Pacific West Conference

From BR Bullpen

The Pacific West Conference (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. 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. In 2005, all remaining non-Hawaii schools left to join the Heartland Conference. The four Hawaii universities remaining in the conference played one season as “independents”, receiving a waiver from the NCAA to keep the conference in name, 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. The conference regained full conference status in NCAA Division II by gaining new member universities, including Notre Dame de Namur University, Grand Canyon University, Dixie State College of Utah and Academy of Art University.

In 2008, it was announced that the conference would sponsor baseball as its 11th sport. The conference currently has only four baseball sponsoring members.