The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I level, primarily in Olympic sports that are not sponsored by a school's primary conference (such as the Pac-12 and Big West, many of whose members participate in MPSF competition in at least one of its sports).
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; 48 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).
In 2025–26, the Big Sky Conference will be represented by three additional schools (Idaho, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado); the SEC will also be represented by three additional schools (LSU, South Carolina, Texas); the WAC will be represented by two additional schools (California Baptist, Utah Tech); the ACC will also be represented by Florida State; the Southland Conference will also be represented by UTRGV; and Conference USA will be represented by New Mexico State. Grand Canyon's conference affiliation for 2025–26 is in flux; the Antelopes had initially announced a 2025 move to the West Coast Conference, but reneged on that move in favor of joining the Mountain West Conference no later than 2026.[1]
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,[2] 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,[3] the fully recognized NCAA sports of women's beach volleyball and men's wrestling, and the emerging NCAA sport of women's wrestling (which becomes a fully recognized NCAA sport in 2025–26).[4] 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.[5][6]
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.
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation sponsors championship competition in six fully NCAA-sanctioned men's sports, five fully NCAA-sanctioned women's sports, one coeducational NCAA sport, one sport within the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, and two non-NCAA sports (one each for men and women).[9] 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.[10]
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.[11]
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.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14]
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.[15]
It was announced in September 2021 that the MPSF would add women's artistic swimming to the conference as the eleventh sport.[16]
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 will consist mainly of schools that are leaving the Pac-12 Conference, which sponsors beach volleyball, after 2023–24: California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington. The only member not coming from the Pac-12 is Grand Canyon.[17] 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.[18] 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.[5][6][19]
Three sports are sponsored under the aquatics section. Men's and women's swimming and diving were launched in the 2010-11 season. Artistic swimming was later added in the 2021-22 season.
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.[2] 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 add seven members in swimming & diving in 2025–26, with six joining for the women's sport only and the other joining with both men's and women's teams. One of these schools had previously housed the women's sport in the MPSF.[5][6]
↑ Northern Colorado had previously been an MPSF member in women's swimming & diving from 2010–2012.
↑ UTRGV has multiple campuses within its service area of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but the athletic administration is based at the Edinburg campus it inherited from its athletic predecessor of the University of Texas–Pan American.
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.
Men's and women's indoor track & field were introduced for the 1992–93 season as one of the conference's inaugural sports. Conference records before 1999 are incomplete.
↑ Cal State Northridge's men's and women's teams departed in 1996 before rejoining in 2001 but then departed again in 2005 to rejoin for a second time in 2007.
↑ The Oregon State women's team left in 2020 when the Pac-12 began sponsoring indoor track. OSU rejoined the MPSF following the 2024 collapse of the Pac-12.
↑ Portland's men's team departed in 1996 and the women's team departed in 1999 before both teams rejoined in 2014.
↑ UC Davis sponsored a men's team that competed in the MPSF from 2004-2005.
↑ UC Davis' women's team departed in 2005 before rejoining in 2017.
↑ UC Irvine's women's team departed in 2007 before rejoining in 2010.
↑ UC Riverside's men's and women's teams departed in 2002 before rejoining in 2016.
↑ The Washington State men's and women's teams left in 2020 when the Pac-12 began sponsoring indoor track. Both rejoined the MPSF following the 2024 collapse of the Pac-12.
Men's volleyball was introduced for the 1993 season (1992–93 school year) as one of the conference's inaugural sports. The MPSF will add beach volleyball in the 2025 season (2024–25 school year). The MPSF added the sport in the wake of the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference, which saw 10 of its 12 members leave for other conferences after the 2023–24 school year. Of the 10 departing schools, nine sponsor beach volleyball. Three left for the Big 12 Conference, which announced it would start sponsoring beach volleyball in 2024–25.[21] The other six, which joined either the Atlantic Coast Conference or the Big Ten Conference, made up almost all of the inaugural MPSF beach volleyball membership. California, Stanford, UCLA, and USC were already MPSF members in other sports, and Oregon and Washington were returning MPSF members. The only inaugural beach volleyball member not arriving from the Pac-12 is Grand Canyon.
After the spring 2025 season, the MPSF will add four more beach volleyball members—Florida State, LSU, South Carolina, and Texas. All are departing the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association.[19]
↑ Grand Canyon joined MPSF beach volleyball in 2024, but has not announced its future affiliation for when it joins the Mountain West Conference in 2026. GCU will remain in MPSF men's volleyball.
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has won 100 NCAA titles in seven sports. UCLA has won 25 national titles. Stanford has won 20 titles. USC has won 16 titles. Oregon has won 12 titles. Oklahoma has won nine titles. California has won six titles. UC Irvine has won four titles. Arizona State and Brigham Young have won three titles. Pepperdine has won two titles. The MPSF has won every men's and women's water polo NCAA title since the inception of the conference.
↑ "WAC Adds Men's Soccer" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. January 9, 2013. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
↑ "Flippin' Birds Find a New Conference". Cedar City, UT: Southern Utah University Athletics. September 21, 2023. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
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