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104-910: The Mountain West Conference ( MW ) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the United States, participating in NCAA Division I . Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on January 4, 1999. Geographically, the MW covers a broad expanse of the Western United States , with member schools located in California , Colorado , Idaho , Nevada , New Mexico , Utah , Wyoming , and Hawaii . Gloria Nevarez took over as commissioner of

208-760: A season , a conference refers to a single tournament. This has since been carried over by other leagues, such as the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), which has its own conferences , the Philippine Super Liga , the Premier Volleyball League , the PBA D-League , and formerly the Philippine Basketball League . The term "conference" referring to a single tournament does not apply if there's only one tournament in

312-447: A 16th team, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as a football-only member. However, when the two conferences discussed their plans with the NCAA, they were told that due to NCAA rules, they would forfeit substantial revenues. Specifically, the new conference would receive only one automatic bid to NCAA championships; at least one of the former conferences would lose future revenue distributions from

416-451: A 200-plus championship lead over the second-place conference. On August 2, 2024, 10 of the 12 members departed from the conference. The Pac-12 is operating as a two-team conference through the 2025–26 academic year, sponsoring five sports—baseball, football, track and field, women's gymnastics, and wrestling. In 2026, the Pac-12 will expand to eight members with the addition of five schools from

520-468: A June 30, 2023, deadline, San Diego State had to rescind its notice of intention to leave the Mountain West. At the start of Pac-12 Media Days on July 21, 2023, Commissioner Kliavkoff was asked about the status of the media rights deal and conference expansion, deflecting most questions on the matter. Having heard enough, Colorado president Rick George left Media Days early to return to Boulder. Less than

624-516: A conference system. From 2011 through to 2015, the competition had one conference based in each of its three founding countries . The winner of each conference received a playoff spot, as did the three next best teams overall. With the addition of Argentina's Jaguares and Japan's Sunwolves for 2016, plus a sixth franchise for South Africa, the competition reorganised into a new four-conference system. In 2016 and 2017, Australia and New Zealand formed separate conferences within an Australasian group;

728-609: A full member. (Fall 2023) (millions) The Pac-12 has two affiliate member institutions in California and one in Arkansas. All three participate in the Pac-12 for wrestling. No school had left the Pac-12 from its founding as the AAWU in 1959 until 2024, when 10 of its 12 schools left. Two members of the PCC , Idaho and Montana, were not invited to join the AAWU or its successors. The Pac-12 claims

832-584: A group of teams (generally eight to twelve colleges and/or universities, occasionally as high as sixteen) that regularly play against each other within a national governing body, the most significant of which is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Most of these groups (including the "Power Five" conferences that are primary partners in the College Football Playoff ) refer to themselves as conferences, although

936-484: A lesser extent their own conference; NBA and NHL teams play at least two games (one at each home arena ) against every other team in their league in a regular season, MLB teams play at least one 3-game series against every other team (as of the 2023 season ), but the NFL teams do not. In college sports , the terms "league," "conference" and (generally at lower levels) "athletic association" can be used interchangeably to refer to

1040-560: A season, such as in the case of the college sports leagues, the Philippine Football League , and the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League . Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States . It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in

1144-514: A secondary trophy called a "shield" (Irish, Scottish/Italian, South African, Welsh), with the overall league table used to determine playoff participants. The winner of each shield, however, is assured a place in the following year's European Rugby Champions Cup regardless of its overall league position. The now defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association , where teams are represented by companies instead of geographical entities, and there are multiple tournaments held sequentially in

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1248-430: A three-year cycle (less than the standard length of a college player's career). The MW Championship will also no longer be determined by the winners of the two divisions; the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will play instead. The designated rivals under this system are as follows: Prior to this, the division format was as follows: The Mountain West Conference has agreements with six bowls. Since

1352-505: A total of sixteen teams (eight from each conference) qualify for the league's postseason playoffs. In the NHL , since the 2013–14 season, the top 3 in each division are guaranteed to qualify and division winners are awarded the highest seeds, meaning they will have home-ice advantage in a given round, with the two best remaining teams in each conference receiving wild card spots. In the NBA, starting with

1456-746: A two-member conference at least for [2024–25]" and would be recognized under a two-year grace period , until 2026, to meet conference requirements in the NCAA bylaws. On December 5, 2023, Oregon State and Washington State announced that had entered into a football alliance with the Mountain West Conference (MWC) for the 2024 season. With the alliance, both programs will play three home games and three away games against MWC opponents. The West Coast Conference (WCC) has invited both schools to join as affiliate members for basketball and most other non-football sports. Both partnerships are expected to last from

1560-610: A week later on July 27, 2023, Colorado announced it would return to the Big 12 as of the 2024–25 school year. The nine remaining Pac-12 members then demanded an update on the negotiations, including numbers on expected payouts. Kliavkoff came back with a deal from the Apple TV+ streaming service that paid member institutions in the low-to-mid-$ 20 million range, albeit with escalators for meeting subscriber quotas. On August 4, 2023, Oregon and Washington announced they would be following UCLA and USC to

1664-419: Is "Above the rest", and over half of the member institutions, plus women's soccer-only member Colorado College, are at more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above sea level. This impacts endurance in sports like football, soccer, and the distance races in track & field and swimming meets; air resistance in sprints and horizontal jumps in track & field; and aerodynamics in baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and

1768-437: Is divided into an American Football Conference (AFC) and a National Football Conference (NFC). Both conferences have 16 teams, and each conference is divided into 4 divisions of 4 teams each. These conferences, for the most part, derive from the fact that they were once separate organizations: the original National Football League and the 1960s American Football League ; the two entities merged in 1970, with each league forming

1872-630: Is only an associate member for football, and Colorado College is only an associate member for women's soccer. Future members in gray. Future members in gray. Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties. Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance. The following table shows institutional reporting to

1976-587: Is part of NCAA Division I (specifically the Football Bowl Subdivision ), but is itself also subdivided into an East and West division. In English association football, the top level of non-League football —i.e., the level below the Premier League and the three tiers that make up the English Football League (EFL)—was known as the Football Conference from the 1986–87 season through the end of

2080-563: Is the highest level of provincial competition in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the highest domestic level in Japan, and the only professional domestic level in Argentina. From the creation of Super Rugby in 1996 through 2015 , only Australia, New Zealand and South Africa participated; the competition added teams in the latter two countries in 2016 . Since the 2011 season , it has operated on

2184-655: The 1996 NCAA conference realignment , which had initially been triggered two years earlier when the Big Eight Conference agreed to merge with four members of the Southwest Conference (SWC) to create the Big 12 Conference , which would begin competition in the 1996–97 school year. The Western Athletic Conference, which had initially announced plans to expand beyond its then-current 10 members to at least 12, ended up with even more potential expansion prospects. Ultimately,

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2288-827: The FA Cup (open to teams from all levels), the EFL Cup (open only to teams from the Premier League and the English Football League), and the FA Trophy (open only to teams in the broader definition of the National League, plus the two tiers below it). The Kontinental Hockey League has a Western Conference and an Eastern Conference . This is similar to the NHL 's conferences in North America . In rugby union , Super Rugby

2392-543: The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level of NCAA football competition. The conference currently comprises two members, Oregon State and Washington State . The modern Pac-12 Conference formed after the disbanding of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the principal members of which founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities ( AAWU ) in 1959. The conference previously went by

2496-615: The Horizon League , Ivy League , Patriot League , Pioneer League and Summit League use the word "league" instead, and another conference calls itself the Coastal Athletic Association . The NCAA itself is divided into divisions and subdivisions based on athletic scholarship eligibility, which can lead to redundancy when these conferences also have divisions of their own. For instance, the Southeastern Conference

2600-584: The Ivy League had maintained its membership for a longer time than the Pac-10 among Division I conferences. Commissioner Larry Scott said on February 9, 2010, that the window for expansion was open for the next year as the conference began negotiations for a new television deal. Speaking on a conference call to introduce former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg as his new deputy, Scott talked about possibly adding new teams to

2704-574: The Missouri Valley Conference . The WAC's 16 teams were divided into four four-team "quadrants", two of which rotated between the Mountain and Pacific Divisions every two years. However, the newly expanded WAC was soon wracked by tension between the established and new members. In spring of 1998, BYU and Utah proposed a permanent split into two eight-team divisions. The proposal would have forced some schools into an unnatural alignment because of

2808-686: The Mountain West Conference and one from the West Coast Conference . The Pac-12 currently has two full-member institutions. The conference was previously split into two divisions , the North Division and the South Division, for football only. On September 12, 2024, the conference announced it would be adding four new members, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State, on July 1, 2026. The conference needs to add at least two more members before that date to be recognized by

