The Skyline Conference was a

college athletic conference In college athletics in the United States, institutions typically join in Athletic conference, conferences for regular play under different governing bodies. Varsity sports There are several national and regional associations governing the var ...

based in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

that was active from December 1937 to June 1962. The conference's formal name was the Mountain States Athletic Conference, although it was also known as the Mountain States Conference along with informal but popular nicknames. It is unrelated to the contemporary

Skyline Conference The Skyline Conference is an List of NCAA conferences, intercollegiate athletic conference based in the New York City area that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division III, Division III. The league was orig ...

that is active 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- ...

in the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

area.

History

The conference began operating on December 3, 1937, when most of the larger schools in the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

left to form a new conference. The seven charter members of the conference were: BYU,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, Colorado A&M (now

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. It was founded in 1870 as Colorado Agr ...

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, Utah State, and

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. At the time of formation, the formal name of Mountain States Athletic Conference was adopted, although newspapers were already calling it the Big Seven at that time. The conference became popularly known as the Skyline Conference or Skyline Six after Colorado left in 1947. Colorado joined the

Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was a college athletic conference and the second college conference formed upon its foundation on January 12, 1907.David A. Campaigne and John R. Thelin, "Big Twelve Conference", ...

(MVIAA), informally known as the Big Six Conference, which took over the Big Seven name and would later become the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate ...

. The conference became known as the Skyline Eight after

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

joined in 1951. The conference officially dissolved as of July 1, 1962, after four of its members (BYU, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) departed to form the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC). Montana operated as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

for one football season in 1962 until the formation of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

in 1963. Colorado State became independent until it joined the WAC in 1968. Utah State operated as an independent for fifteen seasons, until it joined the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (later named the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

) in 1977. The conference first had a full-time commissioner in 1949, appointing

Dick Romney Ernest Lowell "Dick" Romney (February 12, 1895 – February 5, 1969) was an American football, basketball and baseball player and coach, track athlete, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach and athletic direct ...

, who had led the

Utah State Aggies football The Utah State Aggies football team is a college football team that competes in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, representing Utah State University. The Utah State college football pr ...

program since 1919. He was succeeded in August 1960 by

Paul Brechler Paul Walter Brechler (July 17, 1911 – September 13, 1997) was an athletic director for the University of Iowa for 13 years and the first commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference. Playing career Brechler graduated from Emmetsburg High S ...

, who had been

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. Brechler served as commissioner until the conference disbanded, and became the first commissioner of the WAC.

Member schools

Final members

;Notes:

Former members

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1937 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 id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.888,0.803,0.483) id:WAC value:rgb(0.999,0.500,0.500) id:Ind value:rgb(0.83,0.83,0.83) PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:Full from:1937 till:1947 text:

(1937–1947) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1947 till:1964 text: Big Seven bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1964 till:1994 text: Big Eight bar:1 color:OtherC3 from:1994 till:2011 text:

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2011 till:2024 text:

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

bar:1 color:OtherC3 from:2024 till:end text:

bar:2 color:Full from:1937 till:1962 text:

(1937–1962) bar:2 color:Ind from:1962 till:1976 text:Independent bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1976 till:1999 text:Division II/NAIA bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:1999 till:2012 text:

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered stretching across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the Parallel 36°30′ north. Several climates can be found in the re ...

bar:2 color:WAC from:2012 till:2013 text: WAC bar:2 color:OtherC3 from:2013 till:end text:

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

bar:3 color:Full from:1937 till:1962 text: Utah State (1937–1962) bar:3 color:Ind from:1962 till:1978 text:Independent bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1978 till:1988 text:

PCAA PCAA, or 5- 'N''-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)aminoentanoic acid, is a metabolite of phencyclidine (PCP). It can be detected in the urine of PCP users by mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the ma ...

bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1988 till:2005 text:

Big West The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

bar:3 color:WAC from:2005 till:2013 text: WAC bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2026 text:

