Revisiting the Southwestern States Intercollegiate Conference
While presenting as improving, are they here to stay?
As time has gone on, it seemed important to talk about the SWS Intercollegiate Conference once again and try to sort out what has changed since my original article which still seems to be the primary source of information on the conference.
I may have been overly critical at the time, and my understanding of their position has changed, as well as some membership growth which has taken place.
The conference recently completed their single-site Men's and Women's Basketball Championship Tournament that was hosted by West Coast Baptist College and I'm seeing the signs that the conference is moving in the right direction to have the same level of cohesive celebration of their members that I see from the Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC) and their membership in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba.
I would appreciate seeing a consistent presence from the conference on Twitter/X or even Bluesky as Instagram is simply a poor platform for communicating time-sensitive information when you can barely control how content is delivered. Reels help, but interacting with them is cumbersome and they lack a proper reply section.
But over time the conference account has been becoming more active with more pertinent information and being visible with accurate and timely information will be important to attract more members which could be supported by a conference structure to give a fledgling athletic program a base to build upon.
Regarding membership, let's go back to the lineup as it was a year ago when I first wrote about the conference.
Justice University (formerly College) Lions - Chandler, AZ
California Miramar University Fighting Falcons - San Diego, CA
Bethesda University Flames - Anaheim, CA
Southern California Leadership University Rhinos - Westminster, CA
West Coast Baptist College Eagles - Lancaster, CA
Stanton University Fighting Elks - Forest Grove, CA
Lincoln University Oaklanders - Oakland, CA
Navajo Technical University Skyhawks - Crownpoint, NM
For this past season the organization also added
Nelson American Indian College Warriors - Phoenix, AZ
Nobel University Knights - Los Angeles/Buena Park, CA
California Tribal Athletics Eagles (WBB) - A part of CSU-Sacramento but independent of Sacramento State Athletics - Sacramento, CA
Basketball is the focus of the conference at this time, but I hope to see the social media presence be more active for other sports that member schools participate in.
Year over year improvements in presentation are a good sign that the organization is on the path to stability in terms of giving a home to these institutions which are generally younger and quite small.
It may end up helping to validate their position in the eyes of skeptics once some of these schools end up being awarded full membership in the NAIA or NCAA down the line.
While Stanton University seems to be the one program publicly aggressive about USCAA and NAIA membership, the school that has piqued my interest is Justice University.
I wish they would file EADA reports for my convenience, but they are operating Men's Basketball, Women's Volleyball, and Men's & Women's Soccer programs with Baseball launching for the 2025/26 season while they have plans to build a baseball field on their campus beginning early 2026.
I’m not sure if the field space to the northeast is currently used to play their Soccer games, but the potential is there to develop that space as well.
The school reminds me of Arizona Christian or Ottawa University-Arizona in the same area as they are located on a large plot of land with the real estate to grow their athletic offerings and have great potential to grow into becoming an NAIA member.
The schools of the Southwestern States Intercollegiate Conference are likely the key to the survival of the California Pacific Conference of the NAIA which will be reduced to only 6 members for the 2025/26 school year:
Pacific Union College
Providence Christian College
Simpson University
Westcliff University
Northern New Mexico College
Stanton University (pending NAIA approval)
I believe the conference will retain their automatic qualifier status for 2025/26 and 2026/27 much like the North Star Athletic Association, but the clock is ticking to find an identity and a path forward.
Nothing ever really happens in a vacuum, and we are in a very volatile era of higher education and collegiate athletics, but multiple conferences sharing a geographic footprint happens for a reason.
It would be very difficult for a school to grow an athletic program without any sort of association at all, and having a regional collection of schools for scheduling is mutually beneficial. I hope that the Southwestern States Intercollegiate Conference continues to establish its character while member institutions find their own way to growth and sustainability in the West.
