Trojans in the Leagues
June 21, 1999 | Baseball
USCs first participation in league play was in the California Intercollegiate Baseball Association, originated in 1927. USC was one of five founding members, including California, St. Marys, Santa Clara and Stanford. Prior to the advent of the CIBA, USC, Cal and Stanford shared a loose alliance in 1923-24 and 1926.
The CIBA ran from 1927-66, plus a brief return in 1976. USC and Cal were the only teams to participate in each of the years that the conference was in existence. In addition to the original members, other participants in the CIBA in its first 40 years were Loyola Marymount, Occidental, Pepperdine, UCLA, the University of San Francisco and Whittier. In 1943, the CIBA was divided into two divisions as USC played with five other teams in the Southern Division.
In 1967, USC joined the Athletic Association of Western Universities, along with Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State. The AAWU changed its name to the Pacific-8 Conference in 1968. The Pac-8 was divided into Northern and Southern divisions in 1970, with USC, Cal, Stanford and UCLA in the latter.
The brief reformation of the CIBA in 1976 was composed of the four Pac-8 Southern Division teams and UC Santa Barbara. In 1977, the Pac-8 Southern Division came back in its original form.
In 1979, Arizona and Arizona State joined the four California Pac-8 schools in the Pac-10 Southern Division, which has since remained intact.
