The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that operates in

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

and organized into nine athletic programs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer are combined teams for sports purposes. The SCIAC currently sponsors men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's golf, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, women's volleyball and men's and women's water polo.

History

A forerunner conference to the SCIAC was the Intercollegiate Football Association of Southern California, which existed in the 1890s. It included Occidental, Caltech (then called Throop Polytechnic),

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

, Chaffey College and Los Angeles High School. The SCIAC was founded in 1915 with five member schools with the goals to promote amateurism in athletics. The five founding members, all of whom are still members, are Throop College of Technology (now California Institute of Technology), Occidental College,

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

, the University of Redlands, and Whittier College. Although all five original charter members are still affiliated with the SCIAC, only two, Occidental and Redlands, have had uninterrupted membership. The acronym SCIAC (standing for Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Council) was in use during 1913 and 1914 until that organization became the

CIF Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CI ...

. On May 12, 2011, the SCIAC announced that Chapman University would become the ninth member, beginning with the 2011–12 academic year. The addition of Chapman marks the first expansion of the conference since

California Lutheran University California Lutheran University (CLU, Cal Lutheran, or Cal Lu) is a private university in Thousand Oaks, California, United States. It was founded in 1959 and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but is nonsectarian. It o ...

joined in 1991. At one time, most of the colleges were the southern California affiliates of various Christian denominations such as the

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

and the

Presbyterians Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

. Today, only California Lutheran University maintains an affiliation with a church. There are three former members of the SCIAC:

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

and

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

. All former members now compete in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

athletics.

Chronological timeline

* 1915 - The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) was founded. Charter members included Occidental College,

, the University of Redlands, Throop College of Technology (now California Institute of Technology) and Whittier College, effective beginning the 1915-16 academic year. * 1920 - The Southern Branch of the University of California (now the University of California at Los Angeles, or UCLA) joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1920-21 academic year. * 1926 - La Verne College (now the University of La Verne) and San Diego State Teachers College (now San Diego State University) joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1926-27 academic year. * 1927 - UCLA left the SCIAC, effective after the 1926-27 academic year. * 1931 - Santa Barbara State College (now the University of California at Santa Barbara) joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1931-32 academic year. * 1934 - Caltech and Pomona left the SCIAC, effective after the 1933-34 academic year. * 1938 - La Verne and UC Santa Barbara left the SCIAC, effective after the 1937-38 academic year * 1938 - Caltech and Pomona re-joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1938-39 academic year. * 1939 - San Diego State left the SCIAC, effective after the 1938-39 academic year. * 1943 - Whittier left the SCIAC, effective after the 1942-43 academic year. * 1946 - Whittier re-joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1946-47 academic year. * 1947 - Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1947-48 academic year. * 1950 - Chapman College (now Chapman University) joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1950-51 academic year. * 1952 - Chapman left the SCIAC, effective after the 1951-52 academic year. * 1958 - Claremont combined with Harvey Mudd College for athletics to become Claremont–Mudd, effective in the 1958-59 academic year. * 1971 - Pomona combined with

Pitzer College Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1963 as a women's college in the Claremont Colleges consortium and became coeducational in 1970. Pitzer enrolls approximately 1000 students. Pitzer off ...

for athletics to become Pomona–Pitzer, while La Verne re-joined back to the SCIAC, both effective in the 1971-72 academic year. * 1976 - Claremont–Mudd combined with Scripps College for athletics to become Claremont–Mudd–Scripps, effective in the 1976-77 academic year. * 1991 -

joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1991-92 academic year. * 2011 - Chapman re-joined back to the SCIAC, effective in the 2011-12 academic year. * 2020 - Occidental dropped its football program before the start of the 2020 fall season (2020-21 academic year). * 2023 - Whittier dropped its football program after the 2022 fall season (2022-23 academic year). * 2024 - Azusa Pacific announced that it would transition from

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

and the Pacific West Conference to the SCIAC in conjunction with the restart of its football program for the 2026 season (2026-27 academic year).

Member schools

Current member schools

The SCIAC currently has nine full members. All are private schools: ;Notes:

Future member

The SCIAC will have one new member in 2026, also a private school.

Former member schools

The SCIAC had three former full members, all were

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

schools: ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1915 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:yellow from:1915 till:1934 text:

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

(1915–1934) bar:1 color:yellow from:1938 till:end text:(1938–present) bar:2 color:yellow from:1915 till:end text: Occidental (1915–present) bar:4 color:yellow from:1915 till:1934 text: Pomona (1915–1934) bar:4 color:yellow from:1938 till:1971 text: Pomona (1938–1971) bar:4 color:yellow from:1971 till:end text: Pomona-Pitzer (1971–present) bar:5 color:yellow from:1915 till:end text: Redlands (1915–present) bar:6 color:yellow from:1915 till:1943 text: Whittier (1915–1943) bar:6 color:yellow from:1946 till:end text:(1946–present) bar:7 color:yellow from:1920 till:1927 text:

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

(1920–1927) bar:8 color:yellow from:1926 till:1939 text:

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...

(1926–1939) bar:9 color:yellow from:1926 till:1938 text: La Verne (1926–1938) bar:9 color:yellow from:1971 till:end text:(1971–present) bar:10 color:yellow from:1931 till:1938 text: UC Santa Barbara (1931–1938) bar:11 color:yellow from:1947 till:1962 text: Claremont (1947–1958) bar:11 color:yellow from:1962 till:1981 text: Claremont-Mudd (1958–1976) bar:11 color:yellow from:1981 till:end text: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (1976–present) bar:12 color:yellow from:1950 till:1952 text: Chapman (1950–1952) bar:12 shift:(-10) color:yellow from:2011 till:end text: Chapman (2011–present) bar:13 color:yellow from:1991 till:end text: Cal Lutheran (1991–present) bar:14 shift:(-60) color:yellow from:2026 till:end text: Azusa Pacific (2026–future) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1915 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(175,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"SCIAC membership history"

All-sports champions

Sports

The SCIAC sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in the following sports:

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division III football conference navbox