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Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10)
Established: 1959
NCAA	Division I FBS
Members	10
Sports fielded	22 (men's: 11; women's: 11)
Region	Pacific Coast
Former names	Pacific-8 (1968–78) Pacific-8 (1964–68) - unofficial Big Six (1962–64) - unofficial Big Five (1959–62) - unofficial AAWU - (1959–68) PCC - (1915-59) - predecessor
Headquarters	Walnut Creek, California
Commissioner	Larry Scott (since 2009)
Website	www.pac-10.org
Locations

The Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) is a college athletic conference which operates in the western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two levels of NCAA Division I football competition. The conference's 10 members (which are primarily flagship research universities in their respective regions, well-regarded academically, and with relatively large student enrollment) compete in 22 NCAA sports. It was founded as the Athletic Association of Western Universities or AAWU in 1959, and went by the names Big Five, Big Six, and Pacific-8, becoming the Pacific-10 in 1978.

Known as the Conference of Champions, the Pac-10 has won more NCAA National Team Championships than any other conference in history. In fact, the top three schools with the most NCAA championships belong to the Pac-10 (UCLA, Stanford and the University of Southern California); while UCLA holds the most, winning a combined 104 team championships in men's and women's sports.

During the 2008-09 school year, the Pac-10 conference captured 11 NCAA titles, outstripping any other conference. It was followed by the ACC and Big Ten with five championships, and by the Big 12 and SEC conferences with four each.[14]

The current commissioner of the conference is Larry Scott who replaced Thomas C. Hansen, who retired in July 2009 after 26 years in that position.^[1] Prior to joining the Pac-10, Scott was Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association.^[2]

Membership

Full members

Locations of Pacific-10 Conference full member institutions.

Endowments

1. Stanford University - $12.6 billion ^[5]
2. University of Southern California - $3.6 billion ^[6]
3. University of Washington - $3.2 billion^[7]
4. University of California, Berkeley - $2.8 billion^[8]
5. University of California, Los Angeles - $2.6 billion ^[9]
6. Washington State University - $678 million ^[10]
7. The University of Arizona - $519 million ^[11]
8. University of Oregon - $498 million ^[12]
9. Oregon State University - $476 million ^[13]
10. Arizona State University - $407 million ^[14]

Associate members (men's soccer)

• San Diego State University Aztecs

Associate members (wrestling)

• Boise State Broncos
• Cal Poly-SLO Mustangs
• Cal State Fullerton Titans
• Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners
• Portland State Vikings
• UC Davis Aggies

History

Pacific Coast Conference

The roots of the Pac-10 Conference go back to December 2, 1915, when the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was founded at a meeting at the Imperial Hotel in Portland, Oregon^[15]. Charter members were the University of California (now University of California, Berkeley), the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). The conference began play in 1916.

One year later, Washington State College (now Washington State University) joined the league, followed by Stanford University in 1918.

In 1922, the PCC expanded to eight teams with the admission of USC and Idaho. Montana joined the Conference in 1924, and in 1928, the PCC grew to 10 members with the addition of UCLA.

For many years, the conference split into two divisions for basketball—a Southern Division comprising the four California schools and a Northern Division comprising the six schools in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1950, Montana departed to join the Mountain States Conference. The PCC continued as a nine-team league through 1958.

AAWU (Big Five and Big Six)

Following a "pay-for-play" scandal at several PCC institutions (specifically Cal, USC, UCLA and Washington), the PCC disbanded in 1959. When those four and Stanford started talking about forming a new conference, retired Admiral Thomas J. Hamilton interceded and suggested the schools consider creating a "power conference." Nicknamed the "Airplane Conference", the five PCC schools would have played with other big schools including Army, Navy, Air Force, Notre Dame, Penn, Penn State, Duke, and Georgia Tech among others. The effort fell through when a Pentagon official vetoed the idea and the service academies backed out.^[16]

On July 1, 1959 the new Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed, with Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington as charter members. The conference also was popularly known as the Big Five from 1960-62;^[17] when Washington State joined in 1962, the conference was then informally known as the Big Six.^[17]

Pacific-8

Oregon and Oregon State joined in 1964, the term "Pacific-8" became informally used (as there already was a Big Eight Conference). Idaho was never invited to join the AAWU; the Vandals were independent for four years until the formation of the Big Sky Conference in 1963.

In 1968, the AAWU formally renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference, or Pac-8 for short.

Pacific-10

In 1978, the conference added WAC powers Arizona and Arizona State, to create the Pacific-10 Conference or Pac-10 in its current form.

The Pac-10 claims the PCC's history as its own. It inherited the PCC's berth in the Rose Bowl, and the eight largest schools in the old PCC all eventually joined the new league. However, the older league had a separate charter.

The Pac-10 is one of the founding members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, a conference organized to provide competition in non-revenue Olympic sports. All Pac-10 members participate in at least one MPSF sport (men's and women's indoor track and field both actually have enough participating Pac-10 schools for the conference to sponsor a championship, but the Pac-10 has opted not to do so), and for certain sports, the Pac-10 admits certain schools as Associate Members (which currently are San Diego State for men's soccer, and UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Boise State, Cal State Fullerton, Portland State, and Cal State Bakersfield for wrestling).

