IRVINE, Calif. – During Bob Hogue’s first year as commissioner, the Pacific West Conference regained NCAA Division II status and by the end of his second year, the conference had officially added Academy of Art and Dominican as its eighth and ninth members, but the work of expanding the membership of the conference didn’t end there.
 
Up to that point, expansion had been necessary for the survival of the conference. Prior to Commissioner Hogue’s arrival, the conference had even looked elsewhere in the Western United States, including as far as Texas, for new members. At one point, talks with a group of Texas schools got serious enough for some of their athletic directors to attend a PacWest meeting, but nothing ever came of those discussions. Sights were soon set on expanding within the conference footprint in California, Utah, Arizona, and Hawaii.
 
When the PacWest regained its full NCAA status in the summer of 2008, expansion became the priority of the conference’s strategic plan. Commissioner Hogue organized a key meeting of the presidents from each of the PacWest schools in February of 2009. They met at Academy of Art and envisioned a conference that might be made up of as many as four pods: Hawai`i, Bay Area, Southwest and Southern California. However, there weren’t any schools from Southern California at the time in the PacWest, meaning the conference needed to recruit new members.
 
The National Athletic Intercollegiate Association (NAIA) was the obvious place to go looking for new members since seven of the PacWest’s nine members were former NAIA schools. Each of those seven schools made the transition to NCAA Division II for a similar reason.
 
Unlike NCAA Division II, the NAIA offers only limited financial support to offset the cost of traveling to national championships, which are often expensive trips for schools located in the West. The more postseason berths a school earns, the more that school has to spend on postseason travel, which often makes a transition to the NCAA appealing.
 
In 2009, Azusa Pacific was the NAIA school out West that was earning the most playoff berths. The Cougars had won their fifth of what would go on to be eight-consecutive Learfield Director’s Cup trophies. The raising cost of that success led Athletic Director Bill Odell to call NCAA Division II Vice President Mike Racy to inquire about a transition to NCAA Division II.
 
The potential of the NAIA’s most successful athletic department at the time joining NCAA Division II fit perfectly into the NCAA’s strategic goal of strengthening its membership in the West. Racy was aggressive in pursuing these high caliber institutions to join Division II, so he offered the PacWest a grant to host a meeting.  It was held at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas with Azusa Pacific and three other NAIA schools that were also interested in transitioning to the NCAA.
 
Commissioner Hogue, Dixie State Athletic Directory Dexter Irvin and Grand Canyon Athletic Director Keith Baker represented the conference in this meeting, answering the questions of the four California schools interested in making the transition: Azusa Pacific, California Baptist, Fresno Pacific and Point Loma.
 
After that meeting in the summer of 2009, Azusa Pacific and California Baptist soon decided to transition to NCAA Division II and expand the PacWest’s membership into Southern California for the first time. Meanwhile, Point Loma went through a thorough review as a school before deciding to join in the exodus from the NAIA, and Fresno Pacific also eventually decided to move forward with a change in affiliation.
 
The NCAA’s heavy emphases on compliance and tracking academic success appealed strongly to Point Loma. The fact that two major rivals in the GSAC were going to leave meant the Sea Lions would have a harder time finding quality local NAIA opponents. Point Loma’s board then voted to apply for NCAA membership through the PacWest.
 
Azusa Pacific and California Baptist were on pace to join the PacWest for the 2011-12 season, but the Cougars ultimately delayed their transition. Dr. Ronald Ellis was the president of California Baptist, and he attended the PacWest’s 2010 presidents meeting held at Notre Dame de Namur, along with the president of Holy Names. Following that meeting, Ellis called his athletic director to tell him that the Lancers would be applying to join the PacWest. California Baptist submitted its application for NCAA Division II membership just before the deadline in 2010 with the assurance that Azusa Pacific would also apply the following year.
 
