Back To The Future?

By Bill Fusco, SSU Director of Athletics

Back in the 90's, Sonoma State University was a member of the Northern California Athletic Conference (NCAC), the only NCAA Division II conference in the country that did not offer athletic scholarships. Besides SSU, the NCAC membership consisted of San Francisco State, Chico State, Cal State Stanislaus, Humboldt State, UC Davis, Cal State Hayward and the College of Notre Dame.

For SSU, it was a great conference to be in because there were some intense rivalries and no air travel was required to complete a conference schedule. That was all well and good until UC Davis decided it was time to move to a scholarship conference. In 1997, UC Davis announced that the Aggies were moving to the Southern California based California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and would start awarding athletic scholarships for the first time in the history of their program. As soon as UC Davis announced their intentions, four other NCAC members (SSU, Chico, SF State and Stanislaus) climbed aboard the Aggie Express to the CCAA. College of Notre Dame and Cal State Hayward decided to move into the NAIA and Humboldt State moved north joining the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC).

12 years later, alot has changed, yet things look surprisingly similar. UC Davis has moved on to NCAA Division I and the Big West Conference. Humboldt State finally joined the CCAA two years ago. Last month we learned that Cal State Hayward (now known as Cal State East Bay) plans to move back into NCAA Division II and become a member of the CCAA starting with the 2009-10 academic year. With CSU East Bay joining the CCAA, six of the original eight NCAC members are now competing in the CCAA. With CSU Monterey Bay, there are seven CCAA schools in the north and five CCAA schools in the south.

In the not to distant future, you can count on Cal State San Marcos and CSU Channel Islands (both southern schools) declaring their intentions to join NCAA Division II and the CCAA. At that point, the CCAA will finally have some balance with seven schools each in the north and south. That won't nessarily make scheduling any easier than it is now, but having 14 schools in the CCAA will provide a great deal of stability and financial security.

By the way, College of Notre Dame changed their name too. Notre Dame de Namur University is just completing their requirements to return to NCAA Division II and have been a member of the Pacific West Conference for the past two years. The NCAC lives on.