The Western Collegiate Athletic Association (WCAA) was a women's-only athletic conference on the West Coast of the United States. Members competed in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) until the 1981–82 academic year and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from 1981–82 to 1985–86. For its final season the league was known as the Pacific West Conference.
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Membership
History
The WCAA was founded in 1976 by UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal State-Fullerton, Long Beach State, and San Diego State. These seven schools were among the premier programs in many women's sports and previously competed were not members of a conference. The schools' men's teams competed in the Pacific-8 Conference, the WAC, and the PCAA. At the time of the league's inception these seven schools made up the entirety of NCAA Division I football schools in southern California and Arizona. When the NCAA began sponsoring women's championships for the 1981–82 school year WCAA members switched their affiliation to the NCAA. Stanford joined the league for the 1982–83 school year and would remain a member until the league's demise. The league remained at eight teams for three seasons before Long Beach State and Cal State-Fullerton decided to move their women's sports to the PCAA, where their men's sports competed. San Diego State also joined the PCAA at that time for women's sports only (the WAC did not sponsor women's sports at the time). The remaining five schools competed in the renamed PacWest Conference for one more season before moving to the Pacific-10 Conference, which began competition in all women's sports for the 1986-–87 season. At that time Northern Pacific Conference members Washington. Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, and Cal also moved their women's sports to the Pac-10.