Pac-12 Conference | |
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Established | 1959 1915 (as Pacific Coast Conference) |
Association | NCAA |
Division | Division I |
Subdivision | FBS |
Members | 12 |
Sports fielded |
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Region | |
Former names | Pacific Coast Conference (PCC, 1915–1959) Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU, 1959–68) Pacific-8 (1968–78) Pacific-10 (1978–2011) |
Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
Commissioner | Larry Scott (since 2009) |
Website | pac-12 |
Locations | |
The Pac-12 Conference (officially the Pacific-12 Conference) is a collegiate athletic conference that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two tiers of NCAA Division I football competition.
The conference's 12 members are located in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. They include each state's flagship public university, four additional public universities, and two private research universities.
The modern Pac-12 conference formed after the disbanding of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), whose principal members founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959. The conference previously went by 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. The top three schools with the most NCAA team championships are members of the Pac-12: UCLA, Stanford, and USC, in that order. Washington's national title in women's rowing in 2017 was the 500th NCAA championship won by a Pac-12 school.
The current commissioner of the conference is Larry Scott. Scott replaced Thomas C. Hansen, who retired in July 2009 after 26 years in that position. Prior to joining the Pac-10, Scott was Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association.