Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

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).

All MPSF members have a primary conference affiliation. All Pac-12 and Big West Conference members house at least one sport in the MPSF. The West Coast Conference is represented by five schools (Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary's, San Diego). Two conferences are represented by 2 schools, the Big 12 Conference (Oklahoma, BYU), and the Mountain West Conference (Air Force and San Jose State). Nine conferences are represented by one school each – the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (Penn State Behrend), the Big Sky Conference (Sacramento State), the Big Ten Conference (Indiana), the California Collegiate Athletic Association (UC San Diego), the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (Alaska–Anchorage), the Pacific West Conference (Concordia–Irvine), the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (Austin), the Southland Conference (Incarnate Word), and the Western Athletic Conference (Grand Canyon).

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.

Source:[1]

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]

It was announced in August 2021 that the MPSF would add men's and women's fencing to the conference as the tenth sport.[9]

It was announced in September 2021 that the MPSF would add women's artistic swimming to the conference as the eleventh sport.[10]

Membership by sport

School	Artistic Swimming	Fencing[lower-alpha 1]	Men's Gymnastics	Women's Gymnastics	Men's Indoor Track & Field	Women's Indoor Track & Field	Men's Swimming & diving	Women's Swimming & diving	Men's Volleyball	Men's Water Polo	Women's Water Polo	Total MPSF Sports
Air Force	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	2
Alaska Anchorage	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Arizona State	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	1
Augustana (IL)	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	1
Austin	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	1
BYU	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	1
Cal Poly	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	2
Cal State Bakersfield	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	2
Cal State Fullerton	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	2
Cal State Northridge	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	2
California	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	3
Concordia–Irvine	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	1
Grand Canyon	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	1
Hawaii	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	3
Incarnate Word	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	4
Indiana	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	1
Long Beach State	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	2
Oklahoma	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Pacific	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	2
Penn State Behrend	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	1
Pepperdine	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	Y	Y	N	N	2
Portland	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	2
Sacramento State	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
San Diego	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	1
San Francisco	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
San Jose State	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	1
Southern California	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	3
Stanford	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	6
Texas Woman's	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
UC Davis	N	N	N	Y	N	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	3
UC Irvine	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N	1
UCLA	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	Y	3
UC Riverside	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N	2
UC San Diego	N	Y	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	3
UC Santa Barbara	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	N	2
Washington & Jefferson	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	Y	N	1
Wheaton (MA)	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	1
Totals	4	4	4	3	5	10	7	10	7	8	7

1. Coed sport.

Fencing was introduced as an MPSF sport in the 2021-22 season.

Timeline

Fencing members

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.

Institution	Location	Nickname	Men	Women	Primary Conference	Joined
United States Air Force Academy	Colorado Springs, Colorado	Falcons	Y	N	Mountain West	1992
University of Alaska Anchorage	Anchorage, Alaska	Seawolves	N	Y	GNAC (NCAA D-II)	2002
University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley, California	Golden Bears	Y	N	Pac-12 (ACC in 2024)	1992
University of California, Davis	Davis, California	Aggies	N	Y	Big West	2001
California State University, Sacramento	Sacramento, California	Hornets	N	Y	Big Sky	2001 2013
University of Oklahoma	Norman, Oklahoma	Sooners	Y	N	Big 12 (SEC in 2024)	1992
Southern Utah University[11]	Cedar City, Utah	Thunderbirds	N	Y	WAC	2023
Stanford University	Stanford, California	Cardinal	Y	N	Pac-12 (ACC in 2024)	1992

Timeline

 Men's & women's gymnastics  Women's gymnastics  Men's gymnastics 

Conference Champions Year Men Women 1992–93 Stanford — 1993–94 UCLA 1994–95 Stanford 1995–96 Oklahoma 1996–97 Nebraska 1997–98 California 1998–99 Nebraska Oklahoma 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 Sacramento State 2002–03 2003–04 California San Jose State 2004–05 Oklahoma Sacramento State 2005–06 Seattle Pacific 2006–07 2007–08 UC Davis 2008–09 Stanford Alaska–Anchorage 2009–10 Oklahoma UC Davis 2010–11 Stanford 2011–12 Oklahoma 2012–13 2013–14 Sacramento State 2014–15 UC Davis 2015–16 Sacramento State 2016–17 San Jose State 2017–18 2018–19 Air Force 2019–20 — — 2020–21 Oklahoma 2021–22 Stanford San Jose State 2022–23 UC Davis

National Champions Year Team 1993 Stanford (M) 1995 Stanford (M) 1997 California (M) 1998 California (M) 2002 Oklahoma (M) 2003 Oklahoma (M) 2005 Oklahoma (M) 2006 Oklahoma (M) 2008 Oklahoma (M) 2009 Stanford (M) 2011 Stanford (M) 2015 Oklahoma (M) 2016 Oklahoma (M) 2017 Oklahoma (M) 2018 Oklahoma (M) 2019 Stanford (M) 2021 Stanford (M) 2022 Stanford (M) 2023 Stanford (M)

Source: [12]

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.

• Official website