Established 1915 | Association NCAA Members 9 | |
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Sports fielded 21 (men's: 10; women's: 11) | ||
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in Southern California and organized into nine athletic programs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer are combined teams for sports purposes.
Contents
The SCIAC currently sponsors men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's golf, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, women's volleyball and men's and women's water polo.
History
The SCIAC was founded in 1915 with five member schools with the goals to promote amateurism in athletics. The five founding members, all of whom are still members, are California Institute of Technology, Occidental College, Pomona College, the University of Redlands, and Whittier College. Although all five original charter members are still affiliated with the SCIAC, only two, Occidental and Redlands, have had uninterrupted membership. The acronym SCIAC (standing for Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Council) was in use during 1913 and 1914 until that organization became the CIF Southern Section.
On May 12, 2011, the SCIAC announced that Chapman University would become the ninth member, beginning with the 2011–12 academic year. The addition of Chapman marks the first expansion of the conference since California Lutheran University joined in 1991. At one time, most of the colleges were the Southern California affiliates of various Christian sects such as the Quakers and the Presbyterians. Today, only California Lutheran University maintains an affiliation with a church.
There are three former members of the SCIAC: University of California, Los Angeles, San Diego State University and University of California, Santa Barbara. All former members now compete in NCAA Division I athletics.
Current member schools
The member schools are:
Former member schools
There are three schools that once participated in SCIAC athletics and no longer do so: