The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I level, primarily in Olympic sports that are not directly sponsored by a school's home conference (such as the Pac-12 and Big West, whose members all participate in MPSF competition in at least one of its sports).
The MPSF was founded in 1992 and specifically created to provide an outlet for competition in non-revenue-producing Olympic sports. The MPSF conducts championships in men's volleyball; women's lacrosse; and indoor track, gymnastics, and water polo for both men and women. In 2010 the MPSF added women's swimming and diving to its list of sports, and added that sport for men in the 2011–12 season. The 2012–13 school year was the last for MPSF competition in men's soccer.
The conference's membership varies by sport; 39 schools are MPSF members in at least one of its sponsored sports. Schools are not required to participate in the MPSF competition for each sponsored sport if their primary conference affiliation sponsors a competition in that sport (e.g. Pac-12 soccer and women's gymnastics).
^Current affiliation; does not necessarily match affiliation(s) during a school's MPSF tenure.
Sports[]
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation sponsors championship competition in five men's and five women's NCAA sanctioned sports[3] 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.[4]
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. The four remaining MPSF lacrosse schools will retain that league's automatic NCAA tournament bid for the 2018 and 2019 seasons while the MPSF seeks to add new members in that sport.[5]
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.[6]
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 now includes five full members Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Hawai'i, plus associate member UC San Diego. The full Big West members remain in the MPSF in other sports, but UC San Diego exited the federation.[7] 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 left the MPSF after dropping its last remaining conference sport of women's water polo at the same time.[8]
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.
Men's gymnastics[]
Year
Team
1992–93
Stanford
1994–95
Stanford
1996–97
California
1997–98
California
2001–02
Oklahoma
2002–03
Oklahoma
2004–05
Oklahoma
2005–06
Oklahoma
2007–08
Oklahoma
2008–09
Stanford
2010–11
Stanford
2014–15
Oklahoma
2015–16
Oklahoma
2016–17
Oklahoma
2017–18
Oklahoma
2018–19
Stanford
2020–21
Stanford
Men's soccer[]
Year
Team
1997
UCLA
Men's track & field indoor[]
Year
Team
2007–08
Arizona State
2008–09
Oregon
2013–14
Oregon
2014–15
Oregon
2015–16
Oregon
2020–21
Oregon
Women's track & field indoor[]
Year
Team
1999–00
UCLA
2000–01
UCLA
2006–07
Arizona State
2007–08
Arizona State
2009–10
Oregon
2010–11
Oregon
2011–12
Oregon
2012–13
Oregon
2013–14
Oregon
2015–16
Oregon
2016–17
Oregon
Men's volleyball[]
Year
Team
1993
UCLA
1995
UCLA
1996
UCLA
1997
Stanford
1998
UCLA
1999
Brigham Young
2000
UCLA
2001
Brigham Young
2002
Hawaii†
2004
Brigham Young
2005
Pepperdine
2006
UCLA
2007
UC Irvine
2009
UC Irvine
2010
Stanford
2012
UC Irvine
2013
UC Irvine
† — Vacated due to NCAA violations
Men's water polo[]
Year
Team
1992
California
1993
Stanford
1994
Stanford
1995
UCLA
1996
UCLA
1997
Pepperdine
1998
USC
1999
UCLA
2000
UCLA
2001
Stanford
2002
Stanford
2003
USC
2004
UCLA
2005
USC
2006
California
2007
California
2008
USC
2009
USC
2010
USC
2011
USC
2012
USC
2013
USC
2014
UCLA
2015
UCLA
2016
California
2017
UCLA
2018
USC
2019
Stanford
2020
UCLA
Women's water polo[]
Year
Team
2001
UCLA
2002
Stanford
2003
UCLA
2004
USC
2005
UCLA
2006
UCLA
2007
UCLA
2008
UCLA
2009
UCLA
2010
USC
2011
Stanford
2012
Stanford
2013
USC
2014
Stanford
2015
Stanford
2016
USC
2017
Stanford
2018
USC
2019
Stanford
2021
USC
Notes[]
^ Jump up to: abParticipates only in conference tournament
^"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.