USC Conference Affiliation

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

USC’s first competition in track and field was in 1893 at the first annual field day meet of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SCIAA). Eligibility guidelines were established as a student taking at least 10 hours a week of regular recitation or lecture work for at least 3 months before the field day meet with the intention “to pursue the same for the remainder of the year.” Member schools were Chaffey, Occidental, Pomona, and USC.

The SCIAA conducted an annual field day meet from 1893 to 1898. No meet was held in 1899 as there were disagreements between Pomona College and USC.

After 1899 it is difficult to follow the complete role of the SCIAA’s governance in track and field as very little information could be found in the news of the time. We’re speaking of a time window of 1900 to 1925. (1926 being USC’s first appearance in the Pacific Coast Conference Meet)

Based on newspaper reporting, conference championship meets were labeled as such in 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914 and 1915. A meet in 1922 was called a Championship of Southern California, but no conference affiliation was made. Which brings us to…

PACIFIC COAST CONFERENCE

The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was founded in Portland, Ore in 1915. The original membership consisted of four schools – the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). All are still charter members of the Conference.

Pacific Coast Conference competition would begin in 1916 with Washington State College (now Washington State University) and Stanford University joining the conference in 1917 and 1918 respectively.

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

The Pacific Coast Conference competed as a 10-member league until 1950 when Montana resigned from the Conference. The PCC would continue as a nine-team Conference through 1958. (World War II curtailed intercollegiate athletic competition to a minimum from 1943-45)

In 1959, the PCC was dissolved and the Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed. The original AAWU members were California, Stanford, USC, UCLA and Washington (colloquially called the Big Five). Washington State joined the membership in 1962 (now the Big Six). Oregon and Oregon State joined in 1964. Unofficially calling itself the Pacific Athletic Conference (or PAC-8), the AAWU formally renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference (PAC-8) in 1968.

In 1978, University of Arizona and Arizona State University were admitted to the league becoming the Pacific-10 Conference (PAC-10). In 1986-87, the league expanded to include 10 women’s sports.*

In June of 2010, the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 with the addition of the University of Colorado and the University of Utah.

* Women's Track & Field

In 1975 there was a women’s championship track meet involving at least 8 schools (Long Beach St., Cal. St. LA, Cal. St. Northridge, Cal Poly SLO, Redlands, San Diego St., UCLA, USC), the Southern California Women’s Intercollegiate Track Championships. Nothing could be found to indicate a conference affiliation with this meet.

In 1976, official conference affiliation for the women began with the founding of the Western Collegiate Athletic Association (WCAA). Charter members were Arizona, Arizona State, Cal. St. Fullerton, Long Beach State, San Diego State, UCLA, and USC. (Stanford joined in 1982)

1985 brought a number of changes. The Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) added women's sports to its conference and Cal. St. Fullerton, Long Beach State, San Diego State moved from the WCAA to the PCAA. The WCAA was renamed the Pacific West (PacWest) Conference for one (final) academic year (1985–86) with the 5 remaining schools (ASU, AZ, Stanford, UCLA, USC). In the summer of 1986, the PacWest and the women's Northern Pacific Conference were dissolved as both of these conferences were brought into the PAC-10 when the PAC-10 added women’s sports to its conference.