The Golden State Athletic Conference was founded by six private, religious colleges in 1986 with affiliation with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. As founding members moved up to NCAA Div. III or II competition, other schools were recruited to take their place.
Ottawa University–Arizona was the most recent school to join, in 2018. Since then, however, Westmont and Jessup left for the NCAA Div. II for the upcoming season, while Vanguard and Menlo will leave after the 2023-24 academic year.
For the 2024-25 year, four schools from the Cal Pac conference will move over to the GSAC: Benedictine–Mesa, Embry–Riddle at Prescott, Park–Gilbert, and Saint Katherine.
For the 2023-24 season, there will be nine member schools, of which seven participate in baseball. (San Diego Christian has announced it is suspending its entire athletic program for the 2023-24 academic year, with a restart planned for the summer of 2024.) Of those, three are in Southern California (highlighted in bold):
- Arizona Christian
- Hope International
- Jessup
- The Master’s University
- Menlo College
- OUAZ
- Vanguard