The Big West School Spotlight: UC Santa Barbara

9/5/2025 9:00:00 AM

2025-26 Feature Series: The Big West School Spotlights

UC Santa Barbara was founded in 1891 as the Anna Blake Sloyd School, and has gone through many changes since. The California state government took over the campus in 1909 and became the Santa Barbara State Normal School, which then became the Santa Barbara State College in 1921. In 1944, the college became affiliated with the University of California. Baseball, basketball and football teams representing the school were founded in the 1920's.

UC Santa Barbara has been a member of The Big West since the conference's inception in 1969 and is the oldest. Then known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), the five founding members are Fresno State, Long Beach State, San Diego State, San Jose State and UC Santa Barbara. To date, UC Santa Barbara has won two national crowns, 122 Big West postseason championships and 66 Big West regular-season titles.

SCHOOL FACTS

Location:	Santa Barbara, Calif.
Founded	1891
Nickname:	Gauchos
Enrollment:	24,673
Alumni:	250,000+
Chancellor:	Dr. Dennis Assanis
Athletic Director:	Kelly Barsky
Big West Member Since:	1969-74; 1976
Big West Championships:	188

SPOTLIGHT: OLIVIA HOWARD

BOLD MOMENTS

2006 Men's Soccer National Champions

The UC Santa Barbara men's soccer team won the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship in improbable fashion as an unseeded team. At one point during the campaign, the Gauchos had a 7-6 overall record, 3-2 in conference play, but fought back and finished 5-1 in the remaining six regular-season matches for a 12-7 overall record, 7-3 in conference play heading into the playoffs.

UCSB then went 5-0-1 (tie against Wake Forest in the semifinals, advanced on PKs) in the NCAA Tournament to hoist the championship trophy. The Gauchos defeated UCLA in the final match at Robert R. Hermann Stadium in St. Louis for the national crown.

2024-25 DI-AAA ADA All-Sports Champion

The 2024-25 athletics year was historic for UC Santa Barbara, winning its first-ever Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association (DI-AAA ADA) All-Sports Trophy, tallying 235.00 points to claim the prestigious title.

The DI-AAA ADA All-Sports Trophy is awarded to the institution that has the highest point total in all sports in which at least 25 percent of the eligible I-AAA membership sponsor the given sport. The 21 countable sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field and women's volleyball.

Three Gaucho programs finished atop the DI-AAA ADA standings in their respective sport - softball, women's tennis, and men's outdoor track & field. UC Santa Barbara had two Big West regular-season (men's and women's tennis) and five championship winners (women's soccer, softball, men's swimming & diving, women's swimming & diving and women's tennis). The Gaucho men's soccer and men's tennis teams also earned at-large berths to the NCAA Tournament.

NOTABLE GAUCHOS IN THE PROS

Manu Duah

Ajay Mitchell

Shane Bieber

ACADEMICS

Forbes Magazine, which showcased 500 of the finest U.S. institutions of higher education in its 2024-2025 America’s Top Colleges list, ranked UC Santa Barbara as the No. 8 public university in the country.
In Princeton Review's 2025 Best Colleges rankings, UC Santa Barbara placed No. 12 among public schools for best career placement. The rankings are based on student ratings of career services at their school, as well as on PayScale.com’s salary information for alumni.
U.S. News & World Report ranked UC Santa Barbara the No. 13 public university in the country in its 2025 Best Colleges listing.
Six UC Santa Barbara faculty members have won Nobel Prizes for landmark research in chemistry, physics and economics.
• David J. Gross
• Alan J. Heeger
• Walter Kohn (1923-2016)
• Herbert Kroemer (1928-2024)
• Finn E. Kydland
• Shuji Nakamura
The UCSB campus is home to 12 national centers and institutes. Among them are the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation (ACTION), both funded by the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Army-funded Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies.
UC Santa Barbara offers more than 200 majors, degrees and credentials, a number that includes 90+ undergraduate majors and more than 50 graduate programs.