The Western Athletic Conference was founded in 1962 when members of the Border and Skyline conferences left and started the WAC. Following the 2026 baseball season, the WAC will merge with the Atlantic Sun Conference in the United Athletic Conference as it expands from its current football-only affiliation
In 1996, the WAC expanded to 16 schools. The larger membership proved unwieldy, and most of the founding members left in 1999 to start the Mountain West Conference. Subsequent years have seen numerous schools join and leave the WAC.
In 2024, Grand Canyon University announced it was leaving for the 2025-2026 academic year (it ended up joining the Mountain West). Seattle joined the West Coast Conference for 2025-2026, while Stephen F. Austin and Texas Rio Grande joined the Southland Conference.
After the 2026 baseball season, Cal Baptist and Utah Valley will join the Big West, while Utah Tech and Utah Valley will join the Big Sky.
The WAC currently has seven member schools, and all but Southern Utah offer baseball. In addition, Sacramento State’s baseball team competes in the WAC as the Big Sky Conferences does not offer baseball. Of the WAC schools, only Cal Baptist is in Southern California.
- Abilene Christian
- Cal Baptist
- Sacramento State
- Tarleton
- Texas – Arlington
- Texas – Rio Grande Valley
- Utah Tech
- Utah Valley