Great West Conference | |
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Established | 2004 |
Association | NCAA |
Division | Division I FCS |
Members | 6 full-time (5 in 2012, 4 in 2013), 12 affiliate (6 by 2012) |
Sports fielded | 16 (15 in 2013) (men's: 7 (6 in 2013); women's: 9) |
Region | Midwest and West |
Former names | Great West Football Conference |
Headquarters | Elmhurst, Illinois |
Commissioner | Ed Grom |
Website | www.greatwestconference.org |
Locations | |
The Great West Conference is an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Formerly a football-only conference, in 2008 it became an all-sports conference. It is a member of the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA).
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Cal Poly, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Southern Utah, and UC Davis began conference play in the Great West Football Conference in 2004. St. Mary's (CA) was slated to join the conference, but dropped football prior to the 2004 season. In 2005 Cal Poly was the conference's first participant in the NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS) playoffs.
Northern Colorado left the GWFC to join the Big Sky Conference for all sports for the 2006 season. On March 7, 2007, North Dakota State and South Dakota State announced that they would leave the conference after the 2007 season and join the Gateway Football Conference in 2008;[1] by the time the two schools joined, the Gateway Conference renamed itself the Missouri Valley Football Conference. On August 2, 2007 the University of North Dakota and the University of South Dakota announced that they would be joining the Great West Conference in 2008.
On July 10, 2008 it was made official in press conferences that the conference would change from a football only conference into an all sports conference. The charter members of the all-sports conference include North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah Valley University, Houston Baptist, Texas-Pan American, and NJIT.[2] Chicago State joined the conference October 22, and these new schools will begin all-sports conference play in 2009–2010. Seattle University was considering membership, but in 2011 they accepted an invitation to play instead in the WAC.[3]
The all-sports version of the Great West officially began conference play in a limited number of sports during the fall sports season of 2008. During the 2008-09 academic year, the Great West will award championships in cross country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, golf, and tennis. Full conference play among all sponsored team and individual sports will begin with the 2009-10 academic year. Despite not playing a conference schedule in team sports, the league began to award "Player of the Week" honors to student-athletes in all sports in the 2008-09 year.
The conference currently does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, but the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament champion has an automatic bid to CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).[4]
In April 2010 South Dakota announced their intentions to join The Summit League for all sports but football (they later announced their commitment to the Missouri Valley Football Conference for football in November 2010). In September 2010 Cal Poly and UC Davis announced that they would join the Big Sky Conference for football by 2012,[5] and in November 2010 Southern Utah and North Dakota announced that they would join the Big Sky for all sports by 2012. With these moves, all football members will have left the Great West and the league will cease to sponsor football by 2013 or earlier. The conference overall will lose two full members and six affiliates by 2012, four football affiliates (Cal Poly, UC Davis, South Dakota and Southern Utah), softball affliate UN-Omaha and multi-sport affliate Seattle.
Institution | Location | Founded | Type | Enrollment | Joined | Nickname |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago State University | Chicago, Illinois | 1867 | Public | 7,131 | 2008 | Cougars |
Houston Baptist University* | Houston, Texas | 1960 | Private | 3,100 | 2008 | Huskies |
New Jersey Institute of Technology | Newark, New Jersey | 1881 | Public | 5,263 | 2008 | Highlanders |
University of North Dakota** | Grand Forks, North Dakota | 1883 | Public | 12,834 | 2008 | Fighting Sioux*** |
University of Texas–Pan American | Edinburg, Texas | 1927 | Public | 17,048 | 2008 | Broncs |
Utah Valley University | Orem, Utah | 1941 | Public | 32,670 | 2008 | Wolverines |
* Houston Baptist will join the Southland Conference July 1, 2013.[6]
** North Dakota will join the Big Sky Conference in 2012.[7]
*** North Dakota will retire the Fighting Sioux nickname on January 1, 2012.[8]
* UC-Davis and Cal-Poly have accepted invitations to join the Big Sky Conference for football for 2012[10]
** UN-Omaha has joined the Great West Conference for one season for softball only while they transition from Division II to Division I. They will be a full member of The Summit League beginning July 1, 2012.
*** Seattle will move the teams that compete in the Great West Conference to the Western Athletic Conference beginning July 1, 2012.
**** South Dakota has accepted an invitation to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, beginning with the 2012 football season.
***** Southern Utah has accepted an invitation to join the Big Sky in all sports and will join the conference in 2012.
Season | Champion | Record |
---|---|---|
2004 | Cal Poly | 4–1 |
2005 | Cal Poly and UC Davis | 4–1 |
2006 | North Dakota State | 4–0 |
2007 | South Dakota State | 4–0 |
2008 | Cal Poly | 3–0 |
2009 | UC Davis | 3–1 |
2010 | Southern Utah | 4–0 |
2011 | North Dakota and Cal Poly | 3–1 |
School | Football stadium | Capacity | Basketball arena | Capacity | Baseball stadium | Capacity | Soccer stadium | Capacity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cal Poly | Alex G. Spanos Stadium | 11,075 | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | |||
Chicago State | Does not sponsor football | Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center | 7,000 | Gwendolyn Brooks Field | Does not sponsor soccer | |||
Delaware State | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Alumni Stadium | 7,193 | |||
Houston Baptist | Begins football in 2014 | Sharp Gymnasium | 1,500 | Husky Field | 1,000 | Randy and Cheryl Sorrells Field | 500 | |
Howard | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | William H. Greene Stadium | 10,000 | |||
NJIT | Does not sponsor football | Fleisher Center | 1,500 | Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium | 6,200 | Lubetkin Field | 1,000+ | |
NYIT | Does not sponsor football | Does not participate in Great West | President's Field | 1,000 | Does not participate in Great West | |||
North Dakota | Alerus Center | 13,500 | Betty Engelstad Sioux Center | 3,300 | Kraft Field | 2,000 | Bronson Field | |
Northern Colorado | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Jackson Field | 1,500 | Does not participate in Great West | |||
South Carolina State | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Oliver C. Dawson Stadium | 22,000 | |||
South Dakota | DakotaDome | 10,000 | DakotaDome | 10,000 | Does not sponsor baseball | USD Soccer Field | ||
Southern Utah | Eccles Coliseum | 8,500 | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | |||
Texas-Pan American | Does not sponsor football | UTPA Fieldhouse | 4,000 | Edinburg Stadium | 4,000 | Does not sponsor soccer | ||
UC Davis | Aggie Stadium | 10,367 | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | Does not participate in Great West | |||
Utah Valley | Does not sponsor football | UCCU Center | 8,500 | Brent Brown Ballpark | 5,500 | Clyde Field |
Pink indicates departing members.
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