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The Big West Conference ('''BWC''') is an NCAA -affiliated Division I major college athletic conference that formerly sponsored Division I-A American Football . Due to its past successes in the NCAA's men's college basketball tournament, the Big West is often considered to be a Mid Major conference. BACKGROUND The history of the conference is linked to that of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), which was founded in 1969 and renamed the Big West Conference in 1988 . The Big West Conference dropped sponsorship of football at the end of the 2000-2001 season, but continues to actively sponsor other sports. Beginning in fall of ; Boise State joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC); and Utah State became an independent before joining the Sun Belt Conference in fall 2003. Idaho and Utah State retained Big West membership in sports other than football until both officially left for the WAC on July 1 , 2005 . The departure of Idaho and Utah State leaves the Big West a California-only conference; of these schools, five are in Greater Los Angeles , two others are just to the north or west of that area, and only Pacific is outside of Southern California . This will change once UC Davis, in the Sacramento area, becomes a full member. As such, the Big West basically returns to its roots, as the PCAA had been a California-only conference until they admitted Utah State in 1978. The seventh football-playing member, Cal Poly, stayed in the Big West for other sports and became a Division I-AA independent before joining the new Great West Football Conference in 2004 . CHARTER (ORIGINAL) MEMBERS
CURRENT MEMBERS (AND YEARS JOINED) CONFERENCE ARENAS Only Cal Poly has a football program. Their football stadium is called Mustang Stadium , capacity of 8,500. EXTERNAL LINK |
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