2912-416: The NCAA as an FBS conference. On September 23, 2024, Utah State accepted an offer to join the league as its seventh member. This gave the Pac-12 the seven members needed to preserve its official "multisport" status, though one more football-sponsoring full member will be needed to preserve FBS status. On September 30, 2024, the conference announced that Gonzaga, a non-football college, would be joining as

3016-569: The SEC . The alliance included an inter-conference scheduling component for football and men's and women's basketball. In 2021, the Pac-12 paid $ 19.8 million to its member schools, the lowest distribution in the Power Five. Despite the alliance, on June 30, 2022, UCLA and USC announced their departure for the Big Ten Conference beginning in the 2024–25 academic year. As a result of losing two of

3120-644: The United States Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2021–22 academic year. The following table shows revenue specifically from NCAA / Conference Distributions, Media Rights, and Post-Season Football reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year. Since restarting in 1959 as the AAWU, the Pac-12 has had six commissioners: Commissioners of

3224-408: The United States Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2021–22 academic year. However, since Air Force is not available from that source, it was obtained from Knight Commission for the 2020–2021 academic year. Totals and records following the completion of the 2022 football season. (2023) Beginning in 2013, the conference split into two divisions, named

Mountain West Conference - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-523: The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa accepted a bid to become the 10th member of the conference for football only. These changes would leave the Mountain West Conference with 10 teams for the 2012 football season. During the era of football's Bowl Championship Series (BCS), which was replaced by the College Football Playoff (CFP) in 2014, the MW champion qualified for a BCS bowl four times after

3432-477: The " Pac-2 " by media outlets, to the point that a game between the two teams during the 2023 football season was jokingly dubbed the "Pac-2 Championship Game" by fans. On September 8, 2023, Oregon State and Washington State filed a lawsuit against the Pac-12 and Commissioner George Kliavkoff in Washington State Superior Court for control of the conference and its assets. They contended that

3536-640: The "Mountain Division" and "West Division," of six teams each for football. The Mountain West also added a conference championship game, pitting the winners of the two divisions. This first championship game took place on December 7, 2013, at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California , the home stadium of Fresno State , the divisional winner with the higher BCS ranking. Each team played five divisional games and three cross-divisional contests annually. The 2015 championship game featured

3640-475: The 2014 season, the Mountain West champion is eligible for an at-large berth in the Cotton Bowl Classic , Fiesta Bowl , or Peach Bowl , if it is the highest-ranked conference champion among the "Group of Five" conferences (which also includes The American , C-USA , MAC , and Sun Belt ) in the final College Football Playoff rankings, if it is not in the top 4. In the 2014 season, Boise State became

3744-523: The 2014–15 season. In turn, from 2004, the Conference was divided into three leagues—Conference Premier, at the fifth tier of the English football pyramid , and Conference North and Conference South, which made up the sixth tier. Starting with the 2015–16 season, the Football Conference and its component leagues were renamed. The Football Conference and Conference Premier were both renamed "National League", and

3848-498: The 2015–16 season, the playoff spots go to the eight top teams in each conference by overall record, with home-court advantage in each playoff series based solely on record. Major League Soccer (MLS) also divides itself into an Eastern and Western Conference , though it does not have divisions within them; it too allocates an equal number of teams from each conference to play for its MLS Cup Playoffs (since 2019, this has been seven teams each). The National Football League (NFL)

3952-814: The Air Force Academy Falcons against the San Diego State University Aztecs. The 2016 championship game featured the San Diego State University Aztecs against the University of Wyoming Cowboys. On May 20, 2022, the conference approved a new football schedule format, set to take effect in the 2023 season. Under this format, the conference will remove divisions, and instead play a 2–6 format, where each team plays 2 designated rivals every year along with six separate 6-team rotations that flip every other year, such that every team will have at least one home game and one away game against every other team in

4056-531: The BCS formula was tweaked to allow teams from non-BCS conferences to play in BCS bowls if ranked in the top 12. However, two of the three schools that qualified are no longer with the conference. On October 14, 2011, the Mountain West and C-USA announced a plan for a football only alliance. On February 13, 2012, the two leagues announced that both conferences would be dissolving after the 2012–13 season to reform into one conference with at least 15 members for all sports, and

4160-519: The Big Ten conference for the 2024 season. Later on that same day, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah announced that they would follow Colorado to the Big 12 Conference starting in 2024. On September 1, 2023, California and Stanford announced their departure for the Atlantic Coast Conference starting in 2024. In September 2023, Yahoo! Sports reported that the Pac-12 is "expected to operate as

