Posted on: Friday, June 10, 2005

California university to join PacWest

Advertiser Staff

Notre Dame de Namur University will join the Pacific West Conference as a provisional member effective July 1, Pacific West commissioner Woody Hahn announced yesterday.

Notre Dame de Namur University, a private Catholic university in Belmont, Calif., will join current PacWest members Brigham Young-Hawai'i, Chaminade, Hawai'i-Hilo and Hawai'i Pacific.

The addition of a fifth school is considered the first of many steps the PacWest plans to take to re-establish full voting status in NCAA Division II.

A Division II conference must have six members to be an NCAA voting member.

In February, the PacWest announced that it would lose Montana State-Billings and Western New Mexico to the Heartland Conference on July 1. The two schools cited travel costs as a primary reason for the move.

"We are actively working with other schools in the West and Southwest to establish a great conference in the West," said Hahn, who added that the PacWest unanimously accepted the application of Notre Dame de Namur, an NAIA institution that has 11 sports for men and women, an enrollment of 1,800, and competes in the California Pacific Conference.

"We were looking for a conference that was a good fit for the university," Notre Dame de Namur athletic director Doug Locker said.