Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

The MPSF was founded in 1992 to provide an outlet for competition in non-revenue-producing Olympic sports. The MPSF conducts championships in men's volleyball, as well as indoor track, gymnastics, and water polo for both men and women. In 2010 the MPSF added women's swimming and diving, and added those sports for men in the 2011–12 season. The 2012–13 school year was the last for MPSF competition in men's soccer, and the 2020–21 school year was the last for MPSF women's lacrosse.

The conference membership varies by sport; 64 schools are MPSF members in at least one of its sponsored sports. Schools are not required to participate in MPSF competition for a sponsored sport if their primary conference sponsors a competition in that sport (e.g. Pac-12 in soccer and women's gymnastics before the conference's 2024 collapse).

All MPSF members have a primary conference affiliation. Two conferences are represented by eight members each: the Big West Conference (Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Hawai'i, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego) and the West Coast Conference (Gonzaga, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary's, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara). The Big Ten Conference is represented by five schools (Indiana, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington). Three conferences are represented by four schools each: the Big Sky Conference (Idaho, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State), Mountain West Conference (Air Force, Grand Canyon, San Jose State, Wyoming), and Southeastern Conference (LSU, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas). Two conferences are represented by three schools each: the Pacific West Conference (Concordia–Irvine, Menlo, Vanguard), and the Western Athletic Conference (California Baptist, Southern Utah, Utah Tech). Six conferences are represented by 2 schools: the Atlantic Coast Conference (California, Stanford), the Big 12 Conference (Arizona State, BYU), the California Collegiate Athletic Association (Cal Poly Humboldt, San Francisco State), Conference USA (Delaware, New Mexico State), the Southland Conference (Incarnate Word, UTRGV), and the Pac-12 Conference (Oregon State, Washington State). Ten conferences are represented by one school each – the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (Penn State Behrend), the Centennial Conference (Johns Hopkins), the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (Augustana (IL)), the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (Alaska Anchorage), the Lone Star Conference (Texas Woman's), the New England Small College Athletic Conference (Connecticut College), the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (Wheaton (MA)), the Presidents' Athletic Conference (Washington & Jefferson), the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (Austin), and the Western Athletic Conference (Southern Utah).

Due to the Big West addition of men's and women's swimming and diving as a sponsored sport beginning in the 2024–25 school year,^[1] six Big West members moved their aquatics programs to their primary conference, including three members (Bakersfield, Cal Poly, and UC Santa Barbara) for whom aquatics comprised their only MPSF teams and thus effectively left the MPSF.

The MPSF added four sports in 2024–25—the non-NCAA sport of men's rowing;^[2] the fully recognized NCAA sports of women's beach volleyball and men's wrestling; and women's wrestling, then an emerging NCAA sport and since 2025–26 a fully recognized NCAA sport.^[3] The men's rowing league consists entirely of Division I members (California, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego, Santa Clara, Stanford, UC San Diego, and Washington). By contrast, the wrestling leagues include only Division II members: Cal Poly Humboldt (men), Menlo (both), San Francisco State (men), and Vanguard (both).

The addition of swimming & diving by the Big West left the MPSF with only two men's and four women's teams in that sport. The MPSF started a rebuilding process in that sport by announcing on February 13, 2025, that it would add seven members for swimming & diving effective in 2025–26. At the time of announcement, all were housing swimming & diving in the Western Athletic Conference, which is rumored to be dropping the sport after the 2024–25 season. Six of the new members sponsor only the women's sport—Idaho, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado (returning to MPSF women's swimming & diving after a 13-year absence), Utah Tech, and UTRGV. The other new member, California Baptist, sponsors the sport for both sexes.^[4][5] However, California Baptist will only compete in the MPSF in the 2025–26 season, as it will become a full Big West member in July 2026.^[6] The men's volleyball league lost Grand Canyon after the spring 2025 season; the school downgraded the sport from varsity to club status.^[7] The MPSF added women's field hockey as a sponsored sport in 2025–26 with Delaware and UC Davis as members.

In 2025, the MPSF added its first member outside of the NCAA, as well as its first international member, when the University of British Columbia announced it would join the MPSF. UBC primarily plays as a member of U Sports, the Canadian governing body for college athletics, with a select few of its sports not sponsored by U Sports instead affiliated with the NAIA. While Canadian universities are currently not allowed to apply for membership within NCAA Division I as of 2025, UBC announced it would join the MPSF for the sport of men's rowing, which is not sponsored by the NCAA.^[8]

Al Beaird was the first executive director of the MPSF for 24 years, from 1998 to 2021. Foti Mellis became the second executive director on June 1, 2021. Mellis was a Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of California.