4264-478: The Big West for other sports, and would remain in the MW. On January 16, 2013, San Diego State accepted an offer to remain/return to the Mountain West Conference in all sports. Keeping SDSU in the conference gave the Mountain West 12 football members, allowing for a Championship Game to be held. The first championship game took place on December 7, 2013. In February 2018, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that

Mountain West Conference - Misplaced Pages Continue

4368-474: The MW on January 1, 2023, following the retirement of founding commissioner Craig Thompson . The charter members of the MW included the United States Air Force Academy , Brigham Young University , Colorado State University , San Diego State University , the University of New Mexico , the University of Nevada, Las Vegas , University of Utah and the University of Wyoming . Before forming

4472-439: The MW was looking to expand in the near future. In the report, commissioner Craig Thompson revealed that the conference had discussed expansion with six schools, with WCC member Gonzaga (which has not sponsored football since World War II) the only school mentioned by name. Thompson added that Gonzaga could potentially join the MW as a full but non-football member as early as July 2018. While Thompson said that BYU had not contacted

4576-631: The Mountain West Conference and go Independent in football and become a member of the West Coast Conference (WCC) in other sports starting in 2011. On November 29, 2010, TCU announced all athletic teams would move to the Big East Conference effective in 2012. (Less than a year later, on October 10, 2011, TCU announced it would not join the Big East but would join the Big 12, home to fellow former SWC members Baylor , Texas , Texas Tech , and formerly Texas A&M , in 2012 instead.) On December 10, 2010,

4680-535: The Mountain West Conference, seven of its eight charter members had been longtime members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and half of these had been charter members of that conference from 1962. Overall, each school that has ever been either a full or football-only member of the MW spent at least three years in the WAC before joining the Mountain West. The creation of the MW was a delayed aftereffect of

4784-548: The Mountain West Conference. The next move for the MW came in 2005 , when the conference added TCU, who had spent the previous four seasons in Conference USA (C-USA). On June 11, 2010, Boise State University agreed to join the conference as its tenth member. On June 17, 2010, Utah announced it would be leaving the Mountain West to join what would become the Pac-12 Conference . On August 18, 2010, amidst rumors that BYU

4888-428: The Mountain West and C-USA would have apparently remained separate legal entities. In the end, this alliance never materialized due to both conferences soon adding new teams. On May 2, 2012, San José State and Utah State agreed to join the conference for the 2013–14 academic year. On December 31 of that year, Boise State announced that it had backed out of its previously announced move to the Big East for football and

4992-410: The NCAA men's basketball tournament; and at least one former conference would not be able to collect exit fees from any members that departed to join the new conference. As a result, the Mountain West and C-USA backed away from a full merger. In late March of that year, the commissioners of both conferences stated that all 16 schools had entered into binding agreements to form a new "association", although

5096-593: The PCC disbanded in June 1959. Ten months earlier in August 1958, these four schools agreed to form a new conference that would take effect the following summer. When the four schools and Stanford began discussions for a new conference in 1959, retired Admiral Thomas J. Hamilton interceded and suggested the schools consider creating a national "power conference" (Hamilton had been a key player, head coach, and athletic director at Navy , and

5200-617: The PCC grew to 10 members with the addition of UCLA . For many years, the conference split into two divisions for basketball and baseball—a Southern Division comprising the four California schools and a Northern Division comprising the six schools in the Pacific Northwest . In 1950 , Montana departed to join the Mountain States Conference . The PCC continued as a nine-team league through June 1959. Following "pay-for-play" scandals at California, USC, UCLA, and Washington,

5304-714: The PCC's history as its own. Not only did it maintain the automatic bid from the Rose Bowl inherited from the PCC, but the eight largest schools in the old PCC all eventually joined the new league. However, the old PCC operated under a separate charter. The Pac-12 is one of the founding members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), a conference organized to provide competition in non-revenue Olympic sports. All-Pac-12 members participate in at least one MPSF sport (men's and women's indoor track and field both actually have enough participating Pac-12 schools for

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5408-503: The Pac-10 was considering adding up to six teams to the conference: the University of Texas, Texas A&M University , Texas Tech University , the University of Oklahoma , Oklahoma State University , and the University of Colorado. On June 10, 2010, the University of Colorado Boulder accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference, effective starting with the 2012–2013 academic year. The school later announced it would join

