CSUB to join nation's top water polo conference
| Thursday, Jan 26 2012 05:38 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jan 26 2012 05:40 PM
CSU Bakersfield's water polo program is moving to the best conference in the country.
Effective next season, the Roadrunners will become the seventhmember of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's water polo league.
The MPSF is losing San Diego State and Hawaii after this season as those programs move to the Big West Conference in all sports except football.
"I'm very excited," said CSUB coach Jason Gall, who is starting his fifth season in Bakersfield. "Why wouldn't you want to compete against the best coaches and best teams?"
An MPSF member has won every national women's water polo championship since the NCAA began a national tournament in 2001.
In the season's first national poll released Wednesday, the top six teams are MPSF members: No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 California, No. 3 USC, No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 San Jose State and No. 6 Arizona State. UCLA has won seven national titles in 11 seasons with Stanford and USC winning two apiece.
Moving to the MPSF should help CSUB attract stronger players, Gall said.
"The top athletes in the country look to go to the MPSF," he said.
The NCAA Tournament for water polo has been an eight-team playoff. In recent years, the MPSF has filled the three at-large berths to round out the bracket, Gall said, adding that five conferences have had automatic qualifiers.
CSUB is currently in the Western Water Polo Association, which Gall described as a multi-division conference that has members from Division I, Division II and Division III programs.
"This is an exciting achievement for our program," CSUB athletic director Jeff Konya said. "This is a great opportunity for our student athletes to compete against the best and four our coaching staff to recruit amongst the best."
CSUB opens its final WWPA season this weekend at the UC Santa Barbara tournament.
Future MPSF opponent Arizona State is among the teams CSUB will face this weekend.
