West Coast Conference

The West Coast Conference was chartered by five Bay Area institutions (San Francisco, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, San Jose State and Pacific) as the California Basketball Association. After two seasons of play under that name, the conference expanded to include Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine in 1955, and became the West Coast Athletic Conference in 1956. The name was shortened in 1989.

Until Brigham Young University joined in 2011-2012, the current alignment of Gonzaga, LMU, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary's, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara had remained unchanged since 1979, making the WCC the third most stable conference in the nation. Only the Ivy League and Pacific-10 Conference had been together longer.

All of the current members are private, religiously-affiliated institutions. The conference sponsors 13 sports but does not include football as one of them.

From 1977 to 1984, the California schools competed in the Southern California Baseball Association or the Northern California Baseball Association, while Gonzaga University (which joined the WCC in 1979) and University of Portland (which joined the WCC in 1976) competed in the Northern Pacific Conference (1975-1981) and Pacific-10 Conference (1982-1995). Seattle University, which left the conference in 1980, also played in the Northern Pacific until dropping baseball in 1980.