The Big West Conference will hold a vote Friday to extend an official invitation to Utah Valley and California Baptist according to Brett McMurphy of the Action Network. The news comes shortly after the Big West lost two of its members in UC Davis and Hawaii to the Mountain West Conference. Both schools are expected to receive the invite to the conference and begin play in 2026.
The Big West will vote Friday to extend invitations to Utah Valley and California Baptist per @Brett_McMurphy of Action Network. pic.twitter.com/fFKCgFqMlO
— Brice Larson (@LarsonSports) February 24, 2025
According to sources within the Utah Valley Athletic Department, UVU has been in conversations with four different leagues over the last two years. One source has confirmed that at least one of those other four conferences included the Summit League.
A potential move to the Big West Conference would be a bit unprecedented for Utah Valley as the institution would be the only school outside of the state of California. Though, this isn’t too big of an issue considering the Big West will be losing Hawaii to the Mountain West, limiting the travel for each member institution.
Officials from the conference visited the two campuses of the prospective members. After the visits were complete, the conference made the decision to proceed with the vote to officially extend the offer. Utah Valley fits rather nicely into the landscape of the Big West with the institution not having a football team. It is also not surprising that the Big West would have Utah Valley at the top of its expansion list considering the sponsored sports line up to be “almost perfect” according to a source.
Other sources inside the UVU Athletic department said the conference was “blown away” by the facilities on campus and that the nearby Provo Airport having added a plethora of flights to Southern California was an influencing factor in the potential move.
The news comes shortly after the Western Athletic Conference suffered multiple defections over the past 5 years. With the departures of top brands like New Mexico State, Sam Houston State and Grand Canyon. The conference also lost recently named Commissioner Brian Thornton as he took a position in the Big 12 conference offices as Vice President of Big 12 Men’s Basketball. The writing of the WAC’s demise was on the wall.
The question still remains as to what will happen with the other two Utah institutions that are full time members of the WAC, Utah Tech and Southern Utah. Both schools sponsor Division 1 FCS Football teams which will make it more difficult to find a landing spot.
ESPN The Fan has reached out to the Big West Conference for comment and is awaiting a response.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is made available.