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Janu ...

bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:2026 till:end text:

bar:4 color:Full from:1937 till:1962 text:

(1937–1962) bar:4 color:Ind from:1962 till:1968 text:Independent bar:4 color:WAC from:1968 till:1999 text: WAC bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1999 till:2026 text:

bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:2026 till:end text:

bar:5 color:Full from:1937 till:1962 text: BYU (1937–1962) bar:5 color:WAC from:1962 till:1999 text: WAC bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1999 till:2011 text:

bar:5 color:OtherC2 from:2011 till:2023 text: WCC bar:5 color:OtherC3 from:2023 till:end text:

bar:6 color:Full from:1937 till:1962 text:

(1937–1962) bar:6 color:WAC from:1962 till:end text: WAC bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1999 till:2011 text:

bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2011 till:2024 text:

bar:6 color:OtherC3 from:2024 till:end text:

bar:7 color:Full from:1937 till:1962 text:

(1938–1962) bar:7 color:WAC from:1962 till:end text: WAC bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1999 till:end text:

bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:1937 till:1951 text:

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

bar:8 color:Full from:1951 till:1962 text:

(1951–1962) bar:8 color:WAC from:1962 till:1999 text: WAC bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:1999 till:end text:

bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:1937 till:1950 text:

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

bar:9 color:Ind from:1950 till:1951 text: bar:9 color:Full from:1951 till:1962 text:

(1951–1962) bar:9 color:Ind from:1962 till:1963 text: bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1963 till:end text: Big Sky ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1940 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(300,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Skyline Conference membership history"

Football champions

*1938

*1939

*1940

*1941

*1942

and

*1943

*1944

*1945

*1946

and Utah State *1947

*1948

*1949

*1950

*1951

*1952

*1953

*1954

*1955 Colorado A&M *1956

*1957

*1958

*1959

*1960

and Utah State *1961

and Utah State

Basketball champions

* 1911: Colorado School of Mines * 1912: Colorado School of Mines * 1913: Colorado * 1914: Colorado * 1915: Denver * 1916: Colorado, Colorado College * 1917: Colorado College * 1918: Colorado * 1919: Colorado * 1920: Colorado * 1921: Colorado * 1922: Colorado College * 1923: Colorado College * 1924: Colorado College (Colorado) * 1925: Colorado College (Eastern), BYU (Western) * 1926: Colorado State (Eastern), Northern Colorado (Eastern), Utah (Western), Utah State (Western) * 1927: Colorado College (Eastern), Montana State (Western) * 1928: Wyoming (Eastern), Montana State (Western) * 1929: Colorado (Eastern), Montana State (Western) * 1930: Colorado (Eastern), Montana State (Western), Utah State (Western) * 1931: Wyoming (Eastern), Utah (Western) * 1932: Wyoming (Eastern), BYU (Western), Utah (Western) * 1933: Colorado State (Eastern), Wyoming (Eastern), BYU (Western), Utah (Western) * 1934: Wyoming (Eastern), BYU (Western) * 1935: Northern Colorado (Eastern), Utah State (Western) * 1936: Wyoming (Eastern), Utah State (Western) * 1937: Colorado (Eastern), Denver (Eastern), Montana State (Western), Utah (Western) * 1938: Colorado, Utah * 1939: Colorado * 1940: Colorado * 1941: Wyoming * 1942: Colorado * 1943: Wyoming * 1945: Utah * 1946: Wyoming * 1947: Wyoming * 1948: BYU * 1949: Wyoming * 1950: BYU * 1951: BYU * 1952: Wyoming * 1953: Wyoming * 1954: Colorado State * 1955: Utah * 1956: Utah * 1957: BYU * 1958: Wyoming * 1959: Utah * 1960: Utah * 1961: Colorado State, Utah * 1962: Utah

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skyline Conference (1938-1962) Sports in the Western United States 1938 establishments in the United States 1962 disestablishments in the United States