Cal Poly Women’s Soccer enters the 2026 season as the reigning Big West champion, but the road to a repeat will look different this season.
As of July 1, California Baptist, Sacramento State and Utah Valley are new members of the Big West Conference.
Along with their entry, the Big West also saw Hawai’i and UC Davis depart to become affiliate members of the Mountain West Conference.
This means the Big West now has 12 members instead of its usual 11.
A new look in the Big West
The latest Big West additions could change the conference landscape based on the programs’ recent success.
The path to the NCAA Tournament could be more difficult with the additions of Cal Baptist and Utah Valley, who proved to be tough competitors in their previous conference.
During the 2025 season, both teams were affiliates of the Western Athletic Conference. Utah Valley finished the regular season as conference champion, with an overall record of 14-5-3 (9-0-1 WAC). The title earned them a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they suffered a first-round loss to the University of Colorado in overtime.
Cal Baptist finished second in the regular season to Utah Valley, but beat the Wolverines to win the WAC Tournament Championship. They continued on to the NCAA Tournament, where they saw a first-round exit to the University of Kansas after a 3-1 loss. The Lancers had a 10-9-4 (6-3-1 WAC) record in 2025.
Senior midfielder and Cal Poly captain Sophia Minnite believes that matchups against Cal Baptist and Utah Valley will be learning opportunities for the Mustangs.
“Utah Valley and [Cal Baptist] were both in the tournament last year, so I think if anything, it would just add another competitive game for us to learn more lessons and hopefully get positive results,” Minnite said. “It just makes the competition tighter and makes us train harder, and just level up in all aspects.”
Meanwhile, Sacramento State presents a new conference opponent for Cal Poly without the same preseason expectations surrounding some other Big West teams. The Hornets were ranked 12th in the preseason polls and are bringing three Big Sky Championships and three NCAA appearances throughout their program history.
The way the postseason works is that the top six teams with the best records in the Big West move on to the playoffs. Since there are now 12 Big West affiliates, that means one more team than in previous years will be pushed out of postseason contention.
Head coach Bernardo Silva said he sees the Big West Conference as a “massive challenge” this season.“There are going to be some really legit teams that are going to be out of the tournament this year because of the profile of the conference increasing,” he said.
The biggest threats to the Mustangs’ bid to repeat as champions are UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton and Utah Valley. In the preseason polls, Cal Poly and UCSB tied for No. 1, while Fullerton and Utah Valley ranked No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
The Mustangs’ ability to repeat will rely heavily on returners from last year’s championship team. Cal Poly has 16 returning players and has added nine transfers to its roster.
While new opponents may complicate the path to a title, the goal of this program remains the same: bring home another championship.
For senior defender and captain Siena Urzua, the pressure of being a title contender feels like a privilege.
“All three of the [new] teams are really good programs that are coming to the Big West,” Urzua said. “There’s so many good programs in the Big West, and we had to overcome many good programs last year. We talk about it like we were playing for one last meal, one last game, one last practice. It’s always about the one ‘last,’ when you get that far in the tournament.”
The 2027 season will see even more changes with UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara declaring their intention to leave the Big West for the West Coast Conference, effective July 1, 2027.
As a result of the increase in shifting landscapes of the conference, the Big West Board of Directors decided to increase the withdrawal fee to $5 million.
Cal Poly will get a first look at new inductee Cal Baptist as conference play begins on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Spanos Stadium.