Source:^[9]

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation sponsors championship competition in six fully NCAA-sanctioned men's sports, six fully NCAA-sanctioned women's sports, one coeducational NCAA sport, and two non-NCAA sports (one each for men and women).^[11] The MPSF dropped men's soccer after the 2012 season. The moves of Denver (all sports) and New Mexico (soccer only) to other conferences left the MPSF with six soccer members, but all six would soon leave due to moves by the Western Athletic Conference. MPSF soccer member Seattle was already in the WAC, and another MPSF soccer school, CSU Bakersfield, was already committed to join the WAC in 2013. Because the WAC dropped football after the 2012 season due to a near-complete membership turnover, it needed to add another men's sport to maintain its Division I status. To that end, it invited the four remaining MPSF soccer schools to join them; all accepted, and the WAC began sponsoring men's soccer in 2013–14.^[12]

In October 2015, Arizona State announced that it would elevate its club team in women's lacrosse to full varsity status starting in the 2017–18 school year (2018 season), which will give the Pac-12 six women's lacrosse schools. This number is required by league bylaws for official sponsorship of a sport, and is also the number of teams required for a conference to be an automatic NCAA tournament qualifier. This led the Pac-12 to announce that all of its women's lacrosse teams would leave the MPSF for the new Pac-12 lacrosse league for the 2018 season. MPSF women's lacrosse continued to operate through the 2021 season, though it would lose its automatic NCAA tournament bid after the 2019 season.^[13]

The next major change in conference membership came in January 2016, when the Golden Coast Conference, a water polo-only league that previously operated only a women's competition, announced it would add a men's division effective with the 2016–17 season. The GCC took six of the 10 members of the MPSF men's water polo league, leaving the MPSF with only the four Pac-12 members that sponsor the sport.^[14]

On May 31, 2016, the Big West Conference announced that it would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2017–18 school year (2018 season). The Big West men's volleyball league launched with full members Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Hawai'i, plus associate member UC San Diego (which joined the Big West full-time in July 2020). UC San Diego left the federation with the launch of Big West men's volleyball, but the other Big West members remain in the MPSF in other sports.^[15] California Baptist also exited the MPSF after dropping its only conference sport of men's volleyball shortly after the 2017 season, and Cal State Bakersfield (now being rebranded athletically as Bakersfield) left the MPSF after dropping its last remaining conference sport of women's water polo at the same time.^[16]

It was announced in August 2021 that the MPSF would add fencing, a sport with a single coeducational NCAA team championship, to the conference as its tenth sport.^[17]

It was announced in September 2021 that the MPSF would add women's artistic swimming to the conference as the eleventh sport.^[18]

On November 9, 2023, the MPSF announced that it would add beach volleyball, a women-only sport at the NCAA level, for the 2025 season (2024–25 school year). The inaugural membership in that sport consisted mainly of schools that left the Pac-12 Conference, which sponsored beach volleyball, after 2023–24: California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington. The only member not coming from the Pac-12 was Grand Canyon.^[19] The following month, the MPSF announced that Saint Mary's, which had been an MPSF member in women's lacrosse before the school dropped the sport in 2017, had returned to the conference in women's indoor track & field.^[20] The MPSF later announced it would also add the non-NCAA sport of men's rowing, plus men's and women's wrestling, in 2024–25.

The MPSF announced in February 2025 that it would add four beach volleyball members and seven swimming & diving members in 2025–26. Of the new swim/dive members, six field only women's teams and one fields teams for both men and women.^[4][5][21] However, the school that fields teams for both sexes, California Baptist, will only compete in the MPSF for one season, after which it becomes a full Big West member.^[6]

It was announced in September 2025 that the MPSF would add field hockey as its sixteenth sponsored sport in time for the 2025 fall season. Two members will participate in the MPSF's inaugural season: existing MPSF member UC Davis and newcomer Delaware.^[22]

Membership by sport

More information School, Artistic swimming ...

School	Artistic swimming	Beach volleyball	Fencing[a]	Field hockey	Men's gymnastics	Women's gymnastics	Men's indoor track & field	Women's indoor track & field	Men's rowing	Men's swimming & diving	Women's swimming & diving	Men's volleyball	Men's water polo	Women's water polo	Men's wrestling	Women's wrestling	Total MPSF Sports
Air Force	N	N	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	3
Alaska Anchorage	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Arizona State	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	1
Augustana (IL)	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
Austin	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
BYU	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	1
Cal Poly Humboldt	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	1
Cal State Fullerton	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
Cal State Northridge	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
California	N	Y	N	N	Y	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	5
California Baptist	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	5
Concordia–Irvine	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	1
Connecticut College	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
Delaware	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Grand Canyon	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Gonzaga	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Hawaii	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Idaho	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
Incarnate Word	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	4
Indiana	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	1
Jessup	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	1
Johns Hopkins	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
Long Beach State	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
LSU	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Menlo	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	3
New Mexico State	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
Northern Arizona	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
Northern Colorado	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
Oklahoma	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Oregon	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Oregon State	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
Pacific	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	4
Penn State Behrend	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
Pepperdine	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	3
Portland	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	3
Sacramento State	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Saint Mary's	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
San Diego	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
San Francisco	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
San Francisco State	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	1
San Jose State	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	2
Santa Clara	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
South Carolina	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Southern Utah	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Stanford	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N	N	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	7
Texas	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Texas Woman's	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
UC Davis	N	N	N	Y	N	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	3
UC Irvine	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
UC Merced	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	1
UC Riverside	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
UC San Diego	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
UCLA	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	4
USC	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	4
Utah Tech	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
UTRGV	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
Vanguard	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	3
Washington	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
Washington & Jefferson	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
Washington State	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
Wheaton (MA)	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Wyoming	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Totals	4	11	3	2	4	4	7	14	8	6	10	10	11	7	4	2

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1. [a]

   Coed sport.