The conference expressed interest in admitting Texas after the collapse of the Southwest Conference. Texas expressed an interest in joining a strong academic conference, but joined three fellow SWC schools to combine with the Big Eight Conference to form the Big 12 Conference in 1996.^[18]

Of Division I conferences, only the Ivy League has maintained its current membership for a longer time than the Pac-10. Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said on February 9, 2010, that the window for expansion by the conference is open for the next year as the conference begins negotiations for a new television deal. Speaking on a conference call to introduce former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg as his new deputy, Scott talked about possibly adding new teams to the conference and launching a new television network. Scott, the former head of the Women’s Tennis Association, took over the conference last July. In his less than eight months on the job, he has seen growing interest from the membership over the possibility of adding teams for the first time since Arizona and Arizona State joined the conference in 1978.

Membership timeline

NCAA national team titles

NCAA National Championship trophies, rings, watches won by Pac-10 teams

• through 2008-09 season^[19]

Pac-10 football rivalries

Big Game, 2004 between Cal and Stanford

Each school within the conference has its own in-state, conference rivalry. One is an intracity rivalry (UCLA-USC), and another is within the same metropolitan area (Cal-Stanford). These rivalries (and the name given to the football forms) are:

• Cal-Stanford (The Big Game, winner gets the Stanford Axe). Notable history includes The Play in 1982 in Berkeley
• Arizona-Arizona State (The Duel in the Desert, winner gets the Territorial Cup). Notable history includes "The Catch" of John Jefferson in 1975 to preserve a perfect season for the Sun Devils.
• Washington-Washington State (since 1962, the winner gets the Apple Cup), notable history includes the "Snow Bowl" of 1992 in Pullman
• Oregon-Oregon State (The Civil War, winner used to get the Platypus Trophy until it vanished, later to be found at Oregon's McArthur Court.) The 2009 winner decided the conference title (Oregon 37-33) & went to the Rose Bowl
• UCLA-USC (winner gets the Victory Bell)

There are other notable football rivalries within the Pac-10 conference.

All of the California schools consider each other major rivals, due to the culture clash between Northern and Southern California. For USC, the big game is UCLA. For Stanford, their big game is Cal. But for both Stanford and Cal, their second biggest game is USC.^[20] Cal and UCLA have a rivalry rooted in their shared history as the top programs within the University of California system. Stanford and USC have a rivalry rooted in their shared history as the only private schools in the Pac-10. Cal and USC also have a long history, having played each other every year in football since 1916.

Oregon and Washington also have an unofficial rivalry (despite recent efforts to give it the name "The Cascade Clash"). All of the Northwest schools consider each other as rivals due to the proximity and long history.

Arizona and New Mexico have a recently renewed rivalry game, based upon when they were both members of the WAC and both states were longtime territories before being admitted as states in 1912. They played for the Kit Carson Rifle trophy, which was no longer used starting with their meeting in the 1997 Insight Bowl.^[21][22]

USC and Notre Dame have an intersectional rivalry (See Notre Dame-USC rivalry). The games in odd-numbered years in Indiana are played in mid-October, while the games in even-numbered years in Los Angeles are usually played in late November.

With the NCAA permanently approving 12-game schedules in college football beginning in 2006, the Pac-10 — alone among major conferences in doing so — went to a full nine-game conference schedule. Previously, the schools did not play one non-rival opponent, resulting in an eight-game conference schedule (4 home games and 4 away). This round-robin schedule is only shared by the Big East among BCS conferences. The schedule consists of one home and away game against the two schools in each region, plus the game against the primary rival.

Rivalries in other sports

All of the intra-conference rivalries in football are carried over into other sports.

During the 1970s, UCLA and Notre Dame had an intense men's basketball rivalry. For several years, it was the only non-conference game in Division I basketball that was played twice a season (home-and-home). Unquestionably, the most famous game in the rivalry was on January 19, 1974, when Notre Dame scored the last 12 points of the game to nip UCLA and end the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak. This rivalry is now dormant, partly because Notre Dame is no longer independent in sports other than football (Big East).

In baseball, there are intense rivalries between the four southern schools. Arizona, Arizona State, USC, and UCLA have long and successful histories in baseball and all have won national titles in the sport. The most intense series is widely regarded to be the "Basebrawl" series between USC and Arizona State in 1990. Arizona State swept the series and in the final game a bench clearing brawl spread quickly to the stands and made national headlines. Several were injured and riot police were called to end the fracas.

Washington and California have a longstanding rivalry in men's crew as the two traditionally dominant programs on the West Coast.

The isolated rural campuses of Washington State and Idaho are eight miles (13 km) apart on the Palouse, creating a natural border war. Idaho rejoined FBS in 1996; the football rivalry has been dubbed Battle of the Palouse.

