New chapter for UCSB Athletics as they accept invitation to join WCC
Mike Klan
UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – UCSB is making a bold move to leave the Big West and the Gauchos will rise in the west with the West Coast Conference.
At a press conference at UCSB, WCC Commissioner Stu Jackson announced “When you enter a place like this today, you get a little bit of a sense of the energy and the excitement for what this day brings. But I will say this to you that today is an exciting day for the West Coast Conference as well. I’m honored to officially announce that UC Santa Barbara has accepted our invitation to join the WCC.”
Jackson said the WCC tried in the past to lure UCSB but they were turned down. But the change of UCSB leadership in 2025 from Chancellor Henry Yang to Chancellor Dennis Assanis produced a different tone.
“We first reached out to UC Santa Barbara well over a year ago with no success, and when the change in leadership happened we decided to take a shot again,” said Jackson. “We found an enthusiastic caller on the other end of the phone this time, certainly it’s been a process to get to this day, but it’s one that was done with like minds in terms of coming together as partner to this day.”
“We have been at places both, me and my wife Eleni where athletics is indeed the front porch of the university,” began Chancellor Assanis. “When we arrived, the first event we had with students was at our Thunderdome. We basically said, look, we have everything here. It’s brewing. It’s ready to ignite. Let’s give them the opportunity. Yes, that was an active objective from day one. Again, we believe it’s such a catalyst for other wonderful things that can happen for the university, the ability to tell our story and share it with audiences nationally. I was looking very quickly, talking with our athletics director. How can we relay this story to other audiences and can we do it right now in the conference. Where we are, which we obviously value, but it does have some geographic limitation that doesn’t quite fit the vision we had. We really want to expand and compete at the highest levels, and give others the opportunity to do that. We’re attracted to the fact that the WCC gets multiple bids to get in the big dance. Those were factors, but as to how the dancing happens, we were not the ones who danced first. I know the WCC has expressed interest in Santa Barbara before, so the rest is history.”
Kelly Barsky, The Arnhold Director of Athletics, added “We’ve been going through a national landscape for a couple of years now of change and adjustment. Our focus has always been around how do we support the student athletes, the coaches, the programs, the people, the community of UCSB and ensure that we’re positioned strategically and appropriately. In terms of when is the moment, there’s been an open evaluation for a number of years as we continue to look at what UCSB needs, what do we bring, and how do we continue to grow, and then a moment all aligned. A moment aligned with, I mentioned the great leadership of Chancellor Assanis, it aligned in working with Stu. It aligned in working with some of the WCC, presidents, colleagues. There, that is we looked at for all the reasons we talked about the markets being able to share our story, the alignment in investment academics, athletically.”
UCSB will become a full member of the WCC on July 1, 2027 and will be the 12th school along with UC San Diego, Loyola Marymount University, University of the Pacific, Pepperdine University, University of Portland, Saint Mary’s College, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University Seattle University and Denver University.
The Gauchos will still compete in the Big West during the 2026-’27 season.