The Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) was an NCAADivision Iwrestling-only conference that competed from 2006 through 2015.[1] All of its past members became associate members of the Big 12 Conference, and all but one continue to compete in Big 12 wrestling. The exception is Fresno State, which was a charter WWC member but dropped the sport before conference competition started, revived the sport in 2017 as a Big 12 associate member, and dropped wrestling again after the 2020–21 season.
Fresno State dropped its wrestling program before competing in the conference.[3]
On October 22, 2006, the conference logo, designed by Flint Communications of Fargo, North Dakota, was introduced.[4]
The conference began competition in the 2006–07 school year.[5]
In 2012, Northern Iowa became an associate member of the Mid-American Conference, reducing the WWC membership to six.[6]
Lacking the required minimum of seven member schools, the NCAA did not recognize the conference and required the WWC schools athletes to qualify for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships through the Western Regional Tournament — a tournament which included only the six WCC schools and also served as the de facto conference championship .[7]
The Big 12 Conference had been wrestling with only four teams since Nebraska moved to the Big Ten in 2011, but the NCAA had annually granted a waiver for its conference championships to be recognized and its champions and runners-up to be granted automatic qualification to the national championships. In 2015, the NCAA declined to grant the waiver, and the Big 12 Conference coaches declined to have their athletes wrestle in the Western Regional Tournament. As a result, Big 12 wrestlers advanced to the NCAA Championships only as at-large invitees. At that time, talk began about the Big 12 inviting the Western Wrestling Conference teams to become affiliate members of the Big 12.[8][9]
On July 29, 2015, the Big 12 Conference and the six member schools of the WWC announced that Air Force, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Utah Valley, and Wyoming were being added to the Big 12's wrestling competition as affiliates, joining Big 12 full-member schools Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia to make a 10-team conference. While expanding the competition by 150%, the Big 12 ended its tradition (carried over from the prior Big Eight Conference) of holding the championships at campus sites, holding the 2016 Big 12 Wrestling Championships at the Sprint Center (now T-Mobile Center) in Kansas City, Missouri.[10]
The WWC's absorption by the Big 12 was completed in 2017 when the Big 12 added Northern Iowa and the resurrected Fresno State wrestling program as associate members.[11]