California Baptist became the 10th member of the PacWest and expanded the conference’s footprint into Southern California for the first time. Then in the summer of 2011, Azusa Pacific, Fresno Pacific and Point Loma all followed through on their plans to transition to NCAA Division II and were accepted into the PacWest.

POINT LOMA ANNOUNCES MOVE TO NCAA
 
Separate from those four schools, Holy Names also made the transition to NCAA Division II status and joined the PacWest to become the fourth school in the Bay Area. With the addition of Holy Names, the conference’s most utilized airports had shifted over the past decade from Seattle/Tacoma to Honolulu to San Francisco/Oakland.
 
In the span of just four years, the conference had not only recruited enough members to regain full NCAA status, but had more than doubled in size, going from six to 14 member institutions. While the idea of four pods never fully materialized, the PacWest now had eight members in California, four in Hawai`i, one in Arizona and one in Utah, making the PacWest again the largest NCAA Division II conference in the West Region. “From Hawai`i to California to Arizona to Utah, the most beautiful destination conference in the entire NCAA!” is what the tagline read on the header of the PacWest website.
 
“Over the years, this conference has shown that it has an extraordinary ability to work together,” reflected Commissioner Hogue, who has now been at the helm of the PacWest for over half of its history. “With schools as geographically diverse as the PacWest’s, our conference has to be unified in achieving our goals. Looking over the last two decades of progress that has been made, it’s clear that this spirit of working together is what sets our conference apart.”
 
California Baptist began playing a PacWest schedule in 2011-12 and immediately found success, winning conference titles in baseball, softball, men’s & women’s cross country and women’s soccer to earn its first PacWest Commissioner’s Cup. The Lancers were not yet eligible to compete in the NCAA postseason, but the PacWest was still well-represented in the postseason by Grand Canyon, which went on to win the Director’s Cup for NCAA Division II for the first of two years in a row, winning the 2012 Men's Indoor Track & Field title. That same year, PacWest-bound Azusa Pacific won its eighth-consecutive NAIA Director’s Cup, giving the PacWest three different schools that won all-sports cups in the same year, an unparalleled feat in intercollegiate athletics.
 
In the 2012-13 season, Azusa Pacific, Fresno Pacific, Holy Names and Point Loma also began competing in full PacWest schedules. The expansion of the conference allowed for a postseason conference tournament to be added for men’s and women’s basketball for the first time since 2000. The event was hosted at Azusa Pacific, where Academy of Art won the women’s title, while Dixie State earned the first title on the men’s side. That year, the PacWest also added men’s and women’s track & field, men’s tennis and women’s golf, bringing the conference to its current total of 15 sports.
 
The ten years since the addition of the five new members in California, the PacWest has enjoyed some of its greatest successes on both the regional and national stage along with in the classroom. This period has become a golden age for the PacWest, and there is no end in sight. The conference has added new members in Concordia and Biola, while Westmont will be joining the conference, starting with the 2023-24 season. That now gives the PacWest six members that were formerly part of the Golden State Athletic Conference in the NAIA, and expansion remains a goal for the conference.
 
Pinpointing the turning point for the PacWest is not simple. There are a handful of key events that are worth singling out as being crucial in the conference’s development. The decision by BYU-Hawaii President Eric Shumway to keep the Hawai`i schools united in one conference in 2000 and the ensuing secession of 10 schools in the northwest to form a new conference was a monumental shift. For the PacWest, the addition of schools like Grand Canyon, Notre Dame de Namur and Dixie State became a big geographical change for the identity of the conference. Regaining automatic berths into the postseason after a three-year hiatus, as well as the addition of Academy of Art and Dominican as members, was another significant step that made the PacWest into a competitive West Region conference.
 
However, one of the key turning points that is worthy of closer examination was the addition of Commissioner Hogue to the conference office. He was given three primary tasks as the new commissioner of the conference: regain official NCAA status and add new members and new conference sports. Commissioner Hogue achieved these goals quickly. The addition of new members, however, didn’t end with the conference expanding to nine.
 
