further boost came when Boise State decided to join the Big East in football, and return to the WAC in most other sports, as of the 2013–14 academic year.^[29] So by the end of 2011, the WAC seemed to have weathered the latest round of conference changes, and once again reinvented itself for the future.

Cal State Bakersfield

Chicago State

Grand Canyon

UMKC

New Mexico State

Seattle

UTRGV

Utah Valley

California Baptist

Locations of current & future WAC full members: Blue=current

But from this seemingly strong position, early 2012 brought forth a series of moves that shook the conference to its very core, beginning with Utah State and San Jose State accepting offers to join the MW.^[30] Four similar announcements followed with UTSA and Louisiana Tech jumping to Conference USA, plus Texas State and UT Arlington heading to the Sun Belt Conference, all as of 2013–14.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36]} Boise State also canceled plans to rejoin the WAC, instead opting to place its non-football sports in the Big West Conference, before eventually deciding to simply remain in the MW.^[37][38] These changes left the WAC's viability as a Division I football conference in grave doubt. The two remaining football-playing members, New Mexico State and Idaho, began making plans to compete in future seasons as FBS Independents;^[39][40] they ultimately spent only the 2013 season as independents, rejoining their one-time football home of the Sun Belt as football-only members in 2014.^[41]

In order to rebuild, as well as forestall further defections, the conference was forced to add two schools—Utah Valley University and CSU Bakersfield—which were invited in October 2012 to join the WAC in 2013–14,^[42] but this did not prevent two more members from leaving. Denver decided to take most of its athletic teams to The Summit League as of the 2013–14 season,^[43] shortly after Idaho opted to return all of its non-football sports to the Big Sky Conference in 2014–15.^[44] The conference responded over the next two months by adding Grand Canyon University,^[45] Chicago State University,^[46] and the University of Texas-Pan American.^[47][48] Then, in February 2013, the WAC announced the University of Missouri–Kansas City would join in the summer of 2013 as well.^[49] These changes would put the conference's membership at eight members by 2014 with only one, New Mexico State, having been in the WAC just three years earlier. Due to losing the majority of its football-playing members, the WAC would stop sponsoring the sport after the 2012–13 season, thereby becoming a non-football conference.^[1]

While the WAC has had no changes in its core membership since the departure of Idaho, one member school has changed its identity. In 2013, the University of Texas System announced that Texas–Pan American would merge with the University of Texas at Brownsville; the new institution, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), began operation for the 2015–16 school year. UTRGV inherited UTPA's athletic program and WAC membership.

In January 2017, the WAC announced that California Baptist University would transition from NCAA Division II and join the conference in 2018.^[50]

Men's sponsored sports by school

School	Baseball	Basketball	Cross Country	Golf	Soccer	Swimming & Diving	Tennis	Track & Field (Indoor)	Track & Field (Outdoor)	Total WAC Sports
California Baptist	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	7
Cal State Bakersfield	Y	Y	N	N[lower-alpha 1]	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	6
Chicago State	Y	Y	Y	Y	N[lower-alpha 2]	N	Y	Y	Y	7
Grand Canyon	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
UMKC	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	7
New Mexico State	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N	N	5
Seattle	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
UTRGV	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	8
Utah Valley	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	7
Totals	8+2[lower-alpha 3]	9	8	8	7+5[lower-alpha 4]	4+3[lower-alpha 5]	6	7	8	65+10

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Western Athletic Conference which are played by WAC schools

Women's sponsored sports by school

School	Basketball	Cross Country	Golf	Soccer	Softball	Swimming & Diving	Tennis	Track & Field (Indoor)	Track & Field (Outdoor)	Volleyball	Total WAC Sports
California Baptist	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	8
Cal State Bakersfield	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	9
Chicago State	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Grand Canyon	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
UMKC	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
New Mexico State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Seattle	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
UTRGV	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Utah Valley	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	8
Totals	9	9	9	9	7	5+2[lower-alpha 1]	6	8	9	9	80+2

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Western Athletic Conference which are played by WAC schools

Current champions

Source:^[55]

• For the sports in which the WAC recognizes both a regular-season and a postseason champion:
  • (RS) indicates regular-season champion.
  • (P) indicates postseason champion.
• For other sports, only a postseason champion is recognized.

National championships

The following teams have won NCAA national championships while being a member of the WAC:

• Arizona – baseball (1976)
• Arizona State – baseball (1965, 1967, 1969, 1977)
• BYU – men's track & field (shared the national title in 1970)
• BYU – men's golf (1981)
• BYU – women's cross country (1997)
• Fresno State – softball (1998)
• Fresno State – baseball (2008)
• Rice – baseball (2003)
• UTEP – NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country (1969, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981)
• UTEP – NCAA Division I Men's Indoor Track and Field (1974,1975,1976,1978,1980,1981,1982)
• UTEP – NCAA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field (1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982)
• UNLV – men's golf (1998)

The WAC has also produced one AP national champion in football:

• BYU (1984)

The following teams won AIAW (and forerunner DGWS) women's national championships while their universities were members of the WAC:

• Arizona State (15) – swimming (8), badminton (4), softball (2), golf (1)
• Utah (3) – cross country (Div. II), gymnastics, skiing
• UTEP (1) – indoor track and field

WAC Digital Network

In 2014–15, the WAC initiated a new digital network to give fans high quality streaming internet access to many of its regular season games and postseason championships including volleyball, soccer, swimming and diving, basketball, softball and baseball. ^[68]