5512-478: The Pac-10's ambition to potentially become a sixteen-team conference. On June 17, 2010, the University of Utah accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference, effective starting July 2011. Utah was a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) with Arizona and Arizona State before those two left for the Pac-10 in 1978. The Utes left an expanded WAC with seven other schools in 1999 to form

5616-455: The Pac-12, ACC , and Big Ten announced the formation of a "historic alliance" that would bring their member institutions "together on a collaborative approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling." The formation of this alliance between three of the Power Five conferences was in response to Oklahoma and Texas announcing plans to leave the Big 12 and join

5720-491: The Pac-12. On April 16, 2024, it was also announced that Washington State would be joining the MW as an affiliate for baseball and women's swimming. On September 12, 2024, it was announced that Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, and San Diego State would be leaving the MW and joining the Pac-12 in 2026. On September 23, Utah State also accepted an offer to join the Pac-12 in 2026 as its seventh member. On October 1, 2024 it

5824-399: The Pacific Northwest and Bay Area schools, and a South Division comprising the Mountain Time Zone and Southern California schools. On July 1, 2011, the Pac-12 assumed its 12-team alignment when both Colorado and Utah officially joined as full members. On August 15, 2012, the conference debuted the Pac-12 Network . It was the third college sports conference to launch a dedicated network, and

5928-406: The South African teams were joined by the Jaguares and Sunwolves in a "South African" group, with that group also being divided into two conferences. The winner of each conference continued to receive a playoff spot, with additional berths going to the next three best Australasian teams and the next best team of the South African group. For 2018, Super Rugby will revert to a 15-team format, following

6032-405: The WAC took in three of the four SWC schools left out of the Big 12 merger— Rice University , Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Texas Christian University (TCU). Three other schools were added to bring the total membership to 16, namely Big West Conference members San José State University and UNLV, plus the University of Tulsa , an NCAA football independent and otherwise a member of

6136-421: The basis of the NFC and AFC respectively. The NFL allocates seven teams from each conference for the NFL playoffs ; the four division winners (guaranteed one of the top four seeds, based on winning percentage), and the three best-non division winners, also known as wild cards . Major League Baseball (MLB) does not use the word "conference." Instead, it is divided into two separate leagues which are identical to

6240-408: The collapse of the Southwest Conference . Texas expressed an interest in joining a strong academic conference, but joined three fellow Southwest Conference schools ( Texas A&M , Texas Tech , and Baylor ) to merge with the Big Eight Conference to form the Big 12 Conference in 1996 . Colorado elected to remain in the newly formed Big 12. Before the addition of Colorado and Utah in 2011, only

6344-400: The competition's rebranding as the United Rugby Championship. For the first season under the URC name in 2021–22, the competition reorganized into four regionally based pools, though no longer using the word "conference". Three of the pools are made up of teams from one country—Ireland, South Africa, and Wales. The fourth features the teams from Italy and Scotland. Each regional pool competes for

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6448-432: The conference a year earlier than previously announced, in the 2011–2012 academic year. On June 15, 2010, a deal was reached between Texas and the Big 12 Conference to keep Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State in the Big 12. Following Texas' decision, the other Big 12 schools that had been rumored candidates to join the Pac-10 announced they would remain in the Big 12. This deal effectively ended

6552-399: The conference and launching a new television network. Scott, the former head of the Women's Tennis Association, took over the conference in July 2009. In his first eight months on the job, he saw growing interest from the membership over the possibility of adding teams for the first time since Arizona and Arizona State joined the conference in 1978. In early June 2010, there were reports that

6656-423: The conference announced that it would enter into a football scheduling agreement with the two schools for the 2024 season. All 12 Mountain West members will play one game against either Oregon State or Washington State next season, giving both schools three home games and three away games. These games will not count towards Mountain West conference standings, and Oregon State and Washington State will remain members of

6760-403: The conference became informally known as the Big Six . The new league inherited the PCC's berth in the Rose Bowl ; since 1947, the PCC champion had received an automatic bid to the bowl. Oregon and Oregon State joined in the summer of 1964. With their addition, the conference was known unofficially as the Pacific Athletic Conference , and then the Pacific-8 (as there already

6864-409: The conference to sponsor a championship, but the Pac-12 has opted not to do so). For certain sports, the Pac-12 admits certain schools as associate members.  Full members  Full members (non-football) Other Conference  Other Conference  Associate members (non-football) The roots of the Pac-12 Conference go back to December 2, 1915, when the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC)