Commissioner Hogue remained aggressive in adding schools that would bring something new to the table in the PacWest. Expanding into southern California with the addition of some of what had been the NAIA’s preeminent institutions, while also strengthening the conference’s presence in Central Valley and the Bay Area, made the PacWest the largest conference in the NCAA Division II West Region.
 
The Hawaii members have always been the most distinctive aspect of the PacWest, and it has been acknowledged many times that it isn’t possible to move the islands any closer to the lower 48. Still, Commissioner Hogue negotiated deals with Hawaiian Airlines that made travel to Hawai`i more manageable for the new members of the conference. He also moved the conference office to Southern California and frequently attended athletic events in his easily identified PacWest jackets.
 
The PacWest brand grew as a result and even went through two changes. Since the original logo was drawn in the summer of 1992, it had undergone several enhancements, but the basic design never changed. In 2011, the logo finally received a much-needed redesign to a simpler logo that allowed for a broader use. The result was what is affectionately called the “Happy Hamburger Logo.” Then in 2015, the PacWest went through another logo redesign, keeping the basic idea, but making it into a full circle. The new logo also came in the school colors of each of the PacWest members, so that it could be worn on each school’s team uniforms.
 
Commissioner Hogue has in some ways become synonymous with the PacWest and its brand as he now goes into his 16^th year as the PacWest Commissioner, making him the longest-standing commissioner in the conference’s history. His career with the PacWest now outlasts every single one of the athletic directors of the member institutions and only a small handful of current coaches and administrators at Hawai`i Hilo and Hawai`i Pacific have been part of the PacWest longer than Commissioner Hogue.
 
Since hiring Commissioner Hogue in the summer of 2007, the PacWest has won six national titles, starting with Hawai`i Pacific’s title in the 2010 NCAA Division II Softball National Championships. Sherise Musquiz was the team’s ace and had a 34-3 record that season with a 1.03 ERA and threw a complete game in the final against Valdosta State to win the title.
 
Academy of Art also won both track & field titles in both indoor and outdoor in 2013. The Urban Knights have had some of the best individual athletes in the PacWest’s 30-year history, including three-time PacWest Cross Country Champion Amos Maru, two-time PacWest Male Athlete of the Year Mobolade Ajomale and three-time PacWest Golf Champion Anahi Servin, who also won the 2022 NCAA Division II Women’s Golf National Championships as an individual.
 
Hawai`i Pacific added another national title in 2016 when the men’s tennis team lifted the trophy for the first time after years of being a top contender. Tennis has arguably been the PacWest’s most successful sport with the Sharks reaching the men’s tennis final in each of the previous two years. Meanwhile BYU-Hawaii women’s tennis reached the national championship match three times from 2012 to 2016, recapturing the success that saw the Seasiders win seven national titles from 1999 to 2007.
 
Grand Canyon, California Baptist and Dixie State have all gone on to make the transition to NCAA Division I. During their time in the PacWest, each of them won NCAA West Region titles with Grand Canyon winning in baseball, California Baptist in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s cross country, and Dixie State in softball three times.
 
During the early days of the PacWest, earning the right to host NCAA West Regionals was a big strategic goal. No school in the PacWest’s history has been more successful in that area than Azusa Pacific, which has hosted nine regional championships in soccer, basketball, softball and baseball. The Cougars hosted the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball West Regional in their first year of postseason eligibility and defeated California Baptist in an All-PacWest Championships to earn a spot in the Elite Eight. That started a run of the PacWest winning three of the next five regional titles in men’s basketball as California Baptist won in 2018 and then Point Loma in 2019.
 
Point Loma was the No. 1 seed in the 2019 NCAA West Regional in men’s basketball and cruised to the regional title on its home court. The Sea Lions went on to reach the national title game with D2CCA National Player of the Year Daulton Hommes leading the way. The Sea Lions also reached the national title game in baseball in 2022, setting a new PacWest record for wins in a single season with 51 on their way to the national championship game in Cary, North Carolina.
 
