Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Association	NCAA
Founded	1915
Commissioner	Jennifer Dubow
Sports fielded	21 men's: 10 women's: 11
Division	Division III
No. of teams	9 (10 in 2026)
Headquarters	Laguna Niguel, California
Region	Southern California
Official website	thesciac.org
Locations

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

30km
19miles

Caltech

Azusa Pacific

Whittier

Redlands

Occidental

La Verne

Claremont–Mudd–Scripps
Pomona–Pitzer

Chapman

Cal Lutheran

   

Location of SCIAC members: current, future

TheSouthern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is anintercollegiate athletic conference that operates inNCAA Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located inSouthern California and organized into nine athletic programs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer are combined teams for sports purposes.

The SCIAC currently sponsors men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's golf, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, women's volleyball and men's and women's water polo.

A forerunner conference to the SCIAC was the Intercollegiate Football Association of Southern California, which existed in the 1890s. It included Occidental, Caltech (then called Throop Polytechnic),USC,Chaffey College andLos Angeles High School.

The SCIAC was founded in 1915 with five member schools with the goals to promote amateurism in athletics. The five founding members, all of whom are still members, areThroop College of Technology (now California Institute of Technology),Occidental College,Pomona College, theUniversity of Redlands, andWhittier College. Although all five original charter members are still affiliated with the SCIAC, only two, Occidental and Redlands, have had uninterrupted membership. The acronym SCIAC (standing for Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Council) was in use during 1913 and 1914 until that organization became theCIF Southern Section.^[1]

On May 12, 2011, the SCIAC announced thatChapman University would become the ninth member, beginning with the 2011–12 academic year. The addition of Chapman marks the first expansion of the conference sinceCalifornia Lutheran University joined in 1991.^[2] At one time, most of the colleges were the southern California affiliates of various Christian denominations such as theQuakers and thePresbyterians. Today, only California Lutheran University maintains an affiliation with a church.

There are three former members of the SCIAC:University of California, Los Angeles,San Diego State University andUniversity of California, Santa Barbara. All former members now compete inNCAA Division I athletics.

• 1915 – The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) was founded. Charter members includedOccidental College,Pomona College, theUniversity of Redlands,Throop College of Technology (now California Institute of Technology) andWhittier College, beginning the 1915–16 academic year.
• 1920 – TheSouthern Branch of the University of California (now the University of California at Los Angeles, or UCLA) joined the SCIAC in the 1920–21 academic year.
• 1926 –La Verne College (now the University of La Verne) andSan Diego State Teachers College (now San Diego State University) joined the SCIAC in the 1926–27 academic year.
• 1927 – UCLA left the SCIAC after the 1926–27 academic year.
• 1931 –Santa Barbara State College (now the University of California at Santa Barbara) joined the SCIAC in the 1931–32 academic year.
• 1934 – Caltech and Pomona left the SCIAC after the 1933–34 academic year.
• 1938:
  • La Verne and UC Santa Barbara left the SCIAC after the 1937–38 academic year
  • Caltech and Pomona rejoined the SCIAC in the 1938–39 academic year.
• 1939 – San Diego State left the SCIAC after the 1938–39 academic year.
• 1943 – Whittier left the SCIAC after the 1942–43 academic year.
• 1946 – Whittier rejoined the SCIAC in the 1946–47 academic year.
• 1947 –Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) joined the SCIAC in the 1947–48 academic year.
• 1950 –Chapman College (now Chapman University) joined the SCIAC in the 1950–51 academic year.
• 1952 – Chapman left the SCIAC after the 1951–52 academic year.
• 1958 – Claremont combined withHarvey Mudd College for athletics to becomeClaremont–Mudd, beginning the 1958–59 academic year.
• 1971 – Pomona combined withPitzer College for athletics to becomePomona–Pitzer, while La Verne rejoined the SCIAC, both effective in the 1971–72 academic year.
• 1976 – Claremont–Mudd combined withScripps College for athletics to becomeClaremont–Mudd–Scripps, beginning the 1976–77 academic year.
• 1991 –California Lutheran University joined the SCIAC, effective in the 1991–92 academic year.
• 2011 – Chapman rejoined the SCIAC in the 2011–12 academic year.
• 2020 – Occidental dropped its football program before the start of the 2020 fall season (2020–21 academic year).
• 2023 – Whittier dropped its football program after the 2022 fall season (2022–23 academic year).
• 2024 – Azusa Pacific announced that it would transition fromNCAA Division II and thePacific West Conference to the SCIAC in conjunction with the restart of its football program for the 2026 fall season (2026–27 academic year).

The SCIAC currently has nine full members, all areprivate schools:^[3]

Notes

The SCIAC will have one new member in 2026, also aprivate school.^[5]

Notes

The SCIAC had three former full members, all werepublic schools:^[3]

Notes

 Full member (all sports)  Full member (non-football)  Associate member (football)  Associate member (sport) 

^[6]

The SCIAC sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in the following sports:

• List of Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football standings

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