Two aquatics disciplines are sponsored under the aquatics section, with swimming & diving sponsored for both men and women since 2010–11 and the women-only discipline of artistic swimming added in 2021–22. A third discipline, open water swimming, was added for both men and women in 2023–24, but is not sponsored as a conference sport, instead being a de facto national championship meet open to all NCAA members. The MPSF was the first NCAA conference to sponsor open water swimming.^[23]

In June 2023, the Big West announced the addition of men's and women's swimming and diving as a sponsored sport beginning in the 2024–25 school year.^[1] As a result, six Big West members moved their aquatics programs to their primary conference, including three members (Bakersfield, Cal Poly, and UC Santa Barbara) who were only MPSF members in aquatics and thus effectively left the MPSF.

The MPSF will lose one member (San Diego to the Big West^[24]) and add seven members in swimming & diving in 2025–26. Of the new members, six are joining for the women's sport only and the other with both men's and women's teams. One of these schools had previously housed the women's sport in the MPSF.^[4][5]

Current members

More information Institution, Location ...

Institution	Location	Nickname	Artistic	Men	Women	Primary conference	Joined
United States Air Force Academy	Greeley, Colorado	Falcons	N	Y	N	Mountain West	2025[a][b]
California Baptist University	Riverside, California	Lancers	N	Y	Y	WAC	2025[c]
University of Idaho	Moscow, Idaho	Vandals	N	N	Y	Big Sky	2025
University of the Incarnate Word	San Antonio, Texas	Cardinals	Y	Y	Y	Southland	2021 (A) 2022 (M/W)
University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Las Vegas, Nevada	Rebels	N	Y	N	Mountain West	2025[a][b]
New Mexico State University	Las Cruces, New Mexico	Aggies	N	N	Y	CUSA	2025
Northern Arizona University	Flagstaff, Arizona	Lumberjacks	N	N	Y	Big Sky	2025
University of Northern Colorado	Greeley, Colorado	Bears	N	N	Y	Big Sky	2025[d]
University of the Pacific	Stockton, California	Tigers	N	Y	Y	WCC	2010 (M/W)
Pepperdine University	Malibu, California	Waves	N	N	Y	WCC	2023
Stanford University	Stanford, California	Cardinal	Y	N	N	ACC	2021
Utah Tech University	St. George, Utah	Trailblazers	N	N	Y	WAC	2025
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)	Edinburg, Texas[e]	Vaqueros	N	N	Y	Southland	2025
Texas Woman's University	Denton, Texas	Pioneers	Y	N	N	Lone Star	2021
Wheaton College (MA)	Norton, Massachusetts	Lyons	Y	N	N	NEWMAC	2021
University of Wyoming	Laramie, Wyoming	Cowboys	N	Y	N	Mountain West	2025[a][b]

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Future members

More information Institution, Location ...

Institution	Location	Nickname	Artistic	Men	Women	Primary conference	Joining
Saint Mary's College of California	Moraga, California	Gaels	N	Y	Y	WCC	2026

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Timeline

All aquatic sports  Men's & women's swimming & diving  Women's swimming & diving Men's swimming & diving Artistic swimming

Fencing was introduced as an MPSF sport in the 2021–22 season.

Timeline

Fencing members

Men's gymnastics was introduced as an MPSF sport with the formation of the conference while women's gymnastics was initiated for the 2001–02 season.

Current members

The MPSF currently has four members that participate in men's gymnastics and four for women's. One of the current women's gymnastics members, UC Davis, will join the Mountain West Conference, which sponsors that sport, in 2026. However, the Aggies may stay in MPSF women's gymnastics because the MW will lose two of its current four women's gymnastics members to the reconfigured Pac-12 Conference in 2026, making future MW sponsorship of the sport uncertain.

More information Institution, Location ...

Institution	Location	Nickname	Men	Women	Primary conference	Joined
United States Air Force Academy	USAF Academy, Colorado	Falcons	Y	N	Mountain West	1992
University of Alaska Anchorage	Anchorage, Alaska	Seawolves	N	Y	GNAC (NCAA D-II)	2002[a]
University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley, California	Golden Bears	Y	N	ACC	1992
University of California, Davis	Davis, California	Aggies	N	Y	Big West (MW in 2026)	2001
California State University, Sacramento	Sacramento, California	Hornets	N	Y	Big Sky (Big West in 2026)	2001 2013
University of Oklahoma	Norman, Oklahoma	Sooners	Y	N	SEC	1992
Southern Utah University[26]	Cedar City, Utah	Thunderbirds	N	Y	WAC (Big Sky in 2026)[b]	2023
Stanford University	Stanford, California	Cardinal	Y	N	ACC	1992

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1. [a]

   Did not compete in the 2020–21 season.
2. [b]

   Southern Utah will move women's gymnastics to the Pac-12 Conference in 2026.^[27]