SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) has announced the addition of men's rowing to its list of sponsored sports beginning with the current 2024-25 season, with UC San Diego one of eight programs joining the conference.
 
"This move to the MPSF will give our team and university regional and national recognition. Our goal is to help generate exposure for UC San Diego men's rowing and create a bigger brand for West Coast programs," said UC San Diego Head Coach Peter Simeone. "This is a step in the right direction for our continued growth as a program. Being aligned with the MPSF will allow us to compete at the highest stage in West Coast men's rowing. We'll be putting our name right up there with some of the best programs in the country. We are grateful for the opportunity that this move brings and are excited to enter into this new chapter for UC San Diego men's rowing."
 
The Tritons will be joined by California, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego, Santa Clara, Stanford and Washington. The eight Division I schools fall under the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA), the national governing body of collegiate men's rowing.
 
"We are thrilled to bring our men's rowing program into the MPSF," said UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards. "The idea of being involved with a bona fide conference with high-level competition will provide a great experience for our coaches and scholar-athletes, as well as our university as a whole. The timing of this move couldn't be better with our department's overall push into Division I. Competing against other top-notch institutions on the West Coast will help with our national recognition and branding."
 
Men's rowing is the 15th sport offered by the MPSF. UC San Diego also competes in the conference in men's and women's fencing. Triton swimming was in the conference from 2018-24, as was men's volleyball from 1993-2017.
 
UC San Diego men's rowing has made eight-straight IRA Championship appearances. At the 2024 Western Sprints Conference Championships the Tritons earned three podium finishes, highlighted by a first-place Varisty-8 result.
 
The inaugural MPSF Men's Rowing Championship is scheduled for May 17-18, 2025, at Lake Natoma in Gold River, California. MPSF men's rowing information, including specific championship details, will be forthcoming on the conference website's championship central page at mpsports.org.
 
"The MPSF is thrilled and honored to be adding the sport of men's rowing," said MPSF Executive Director Foti Mellis. "We hold a profound appreciation for the importance of adding one of the original collegiate sports, boasting a rich history of over 130 years of national championship competition. This addition is significant, and we are eager to welcome eight esteemed programs into the MPSF. Furthermore, we acknowledge that the governing body of the sport, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, predates the NCAA and has promoted rowing in the United States since 1894. These impressive standards will serve as a foundation for establishing ourselves as one of the top rowing conferences in the nation. The MPSF is dedicated to upholding its tradition of offering enhanced competition and championship opportunities for its student-athletes, and we eagerly anticipate our championship in May."
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Divisions I and II.

About the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) was established in 1992-1993 to serve the competitive needs of member institutions from the Big West, Pacific-10 (now the Pac-12) and Western Athletic Conferences, as well as other selected universities in the western United States; and to provide championship competition for Division-I Intercollegiate Olympic sports in a conference setting. The founding principles on which the MPSF was originally formed were to provide enhanced competition and championship opportunities for sports without conference affiliation, to contain the costs of competition, and to ensure the survival of endangered sports. The MPSF has also served as an incubator for emerging women's sports and as a safe harbor for sports impacted by conference realignments. Since its inaugural season, the MPSF has seen its charter conference membership grow by the addition of the Mountain West and West Coast Conferences and their respective member institutions, as well as the addition of women's water polo, women's gymnastics, fencing, artistic swimming, beach volleyball, men's rowing, men's and women's swimming and diving, and men's and women's wrestling. As a testament to its viability, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation continues to successfully navigate the ever-changing sea of college sports by fostering contraction and expansion of its sports portfolio to meet the dynamic needs of its members. As the MPSF is in its 33rd season during the 2024-25 academic year and continues its legacy of championship competition, it affirms the vision of its founders and the relevance of its founding principles.