The PacWest’s two newest members have also represented the conference well on the regional and national stage, particularly in the sport of softball. Concordia has hosted the NCAA West Regional four times in the last five years, and was ranked the No. 1 team in the nation by the NFCA in 2022. Biola won the NCAA West Region in 2021, beating Concordia in the final before making a run to the national title game behind the arm of Paige Austin, who was unhittable that postseason.
 
From the newest members to the oldest member, the PacWest can claim some of the region’s best athletic programs. Chaminade is the PacWest’s all-time leader in men’s basketball wins, with 268 conference wins since joining the GNC in 1991, which became the PacWest the following year. Chaminade also has five wins in the prestigious Maui Invitational since the start of the 21st century. In volleyball, the Silverswords earned a berth into the NCAA postseason for the second time in three years under head coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke, who was an All-PacWest volleyball player herself.
 
Hawai`i Hilo has won a total of 1,058 PacWest competitions across all the team sports, which is the second-highest total in conference history. The Vulcans have recently seen success in men’s tennis, which twice reached the semifinals of the NCAA National Championships in the last three years. 
 
Hawai`i Pacific has 1,202 total PacWest wins in the team sports and has collected a 37 PacWest titles in all sports. The Sharks have the conference’s all-time winningest programs in softball, women’s basketball and men’s tennis.
 
Success in the classroom has become an increasingly important goal for the PacWest. Commissioner Hogue introduced the Academic Achievement Award in 2007-08 to honor the institution with the best overall GPA of its conference student-athletes. Since then, Dominican has won the award 11 times, and the PacWest, led by the Penguins, has recorded a GPA of 3.30 or better in each of the last three years.
 
Fresno Pacific has earned four trips to the NCAA postseason, including two in men’s soccer and has a winning record all-time in the PacWest across all sports. Holy Names has also won one PacWest title, winning men’s golf in 2019 to earn a spot in the super regionals.
 
In total across its 30 years of existence, the PacWest has won 20 NCAA Division II titles with Azusa Pacific winning the most recent title at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Women’s Track & Field National Championships. There have also been 20 national runner-up finishes for the PacWest and 36 NCAA West Region titles, including the run by the 2022 Point Loma baseball team.
 
“Looking back over the last 30 years of our outstanding conference’s history, we have so much to be proud of,” Commissioner Hogue said. “We've seen so many positive changes to the PacWest in the last decade and a half and I’m as thrilled as ever about the future of the PacWest.”
 
With the addition of Westmont to the list of PacWest members, the conference will have 12 members, making it the largest NCAA Division II conference in the West Region once again. The PacWest has also added conference championship tournaments in baseball and softball – which will start play in the spring of 2023 -- with the hopes of adding tournaments in volleyball and soccer in the near future. Since dropping down to just four members in 2005, the PacWest has grown consistently in adding members, sports and competitive opportunities, and that growth continues as the PacWest enters its fourth decade as a premier NCAA Division II conference.
 
Acknowledgements: A number of people were helpful in compiling the information for this history. Thank you to the following people for taking the time to talk over the phone and share stories of their memories from the last 30 years of the PacWest history: Keith Baker (Grand Canyon), Jon Carey (Western Oregon), Josh Doody (Notre Dame de Namur), Joey Estrella (Hawai`i Hilo), Gary Gray (Montana State Billings), Bob Guptil (PacWest), Woody Hahn (PacWest), Richard Hannan (GNAC), Ethan Hamilton (Point Loma), Bob Hogue (PacWest), Dexter Irvin (Dixie State & Hawai`i Hilo), Mike Lund (Portland State), Frank MacDonald (Seattle Pacific), Keith Phillips (Seattle Pacific), Gary Pine (Azusa Pacific), Dave Porter (BYU-Hawaii), Ken Wagner (BYU-Hawaii)