Eight West Coast Men's rowing programs will join the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) and race for an IRA-qualifying championship in May 2025 at Lake Natoma.

The new championship will replace the PAC-12 Championship, which ended in 2023 after the dissolution of the PAC-12 Conference, and involve four schools from the Western Sprints Championship. According to the 2025 IRA Selection Criteria, the MPSF Championship will award six IRA bids, per the published Selection Criteria for the 2025 IRA National Championship Regatta.

The eight schools include the four men's varsity programs from the now-defunct PAC-12 Conference (Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington) and four which have raced at the Western Sprints in the past: Gonzaga, Santa Clara, UC San Diego, and University of San Diego.

With the new championship, the 18 automatic bids to the 2025 IRA will now go to the top IRA-eligible finishers at four regattas: the Eastern Sprints (9), the MPSF Championship (6), the Dad Vail (2), and the NIRC (1). Six At-Large bids will also be available to fill the 24 school field for the National Championship.

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation was founded 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," according to its website. The MPSF now sponsors competition in 15 Olympic sports with the addition of men's rowing.

You can read the full release from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation here. Below are the comments from the head coaches in the release.

"We are excited to announce that we will be joining the MPSF as our home conference. The MPSF has had a storied history of hosting championships for more than 30 years. Keeping our traditional race schedule allows us to stay true to the history of West Coast rowing and the unique rivalries that make collegiate rowing special. We are grateful for the support of the administration at UW, as well as other West Coast schools, that have made this alignment possible. We are looking forward to Cal coming to the Montlake Cut on April 26 for The Dual." -Michael Callahan, University of Washington Head Coach

"We are excited to have our conference championship under the MPSF banner and to potentially grow the regatta to include all of the west coast programs. It will be a great showing of competitive depth for rowing on the west coast!" -Scott Frandsen, University of California Head Coach

"I feel this is a good move for our program from a competitive standpoint. It also has a huge athlete experience component and it gives us a continued path to our national championship. We look forward to working with the MPSF." -Dan Gehn, Gonzaga University Head Coach

"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. 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." -Peter Simeone, UC San Diego Head Coach

"This is a monumental move for our program and for west coast men's varsity rowing as a whole. We feel like this move provides only positive outcomes for our program: one more automatic bid for the IRA National Championships available to the west coast, the opportunity to continue having the Western Sprints champion recognized and the creation of an eight-team conference that features some of the best collegiate rowing teams in the country, all while having a competitive racing format." -Bart Thompson, University of San Diego Head Coach

"We have worked together with the other west coast rowing teams to create a great championship with the MPSF. This will create a very competitive regatta, pitting all the strongest teams in the west together on one stage to cap off the regular season in May. I am excited for how this will help grow the sport and show off a very high level of racing." -Gabe Winkler, Oregon State University Head Coach