6968-412: The conference was in question. The Pac-10 began sponsoring women's athletics in the fall of 1986. Women's teams previously competed with other large universities on the Pacific coast in either the Northern Pacific Conference or the Western Collegiate Athletic Association . In the mid-1990s, the conference expressed interest in admitting the University of Colorado and the University of Texas after

7072-424: The conference's tentpole programs (and the entirety of the Los Angeles television market), the conference's ongoing media rights negotiations became much more complicated. ESPN reportedly had made an offer in which the ten remaining schools would receive around $ 30 million per year. This was rejected by member schools, who countered with a demand for $ 50 million per school per year. ESPN responded by walking away from

7176-433: The conference, the report indicated that BYU would be open to an MW return, at least in non-football sports, should Gonzaga join. A later Union-Tribune report indicated that talks were advanced enough that the conference's presidents planned a vote on an invitation to Gonzaga during the MW men's and women's basketball tournaments in Las Vegas, but decided to delay the vote until after the Final Four . However, on April 2,

7280-445: The conference. The MW and San Diego State reached a settlement of their dispute the following month, with SDSU remaining a member for the immediate future. In September 2023, after a mass exodus from the Pac-12 left Oregon State and Washington State as its only remaining members, MW commissioner Gloria Nevarez began discussions with the two schools regarding various options for partnership, affiliation, or merger. On December 1, 2023,

7384-570: The conferences listed above in all but name (which, although their operations have been integrated via the Commissioner of Baseball in modern times, were originally separately managed organizations with an intense rivalry). These are the American League (AL) and National League (NL), with 15 teams each. Each league is divided into the Eastern ( AL , NL ), Central ( AL , NL ), and Western ( AL , NL ) divisions, with all six divisions having 5 teams each. Each league produces six teams for postseason play , with each division winner also guaranteed one of

7488-505: The day of the Division I men's title game , Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth notified the MW, the WCC, and media that the school would remain in the WCC for the immediate future. On June 30, 2022, UCLA and USC announced their departure from the Pac-12 Conference to the Big Ten Conference beginning in the 2024–25 academic year. After that announcement, San Diego State had been considered one of

7592-542: The departing schools, under the conference constitution, forfeited their right to participate in governing the conference by publicly declaring their intention to leave, and that if they retain control they might use it to dissolve the league and drain its millions of dollars in assets. On November 14, 2023, Judge Gary Libey of the Whitman County, Washington , Superior Court ruled in favor of the two schools. The University of Washington (UW) filed an emergency motion to keep

7696-429: The discus and javelin throws. The Mountain West's institutions have the highest average elevations in NCAA Division I sports. Schools in italics are single-sport members. In the case of women's soccer-only member Colorado College, "stadium elevation" refers to the school's soccer venue. Athletic conference The AFL Women's competition used a non-geographic conference system in 2019 and 2020 . The league

7800-612: The dropping of two teams from South Africa and one from Australia. The new format features three conferences—Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, each with five teams; the Sunwolves will join the Australian conference and the Jaguares will play in the South African conference. The conference winners will continue to receive playoff berths, with additional berths going to the top five teams in

7904-399: The fall of 2024 to the spring of 2026. Washington State will also participate in the Mountain West for baseball, but Oregon State, a three-time College World Series champion, will become a baseball independent. After the ten schools departed, the conference continued using the Pac-12 name and branding for at least the 2024–25 academic year. Oregon State and Washington State were nicknamed

8008-414: The finals (one from each conference/league) and the records of teams outside a conference/league are ignored, which can allow teams with inferior records to make the playoffs while teams in the other conference with better records do not get in. An extreme example of this has occurred three times in the NFL, when the 2010 Seattle Seahawks , 2014 Carolina Panthers , and 2020 Washington Football Team reached

8112-718: The first team to receive this berth, being selected for and winning the Fiesta Bowl . As of 2020, As of the 2019–20 bowl games ESPN created the Bowl Challenge Cup in 2002 for the conference that had the best college football bowl record among Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. The conference has won it five times, more than any other conference, by finishing with bowl game records of 2–1 in 2004–05 , 4–1 in 2007–08 , 4–1 in 2009–10 , 4–1 in 2010–11 and 5–1 in 2021–22. The Mountain West and Missouri Valley Conferences hold an annual challenge series that

