In the latest shakeup out west, the Big West Conference has announced that it will discontinue sponsorship of men’s and women’s swimming and diving, effective July 1, 2026.
“This decision followed careful evaluation of NCAA Championship participation requirements and anticipated membership composition, which indicated The Big West would no longer meet the minimum institutional threshold required to maintain conference eligibility tied to NCAA Championship automatic qualification opportunities in the sport,” the conference said in a press release.
The current NCAA Championship ‘automatic qualifier’ rules say that conference champions under the AQ time standard only qualify if 1) that is a team’s primary conference championship meet, and 2) if there are a minimum of five teams for that gender.
“While this was a difficult decision, it was also a responsible one,” said Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly. “Our priority is ensuring that student-athletes and programs have clear, stable pathways to meaningful competitive opportunities. Acting now allows institutions to transition to leagues where they can maintain NCAA Championship automatic qualification access and continue to thrive.”
The Big West will have 12 remaining full-time members after July 1, 2026 when Hawaii and UC Davis leave for the Mountain West; the conference will then fall to ten teams and UCSD and UCSB leave for the West Coast Conference in 2027.
The conference will then add two more California schools, Cal Baptist and Sacramento State, plus Utah Valley University. That will make a ten team conference with nine located in the state of California.
The school is also losing three affiliate schools in swimming and diving who are heading to other conferences: Grand Canyon (men), University of San Diego (women), and Seattle University (men and women).
In spite of what the geography might lead one to believe, relatively few of those school sponsor varsity swimming & diving programs, especially on the men’s side.
There will be only one Big West school with a men’s swimming & diving team for the 2027-2028 season, Cal State Bakersfield, and only two women’s team, Cal State Bakersfield and Cal Baptist.
In the release, the conference touted historical partnerships with the MPSF and Pac-12, though they didn’t say where those programs would ultimately wind up.
Last season, with six men’s teams and seven women’s teams, Hawaii swept the Big West team titles.
Conference realignments have been nationwide, but have hit especially hard in the western United States as conferences fold, form, and realign on what feels like a monthly basis.
As part of an attempt to bring stability, the Big West also raised its conference withdrawal fee to $5 million, which was previously $1.5 million.
Big West swimming & diving automatic qualifiers last season:
- Holly Nelson, Hawaii
- Asia Kozan, UCSD
- Chloe Braun, UCSD
- Samantha Banos, UCSB
- Eva Boehlke, UCSD
- Karol Ostrowski, Hawii
- Carter Dooling, Grand Canyon
- Vili Sivec, CSU Bakersfield
- Tom Thalau, Hawaii
In other news, on the PAC-12 Wikipedia page, it says they are planning on resuming sponsoring women’s swimming and diving next season, except they will only have 4 teams by my count (Washington State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State). In order to get an AQ, you have to have 5 teams. Will they pull in somebody else? Or will they roll with 4 and not get AQ status?
As this continues to happen, people think the B final will save swimming.
Huh, what are creative way to keep schools at a conference – charge them $5mil (!) exit fee…
Such a shame. These schools that are mostly comprised of California schools should have excellent swimming and diving programs. Many of them previously had teams, and some have beautiful on-campus facilities that serve water polo.
So MPSF Conference meet will be in Pharr, TX at UT Rio Grande. If all CA schools why not save the travel costs and have them go to St George or Federal Way?
The schools that have swimming and stay with Big West, which conference might they compete at?
depends what conference their school is willing to pay for to compete. Some are going to Mountain West (Davis), some to MPSF (UCSD, UCSD, CSUB, UOP, and more)
Is this fact? How do you know? I know of at least one team in your list that has not announced to their team where they are going yet?
UCSD AND UCSB swim programs can’t move to the WCC as they currently don’t sponsor swim and dive. Where does that leave them?
Both going to MPSF for 1 year before WCC adds swim the following year
This is not confirmed at all. It is possible but the mpsf does not have to accept them at all. If they take all the future wcc schools it will be an enormous conference next season
Yeah that’s the MPSF’s calculus. They know these are going to be one shot schools.
Something needs to stabilize out west.