Big West Conference officials announced Monday that San Diego State University will be added as a member of the 10-team conference, effective July 1, 2013. SDSU will bring 14 sports to the conference, including men’s and women’s basketball and baseball.
F. King Alexander, President of Long Beach State and Chair of the Big West Board of Directors, made the announcement Monday — five days after SDSU announced its football team was moving from the Mountain West to the Big East beginning with the 2013 season.
“The Big West Conference’s success at attracting both Hawaii and now San Diego State is due to its strong stability, especially during a very unstable period of national conference realignment.” Alexander said. “SDSU will bring to the Big West a very large market adding to the national standing of the conference. They are a very good university with a rich history and will fit in very well with the other 10 strong institutions.”
The Aztecs enter a conference in the Big West that includes Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, the University of the Pacific, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara. Hawaii is set to also become a conference member in 2012-13.
The Big West boasts 17 NCAA team national championships, including titles in men’s basketball, baseball and soccer and women’s volleyball and softball.
In addition to men’s and women’s basketball and baseball, the Aztecs will compete in the following sports beginning in the 2013-14 season: women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s track and field and women’s volleyball.
SDSU women’s water polo will be joining the league a year earlier, 2012-2013, while the men’s soccer team, which has been affiliated with the Pac 12 for several years, will be competing in fall 2015.
All of SDSU’s sports will be joining the Big West except football, women’s crew, women’s lacrosse, women’s swimming and diving, and women’s indoor track and field.
LBSU Athletic Director Vic Cegles said he is looking forward to what SDSU will bring to the conference.
“We welcome San Diego State to the Big West and salute their commitment to athletics excellence,” Cegles said via email. “To be sure, they have outstanding teams that will enhance the brand and national recognition of the conference and challenge all of us to improve facilities and budgets”
SDSU is no stranger to the Big West. The Aztecs will be rejoining a conference it helped form as a charter member when it was known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA). The PCAA was created in time for the 1969-70 campaign and SDSU was a member until the end of the 1977-78 season before moving to the Western Athletic Conference. The PCAA began its 20th year of existence in 1988 and officially changed its name to the Big West Conference.
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