The University of the Pacific will join the WCC starting in 2013
(The Beacon)
By Jason Hortsch, Staff Writer -- hortsch12@up.edu
Like many college conferences in upheaval as of recent times due to realignment, the West Coast Conference (WCC) will soon welcome another new member to complement the addition of BYU this year.
On March 28th, the University of the Pacific officially accepted an invitation to join the WCC starting in the 2013. The move will give the WCC a total of 10 schools.
The move works well for the University of the Pacific, who is currently the only school in the Big West Conference that is private and has an undergraduate enrollment of less than 4,000. Like most of the WCC, they also currently have no football team.
Interim Athletic Director Karen Peters said that the school fits the WCC's profile perfectly.
"Institutionally they are a great match with the WCC schools both academically and athletically, with many of the conference schools playing them already in sports," Peters said.
"They are a like-minded institution," Associate Athletic Director Jason Brough agreed.
The University of the Pacific will be a strong addition to the conference, boasting NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances three times this past decade.
"From a competitive standpoint they've shown a commitment to be competitive and help raise the profile of the conference," Brough said. "It guarantees us another quality conference opponent."
Moreover, the addition of a 10th team to the conference will make scheduling for all of the conference's schools easier.
"It will make it easier to schedule tournaments," Brough said.
Peters also noted that adding another school will help ease the burden of traveling, especially with respect to traveling on weekends.
"From a scheduling perspective having 10 teams in the WCC will make life easier on our teams when they travel," Peters said. "We should see fewer split weekends in conference play, where we are home on Thursday and away on Saturday, or vice versa."
Brother Ronald Gallagher, chair of the WCC Presidents' Council, was happy to welcome Pacific back to the conference.
"We are pleased to welcome back the University of the Pacific as the 10th member of the West Coast Conference," he said in the conference's press release.
He is referencing the fact that the University of the Pacific was actually one of the five founding members of the WCC in 1952, before leaving in 1971 for the Big West Conference.
University of the Pacific will compete in women's soccer, volleyball, women's cross country, men's and women's basketball, men's golf, baseball and men's and women's tennis.
Getting to know the University of the Pacific:
Who: The University of the Pacific was founded in 1851 making it the oldest university in California.
Where: Pacific's main campus is in Stockton. They have a law school in Sacramento and a dental school in San Francisco.
Sports: The Tigers will compete in women's soccer, volleyball, women's cross country, men's and women's basketball, men's golf, baseball and men's and women's tennis.
Welcome back: Pacific, along with St. Mary's, USF, Santa Clara and San Jose State, founded the California Basketball Association in 1953, which later became the WCC.
Why this matters: The Tigers made a trio of appearances in the NCAA basketball postseason from 2004-2006. Tiger volleyball boasts the only two school NCAA championships which came during the 1985 and 1986 seasons, part of 24 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament.
