Pacific West Conference
| Pacific West Conference (PacWest) |
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|---|---|
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| Established | 1992 |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division II |
| Members | 14 (12 in 2018) |
| Sports fielded | 15 (men's: 7; women's: 8) |
| Region | Pacific States |
| Headquarters | Newport Beach, California |
| Commissioner | Bob Hogue (since 2007) |
| Website | www |
| Locations | |
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The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II level. Member institutions are located in California, Utah, and Hawai'i.
The conference sponsors the following sports: basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and track & field outdoor for both men and women; baseball for men only; softball and volleyball for women only. The newest PacWest sports are men's tennis and women's golf, both added in 2012–13.
The PacWest was formed in 1992 when the Great Northwest Conference (a men's conference) merged with the Continental Divide Conference (a women's conference containing some of the same members), in response to the departures of several members and new NCAA legislation requiring conferences to have at least six members. In addition, some Hawai'i-based colleges joined the new conference.
At one point the conference expanded to 16 members, but in 2001, member schools from Washington, Alaska, California, and Oregon left to form the new Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
With the departure of the final two mainland members, Montana State University–Billings and Western New Mexico University, to join the Heartland Conference in 2005, the four Hawai'i universities played one season as “independents” after receiving a waiver from the NCAA to keep the conference in name, while searching for new members, because in order to be eligible for conference membership in the NCAA, a conference must consist of a minimum of six member institutions who sponsor at least ten sports, with two team sports for each gender.
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