The league was chartered by five northern California institutions , four from the Bay Area ( San Francisco , Saint Mary 's , Santa Clara , San Jose State ) and one , Pacific , from Stockton . It began as the California Basketball Association , playing its first game on January 2 , 1953 . After two seasons under that name , the conference expanded to include Los Angeles-area schools Loyola ( now Loyola Marymount ) and Pepperdine in 1955 and became the " West Coast Athletic Conference " in 1956 . After more than three decades as the WCAC , the name was shortened in the summer of 1989 , dropping the word " Athletic . " The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be a mid-major athletic conference . The conference sponsors 15 sports but does not include football as one of them . San Diego ( Pioneer Football League ) and Brigham Young ( FBS independent ) are the only schools fielding a football team . The rest have all dropped the sport , some as early as the 1940s , before the conference existed ( Gonzaga and Portland ) , and one as late as 2003 ( Saint Mary 's )
FBS independent
NCAA Division I FBS independent schools
West Coast Conference