The Azusa Pacific Cougars are the athletic teams that represent

Azusa Pacific University Azusa Pacific University (APU) is a private evangelical research university in Azusa, California, United States. The university was founded in 1899 in Whittier, California, with classes first held on March 3, 1900, and degrees offered in 193 ...

, located in

Azusa, California Azusa ( Tongva: ''Azuksa'', meaning "skunk") is a city in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains and located east of downtown Los Angeles. Its population wa ...

, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the

Pacific West Conference The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in California and Hawaii. T ...

(PacWest) for most of its sports since the 2012–13 academic year; while its women's swimming & diving team competes in the

Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

(PCSC) and its women's water polo team competes in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC). The Cougars previously competed in the

Golden State Athletic Conference The Great Southwest Athletic Conference (GSAC), formerly known as the Golden State Athletic Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference commissioner is M ...

(GSAC) of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...

(NAIA) from 1986–87 to 2011–12. On July 11, 2011 Azusa Pacific began the three-year transition process to becoming a member of the NCAA. Azusa Pacific University decided to end its football program in December 2020 due to financial restructuring. The team was revived in March 2025 with plans of playing in

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

and the

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that operates in NCAA Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are locat ...

starting in 2026. The Cougars also maintain a secondary association with the

National Christian College Athletic Association The National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) is an association of Christian universities, colleges, and Bible colleges in the United States and Canada whose mission is "the promotion and enhancement of intercollegiate athletic c ...

(NCCAA). They won four NCCAA men's basketball championships titles from 1969 to 1972 and returned to NCCAA competition during their transition to NCAA Division II. Azusa Pacific Athletics achieved eight consecutive wins of the Directors’ Cup from 2005 to 2012, with a total of 108 GSAC Championships and 36 NAIA National Championships. Since joining NCAA Division II, the program has added 45 PacWest Conference Championships, four GNAC championships in football, and two NCAA national championships.

Varsity teams

Azusa Pacific competes in 16 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include acrobatics and tumbling, basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, water polo.

Varsity teams

National championships

Team

References

External links