The Big West Conference
By Matt Shetler
The Big West Conference (BWC) is a nine team
conference that competes in seventeen Division I sports. All
active members are in California, making the BWC the only
conference in America having all of its members in the same
state. The BWC headquarters are in Irvine, California and the
commissioner of the conference is Dennis Farrell, a post he has
held since 1992.
The nine members of the BWC include: Cal Poly, Cal
State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State,
Pacific, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara.
The conference was founded in 1969, using the name
Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. In 1988 it changed its name
to the Big West Conference. Over four decades, the BWC has
achieved both athletic and academic success. There are fifteen
former members of the BWC, including: eight current teams of
the WAC (Boise St., Hawaii, Fresno St., and Nevada among those),
two members of the Mountain West Conference (including UNLV),
three members of the Sun Belt Conference and One member of the
MAC.
Although the BWC doesn’t sponsor
football, the conference stacks up well against the rest of the
nation, winning seventeen National Championships in sports such
as soccer, basketball, baseball and volleyball. The winner of
the post-season basketball tournament receives an automatic bid
to the NCAA Tournament; Cal State Fullerton represented the BWC
in 2008. On the diamond, the BWC fields some of the best
baseball programs in the nation, including Cal State. Fullerton,
Long Beach St. and UC Irvine.
The 2006-07 sports season proved to be another great
one in BWC history. The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos captured the
NCAA men’s soccer team captured the NCAA National Championship;
defeating PAC-10 nemesis UCLA 2-1 in the title game. The
College World Series featured two BWC teams for the third time
in history. UC Irvine and four-time national champion Cal State
Fullerton represented the BWC and would not disappoint.
The Anteaters (Irvine) and Titans (CSF) played one
of the most dramatic games in CWS history. The Anteaters pulled
out a 5-4 victory in the longest game in CWS history, as of
2008. A five hour and 40 minute battle, in 13 innings, saw the
two BWC teams play one of the greatest games in CWS history.
The Omaha crowd became part of “Eater Nation” for
the week and witnessed another CWS classic the next night as the
Anteaters defeated the Arizona St. Sun Devils 8-7 in ten
innings. Both games still talked about as two of the greatest
in CWS history.story.
