West Coast Realignment in the NAIA
A mutually beneficial shuffling of the deck, and other thoughts
For once, this isn't a speculative article, but one based on set changes coming for the 2024/25 school year.
At the moment the California Pacific Conference (CalPac) and Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) have membership in both California and Arizona, but that will be changing.
For the current 2023/24 school year conference membership looks like this:
CalPac
University of Antelope Valley
Benedictine University at Mesa (AZ)
California State University Maritime Academy
University of California, Merced
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott (AZ)
La Sierra University
Pacific Union College
Park University-Gilbert (AZ)
Providence Christian College
University of Saint Katherine
Simpson University
Soka University of America
Westcliff University
GSAC
Arizona Christian University (AZ)
Hope International University
Jessup University
Life Pacific University
The Master’s University
Menlo College
Ottawa University-Arizona (AZ)
San Diego Christian College (Athletics suspended)
Vanguard University of Southern California
Unfortunately, the NAIA will be losing a few members to the NCAA as Jessup University, Menlo College, and Vanguard University will be joining the PacWest Conference at the Division 2 level for 2024/25, and UC-Merced will be leaving the CalPac for the NCAA for 2025/26.
As for San Diego Christian College, their athletic program has been suspended as the school goes through a period of refocusing and restructuring. At the time that the suspension for 2023/24 was announced there was a stated intention to resume play for 2024/25, but after a change at the School President level there have not been any updates on the matter. Until further notice I would consider this suspension indefinite, though I would imagine their GSAC membership will be maintained.
These moves would leave the GSAC with only 5 full members for this coming Fall but they will be adding the 3 Arizona members of the CalPac (Embry-Riddle Prescott, Benedictine -Mesa, and Park University-Gilbert) as well as the University of Saint Katherine to bring their full membership to 9 and potentially 10 while the CalPac has been reduced to 9 for 2024/25 and only 8 for 2025 onward.
These moves stand to shrink the footprints of both conferences as well as reducing territorial overlap. The CalPac will now be a purely California conference while the GSAC is split in half between clusters in and around the Phoenix and Los Angeles areas.
The loss of schools to the NCAA is a definite stressor for the NAIA; there are not many schools in the region compared to other parts of the country, but this round of realignment may help control some travel expenses for both conferences.
Thinking about attempts to grow NAIA membership brought me to a bit of a chicken and the egg question: should conferences and/or governing bodies be sitting on their hands waiting for schools to approach them for membership, or should these NAIA conferences be actively talking to schools in their region who are not members of the NCAA or NAIA about how they could improve their prospects of moving to the NAIA and how NAIA membership could benefit the school?
One such school is Stanton University in Garden Grove, California. They happen to be a member of the Southwestern States Intercollegiate Conference, a group of independent universities which includes the relatively visible Lincoln University (CA). Though established in 1996, Stanton University only achieved full WASC accreditation in 2021, but that is hopefully a sign of the school moving in the right direction. Their stated mission on their athletics site is to be dual members of the USCAA and NAIA for Fall 2024, but we will see if they are able to stick to that timeline.
Currently, they appear to offer Men's and Women's Basketball, Tennis, and Golf along with Men's Soccer, but with no EADA filings it's hard to know their true undergraduate enrollment figure. Would this be enough to feel like an additive member to the CalPac or GSAC? Maybe. The addition of Women's Soccer and Volleyball would greatly improve the value of the athletic program to a conference in my mind.
The sheer volume of schools with athletic programs can feel both confusing and overwhelming as one goes down the rabbit hole past the better-known governing bodies and I believe that a desire to be a member of the NAIA both lends an air of legitimacy to schools fighting to stay in operation as well as supporting those long-term interests through centralized financial tools.
This past year has been a whirlwind of change, and more closures are surely to come this Spring, but I don't take any pleasure in that reality. I believe in the value of having options, and I hope these small schools find a stable path forward with a focused purpose.