A stronger standing in basketball is anticipated as a major benefit of UCSB’s move into the West Coast Conference beginning in the 2027-28 academic year.
UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis noted that the WCC has received “multiple bids to the Big Dance” – the NCAA men’s basketball tournament – while the Big West Conference rarely has more than one team admitted to the lucrative tournament.
It was announced over the weekend that WCC will grow to 12 schools with the addition of Santa Barbara as well as UC San Diego, another Big West program. The University of Denver will join the WCC in 2026-27.
The WCC put three teams – Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and Santa Clara – into the 2026 NCAA men’s tournament. Gonzaga, a perennial basketball power, is moving into the Pac-12, leaving the WCC with a gap to fill.
“Within the next five years we could become the next Gonzaga,” Assanis surmised during an upbeat press conference Monday.
The WCC will launch the fall 2027 season with this lineup: UCSB, UC San Diego, Loyola Marymount University, University of the Pacific, Pepperdine University, University of Portland, Saint Mary’s College, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, Seattle University and University of Denver.
UCSB’s Gauchos will compete in 13 WCC sports: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s golf and men’s water polo.
“Basketball and Olympic sports make this conference special,” WCC commissioner Su Jackson said. “The depth and breadth of the conference has become very strong.”
UCSB competes in other sports – notably track and field, swimming, men’s volleyball and women’s water polo – and it will pursue affiliate memberships in other conferences.
Gaucho athletics director Kelly Barsky called the upcoming switch to the WCC “a transformative moment” that will broaden UCSB’s horizons and, she hopes, lead to robust engagement by the students and the community.
The WCC will inherit two of the strongest basketball programs from the Big West. UCSB reached the men’s NCAA tournament as conference champion in 2021 and 2023; UC San Diego put both men’s and women’s teams into the Big Dance in 2025 and the women’s team this year.
The Tritons and the Gauchos are currently leading the Big West baseball standings.
UCSB’s last year in the Big West will have a different look, as both Hawai‘i and UC Davis are departing to the Mountain West Conference. Utah Valley will be joining the Big West. Also, Cal Poly’s soccer team is moving to the Pac-12, making the celebrated rivalry between the Gauchos and Mustangs an inter-conference matchup.
