December 2, 1915: What Became the Pac-12 Conference Is Founded

December 2, 1915: The Pacific Coast Conference is founded. It will evolve into the league known as the Pac-12.

The 4 original members were the University of California, at Berkeley, usually called "Cal" for sports purposes, and "Berkeley" for everything else; the University of Oregon, at Eugene; Oregon Agricultural College, which became Oregon State University in 1961, located in Corvallis; and the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Washington State College, in Pullman, was admitted in 1917, and was renamed Washington State University in 1959. Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, between San Francisco and San Jose, was admitted in 1918.

The University of Southern California, a.k.a. USC, in Los Angeles, was admitted in 1922. So was the University of Idaho, in Moscow, just a few miles across a State Line from Washington State. The University of Montana, in Missoula, was admitted in 1924, but left in 1950. And the University of California at Los Angeles, a.k.a. UCLA, a campus which didn't even exist until 1919, was admitted in 1928.

Scandals broke out at several schools in the 1950s, leading to the PCC's disbanding in 1959. Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Washington formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU). Washington State joined in 1962, and Oregon and Oregon State joined in 1964. Idaho decided not to join.

In 1968, the league renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference, Pac-8. In 1978, 2 members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, joined, making the league the Pacific-10, or Pac-10. In 2011, Colorado left the Big 12, and Utah left the Mountain West Conference, both joining the Pac-10, which became the Pac-12: "Pacific" was no longer part of the league's official name.

From its inception in 1902 until 2001, the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California usually invited the top team on the West Coast to participate. This included the champions of the PCC (1916-59), the AAWU (1960-68), the Pac-8 (1969-78) and the Pac-10 (1979-2001). With the coming of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and then the National Championship Playoff (NCP), the Rose Bowl has not always featured a Pac-12 team, but it does seem to prefer one.

USC have been the league's representative in the Rose Bowl 34 times, Stanford 15, Washington 14, UCLA 12, Cal and Oregon 8 each, Washington State 4, Oregon State 3, Arizona State 2 and Utah 1. Arizona and Colorado have never played in the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowls of 2002, 2005, 2011, 2018 and 2021 did not feature a Pac-12 team. (UPDATE: In 2023, Utah reached a 2nd Rose Bowl. In 2024, there was no Pac-12 team in the game.)

The Pac-12 has won more NCAA Championships across the sports spectrum than any other league. USC became the dominant school in football. In men's basketball, it was UCLA, but Arizona have done better in recent times. USC and Arizona State have been dominant in baseball, UCLA and Oregon in track, Stanford in women's basketball and soccer. 

The rivalries are intense: USC and UCLA; Cal and Stanford, "The Big Game"; Oregon and Oregon State, "The Civil War"; Washington and Washington State, "The Apple Cup"; and Arizona and Arizona State, "The Duel in the Desert."

On June 30, 2022, UCLA and USC announced plans to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten Conference, starting in 2024. For old-time Pac-8/10/12 fans, this must have seemed like what New England baseball fans felt when they saw Red Sox heroes Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon go to the New York Yankees. It is feared that this move will break the Pac-12.

UPDATE: In 2023, Colorado announced it would leave the Pac-12, and rejoin the Big 12. This was, almost immediately, followed by Arizona, Arizona State and Utah also heading for the Big 12, and Oregon and Washington bolting for the Big Ten. And, in what is, at least in terms of names, the most absurd move, Cal and Stanford announced they were joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

As of December 2, 2023, the Pac-12 appears to be going into the 2024-25 schoolyear with just 2 members: Oregon State and Washington State. The NCAA has announced that it has given the Pac-12 until 2026 to have enough members to meet its bylaws. A merger with the WAC or the Mountain West is possible.

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December 2, 1915 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And the hockey season was about to start. So there were no scores on this historic day.