PACIFIC TEN CONFERENCE

byname Pac Ten, West Coast American collegiate athletic association that grew out of the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU), itself a descendant of the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (PCIAC), which began in 1915. Members are the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC), the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Stanford University, the University of Washington, Washington State University, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. The original PCIAC foundered during a series of withdrawals from the conference in 1959 and 1960, resulting from dissatisfaction with penalties assessed several members for conference rule violations. Later Washington, California, UCLA, and USC formed the AAWU, which evolved into the present-day conference.