Due to the unique geographic nature of the Pac-10 teams, the teams travel in pairs for road basketball games. For example, on Thursday, February 28, 2008, USC played Arizona and UCLA played Arizona State. Two nights later the teams switched and USC played Arizona State and UCLA played Arizona. The teams are paired as followed: USC and UCLA (the L.A. teams), Arizona and Arizona State (the Arizona teams), Cal and Stanford (the Bay Area teams), Washington and Washington State (the Washington teams), and Oregon and Oregon State (the Oregon teams). Usually, the games are played on Thursdays and Saturdays with a game or occasionally two on Sundays for television purposes. This pairing formula is also used in women's volleyball. To make scheduling simpler for men and women's basketball, the schedule for women's basketball is the opposite of the men's schedule. For example, when the Oregon schools are hosting the Arizona schools in men's, the Arizona schools host the Oregon schools in women the same weekend.

This formula has made a tradition in conference play to keep track of how a team does against a particular region; and stats are kept at to how successful a team is against, for example, "the Bay Area schools" at home or away. At any given week, four regions are playing against each other, while the remaining one has their rivalry game, usually on the weekend. Those teams get the Thursday off unless they schedule a non-conference game.

Conference facilities

Past conference champions

Men's basketball

The Pacific Coast Conference began playing basketball in the 1915-16 season. The PCC was split into North and South Divisions for basketball beginning with the 1922-23 season. The winners of the two divisions would play a best of three series of games to determine the PCC basketball champion. If two division teams tied, they would have a one game playoff to produce the division representative. Starting with the first NCAA Men's Basketball Championship in 1939, the winner of the PCC divisional playoff was given the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Oregon, the 1939 PCC champion, won the championship game in the 1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

The last divisional playoff was in the 1954-55 season. After that, there was no divisional play and all teams played each other in a round robin competition. From the 1955-56 season through the 1958-59 season, the regular season conference champion was awarded the NCAA tournament berth from the PCC. In the case of a tie, a tie breaker rule was used to determine the NCAA tournament representative.

Beginning with the 1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, the Pac-10 would usually place at least one other at-large team in the tournament.

By the 1985-86 season, the Pac-10 was one of three remaining conferences that gave their automatic NCAA tournament bid to the regular season round-robin champion. The other two conferences were the Ivy League and the Big Ten Conference.

The modern Pacific-10 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament format began in 1987. It was dropped after 1990 upon opposition from coaches and poor revenue and attendance.^[46]

The tournament was restarted by a 8-2 vote of the athletic directors of the conference in 2000 after determining that a tournament would help increase exposure of the conference and help the seeding of the schools in the NCAA tournament.^[47]

UCLA basketball game at Pauley Pavilion

Cal versus San Diego State at Haas Pavilion

See also

• Bold text denotes National Champion. (Arizona was National Champion in 1997, but not Conference Champion.)
• Pac-10 Tournament

Women's basketball

Football

Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California

ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter hands off to tailback Dimitri Nance in the 2008 game at Cal

Oregon State Beavers players get ready for action on the road

* Denotes Pac-10 representative in Rose Bowl
Co-champions vs Rose Bowl See page 137 of Pac-10 Handbook for explanation

Bold denotes unofficial National Champion recognition

See also

• Pacific-10 Conference football statistics
• Pacific-10 Conference football awards

Bowl games

The following is the current bowl selection order and the teams involved in each bowl:

Baseball

Note: Oregon had dropped its baseball program following the 1981 season but has reinstated it in 2009
Note: Oregon State won the National Championship in 2007 despite not winning the Conference Championship
*denotes North-South playoff champion
**denotes Pac-8 playoff champion
***denotes Pacific Coast Conference playoff champion
****California won the CIBA Division 1 and USC won Division
2. Cal defeated USC in a playfoff for the CIBA title.
¤In 2000, ASU won the tiebreaker and the Pac-10 automatic post-season bid, having won both series against UCLA and Stanford.
LEGEND: PSU = Portland State, SC = Santa Clara
Bold text indicates National Champion

Softball

Note: Washington won the 2009 National Championship but did not win the conference championship
Note: UCLA won the 1992, 1995, 2003, and 2004 National Championship but did not win the conference championship
Note: Arizona won the 1991, 1993, and 1996 National Championship but did not win the conference championship
Note: California won the 2002 National Championship but did not win the conference champsionship

Note: Washington State and USC do not field softball teams
Bold text indicates National Champion

Men's soccer

The conference established men's soccer as a sponsored sport beginning in the 2000 academic year. Prior to then, most members who fielded a men's collegiate soccer team competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

Note: Not all PAC-10 schools field a men's soccer team.

Women's soccer

The conference established women's soccer as a sponsored sport beginning in the 1995 academic year.

Commissioners

PCC

• Edwin N. Atherton 1940–44
• Victor O. Schmidt 1944–59

AAWU

• Thomas J. Hamilton 1959–68

Pacific-8

• Thomas J. Hamilton 1968–71
• Wiles Hallock 1971–78

Pacific-10

• Wiles Hallock 1978–83
• Thomas C. Hansen 1983–2009
• Larry Scott 2009

References

External links

• Pacific-10 Conference Official Website