Four University of Hawaii sports programs that found themselves in potential no-man’s land due to football-driven conference realignment will be allowed to remain in the Big West Conference.

To cap four days of conference meetings in Irvine, Calif., the Big West Board of Directors — a collection of presidents and chancellors of the BWC’s 11 full-member institutions — voted to let UH’s men’s volleyball, beach volleyball, women’s water polo and men’s swimming and diving programs remain in the conference as affiliate members once most of UH’s other teams jump to the Mountain West in the summer of 2026.

When then-UH Athletic Director Craig Angelos announced in October that most of UH’s teams would join its football program in the Mountain West for stability purposes, UH brass simultaneously asked the jilted Big West to put aside any bitterness and house those four so-called Olympic sports, all of which have been competitive at either a conference or national level.

Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly referenced a longstanding relationship with UH that dates to 1984 in the conference’s decision.

“Discussions have been conducted since Hawaii made the request of The Big West in October,” Butterly told Spectrum News in a message. “Discussions continued the past four days and ultimately came to the Board for final vote today.

Butterly declined to share the vote total but added “I will say there was strong support.”

Had the vote not gone UH’s way, it would’ve been forced to seek membership from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which in the past has housed the Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine in men’s volleyball and water polo. The MPSF includes programs from power conferences like Stanford, USC and UCLA.

“This agreement is a significant milestone for our athletics program and was truly a team effort,” said acting Athletic Director Lois Manin in a statement. “We’re thankful to commissioner Dan Butterly and the Big West member institutions for the opportunity to remain in the league. It guarantees that our student-athletes in these four sports can continue to compete at the highest level within the Big West.”

UH beach volleyball coach Evan Silberstein told Spectrum News that his intuition was the vote would go favorably.

It just made too much sense for all parties, he said, calling it a “win-win.”

“The opportunity to continue that legacy and work with great people at the Big West with some really top competition in the league, and trusted colleagues, really,” said Silberstein, who pointed out UH’s four Big West beach titles are the most of any school. “Long Beach, Cal Poly, are people we’ve worked closely with. As much as we compete against each other, we work together to grow the game, we work together to grow the conference.”

UH is expected to pay the Big West $25,000 per sport on an annual basis. Silberstein said the fees are not insignificant for a mid-major conference like the Big West.

“And the championship pedigree of the programs that are going to stay behind in the Big West, men’s volleyball particularly, beach volleyball, water polo, you’re talking about programs that have routinely been at the pinnacle of the national stage, so it brings a lot of great press for the Big West in these ways,” he said.

UH men’s volleyball has two national championships under coach Charlie Wade, in 2021 and 2022, and made four straight NCAA finals from 2019 to 2023.

In October 2023, the Big West awarded championships hosting duties to UH in men’s volleyball in 2024 and 2025 and women’s volleyball in 2026. The conference will presumably relocate the latter.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.