8216-636: The first to completely fund and own their own network outright. The conference had been based in Walnut Creek since the late 1970s until August 2014. Since 2014, the conference was headquartered in San Francisco, California , with the conference moving to working remotely once the lease expires in June 2023. The Pac-12 Network and meeting space for headquarters employees are now located at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon , an East Bay suburb. On August 24, 2021,

8320-799: The formation of the Big Sky Conference in 1963, and were independent in football until 1965 . In 1978 , the conference added Arizona and Arizona State from the Western Athletic Conference , becoming the Pacific-10 Conference or Pac-10 . The invitations to the schools were extended in December 1976, and the expansion formally announced in May 1977. In the mid-1980s, three of the northwest schools (Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State) were having financial difficulties in athletics, primarily with revenue from football, and their long-term membership in

8424-479: The geographic distribution of the conference. Air Force was the most strident opponent of this proposal, threatening to become an independent. Soon after the proposal by BYU and Utah, the presidents of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming met at Denver International Airport to discuss their future, and they agreed to break away from the WAC to form a new conference. They invited the WAC members New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV to join them in what became

8528-419: The league season, the teams that top each conference table received berths in the semifinals, with the next two teams in each conference playing off for semifinal berths. After the 2020–21 season, South Africa fully aligned its club rugby structure with that of Europe. The then-existing Pro14 franchises from South Africa were replaced by the country's four Super Rugby franchises, which moved into Pro14 and led to

8632-403: The letter from San Diego State as a formal notice of departure and began to proceed with the separation process; however, San Diego State disputed that its letter of intent was a formal notice. On June 30, 2023, with the Pac-12 still lacking a media rights agreement for 2024–25, ESPN reported that San Diego State would remain in the Mountain West Conference, rescinding the intention to withdraw from

8736-425: The names Big Five , Big Six , Pacific-8 , and Pacific-10 . The Pac-12 moniker was adopted in 2011 with the addition of Colorado and Utah . Nicknamed the "Conference of Champions", the Pac-12 has won more NCAA national championships in team sports than any other conference in history. Washington 's national title in women's rowing in 2017 was the 500th NCAA championship won by a Pac-12 school. The Pac-12 holds

8840-528: The negotiating table. Reports began circulating that Commissioner Kliavkoff had been to the San Diego State University and SMU campuses for tours. This was allegedly part of the conference's vetting process for expansion. San Diego State sent the Mountain West Conference a letter notifying it of the school's impending departure. The Pac-12, however, was adamant about securing a media rights deal before expanding. Without an incoming offer before

8944-456: The new Athletic Association of Western Universities was launched, with California, UCLA, USC, and Washington as the four charter members. Stanford joined during the first month. Hamilton left Pittsburgh to become the first commissioner of the AAWU, and remained for twelve years. The conference also was popularly known as the Big Five from 1960 to 1962. When Washington State joined in 1962,

9048-494: The new Mountain West Conference . Utah became the first " BCS Buster " to join a BCS conference, having played in (and won) two BCS games beforehand. On July 27, 2010, the conference unveiled a new logo and announced that the Pac-10 would be renamed the Pac-12 when Utah and Colorado formally joined in July 2011. On October 21, the Pac-12 announced that its football competition would be split into two divisions —a North Division comprising

9152-495: The overall competition table that were not already qualified. In the same sport, Pro14, now known as the United Rugby Championship , adopted a conference system effective in 2017–18 , following the addition of the two South African teams dropped from Super Rugby. The competition split into two conferences, each featuring two teams from Ireland and Wales, plus single teams from Italy, Scotland and South Africa. Following

9256-548: The playoffs by winning their respective divisions despite losing records (7–9 for the Seahawks and Washington, 7–8–1 for the Panthers). These are the only teams ever to qualify for the playoffs with losing records in seasons that were not shortened by strikes (as in 1982 , which was shortened from 16 to 9 games). In addition, a team's regular season schedule is weighted towards more games against other teams within their own division and to

9360-405: The top candidates for Pac-12 expansion. On June 16, 2023, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that San Diego State had given the Mountain West Conference notice that the school would be departing from the conference and asked for an extension for the departure deadline of July 1, 2023, to avoid paying extra exit fees. The Mountain West Conference denied the request for a deadline extension and considered

9464-481: The top three seeds, even if their record is lower than the league's top wild card teams . In all five sports, the champion of one conference (or league in MLB's case) plays the champion of the other conference for the final round championship, this is guaranteed to occur because the rules for the playoffs require play to be exclusively within the conference/league in all rounds before the final round, leaving only two teams for

9568-407: The two regional leagues were renamed National League North and National League South . This does not strictly meet the definition indicated in the previous sections of this article, as each individual league mentioned in this section is a separate competition. The only times that teams from different leagues compete against one another in meaningful matches are in knockout cup competitions, such as

9672-959: The two schools from gaining full control of the conference for the 2023–24 academic year; a Washington Supreme Court commissioner granted UW's motion on November 28, 2023. However, this was overturned on December 15, 2023, by the Washington State Supreme Court , giving Oregon State and Washington State sole control of the Pac-12, meaning the departing schools will no longer be able to vote on conference decisions. Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties. Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance. The following table shows institutional reporting to

9776-668: Was a major conference called the Big Eight ). In 1968, the AAWU formally renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference , or Pac-8 for short. The Pac-8 did not allow a second bowl team from the conference until the 1975 season ; in basketball, participation in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was not allowed until 1973 . Idaho was never invited to join the AAWU; the Vandals were independent for four years until

9880-415: Was announced that the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) will be joining the Mountain West starting in the 2026–27 academic year. On October 14, Craig Angelos , athletic director of football-only member Hawaii , confirmed outside reports that the school would upgrade to full MW membership in 2026. This move was officially announced the next day. On November 1, 2024, Grand Canyon University announced it

9984-525: Was because of this that the conference system was removed for the 2021 season . In the United States and Canada , the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) are divided into Eastern ( NHL , NBA ) and Western ( NHL , NBA ) Conferences, with multiple divisions within each conference (two in each NHL conference, three in each NBA conference). In both leagues,

10088-438: Was considering leaving the Mountain West to go independent in football and rejoin the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports, the Mountain West Conference officially extended invitations to California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) and the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada). Both schools accepted and would become the tenth and eleventh members of the league. BYU announced on August 31, 2010, that it would leave

10192-400: Was divided into two conferences, based on ladder position in the previous season. Not every team could play each other due to the limited number of rounds, so conferences were introduced so that teams were only measured against the teams they played. The system was controversial because it allowed some weak teams to make finals, and strong teams from the other conference missed out on finals. It

10296-513: Was founded at a meeting at the Imperial Hotel in Portland, Oregon . Charter members were the University of California (now University of California, Berkeley), University of Washington, University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). An official of Stanford University also attended the meeting but declined to join right away because, unlike the other schools, it

10400-711: Was joining the Mountain West no later than July 1, 2026.   Members departing for the Pac-12 Conference in 2026.  Full members  Full members (non-football)  Associate members (football only)   Associate members (other)  Other conference  Other conference  Excluded from this list are all national championships earned outside the scope of NCAA competition , including Division I FBS football titles , women's AIAW championships (17), equestrian titles (0), and retroactive Helms Athletic Foundation titles . The Mountain West Conference sponsors championship competition in eight men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Hawai'i

10504-433: Was not going to sponsor a football team in the coming year and it was not willing to prohibit freshmen from competing in sports. The PCC began play in 1916. One year later, Washington State College (now Washington State University) joined the league, followed by Stanford University in 1918. In 1922, the PCC expanded to eight teams with the admission of USC and Idaho . Montana joined the Conference in 1924, and in 1928,

10608-923: Was on November 13, 2009, featuring the Bradley Braves and the BYU Cougars in Provo and it concluded on December 23 with the Wyoming Cowboys visiting the Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls, Iowa . The challenge is similar to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge , which pits men's basketball teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference . As of the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The Mountain West's slogan

10712-518: Was renewed in the 2015–16 season after a two-year hiatus. The series began in the 2009–10 season but temporarily ended when the original contract ran out after the 2012–13 season , During the first four seasons of the series, it involved all members of the MW and an equal number of the 10 MVC teams in basketball. With the MW now having 11 basketball members to the MVC's 10, the renewed series involves all MVC teams, with one MW team sitting out. The first game

10816-405: Was the current athletic director at Pittsburgh ). Nicknamed the " Airplane Conference ", the five former PCC schools would have played with other major academically-oriented schools, including Army , Navy , Air Force , Notre Dame , Pitt , Penn State , and Syracuse . The effort fell through when a Pentagon official vetoed the idea and the service academies backed out. On July 1, 1959,

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