Since making the move to Malibu in 1972, Pepperdine University's intercollegiate athletics program has carved out a unique niche that is perhaps unmatched by its NCAA Division I counterparts.
No school comparable to Pepperdine in terms of student enrollment and sport sponsorship has achieved such across-the-board athletics success over this nearly 50-year span.
ATHLETIC SUCCESS:
• The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men’s sports — one of just 22 schools to have accomplished this feat — and 10 titles overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest enrollment and is the only school not affiliated with a “major” conference.
• NCAA titles have been won by men’s volleyball (1978, 1985, 1986, 1992 and 2005), men’s golf (1997 and 2021), baseball (1992), men’s water polo (1997) and men’s tennis (2006).
• Other non-NCAA national championships include the women’s beach volleyball team, which won the inaugural AVCA championship in 2012, and then again in 2014. The 1947 football team was awarded the Helms small college national championship trophy and the men’s tennis team won the 1952 NAIA title.
• Pepperdine is classified as an NCAA Division I-AAA school (Division I schools that do not sponsor football), and the Waves are one of the very best of their kind. Since the I-AAA Athletic Director’s Association All-Sports Trophy was established, ranking the various schools on their postseason success, Pepperdine has finished first four times (2004-05, 2005-06, 2011-12 and 2021-22), second four times (2007-08, 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2020-21) and third three times (2006-07, 2014-15 and 2017-18).
• In the annual NACDA Director’s Cup standings, which measures overall postseason success, Pepperdine had a run where it finished first among all of its WCC rivals for 13 straight years (1997-2009). In 2021-22, the Waves finished 62nd among all Division I schools (second in the WCC).
• The Waves have also won 12 individual national championships. Three of them came at the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships: Jerome Jones and Kelly Jones (1984 Doubles), Carlos DiLaura and Kelly Jones (1985 Doubles) and Robbie Weiss (1988 Singles). Six more individual national titles came at NAIA tennis or track championships in the 1950s, two were at the NCAA College Division track meet in the 1960s and Caitlin Racich and Summer Ross added the most recent championship in beach volleyball (2012 AVCA Pairs).
• Following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which were held in 2021), 59 alums have either competed or coached at the Olympics, and athletes have won a total of eight gold medals, eight silver medals and six bronze medals.
• At the conclusion of the 2021-22 school year, Pepperdine has won a total of 226 regular-season or tournament conference titles and has had 352 different student-athletes earn All-American honors a total of 589 times.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS:
• Pepperdine was ranked #49 in U.S. News and World Report’s 2021 rankings of the nation’s top universities. Pepperdine is the highest-ranked West Coast Conference school.
• In the most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate report (released December 2021), the Waves had an overall rate of 91 percent, better than the national rate of 90 percent. Eight teams had perfect 100 percent GSR rates: men’s cross country and track, women’s cross country and track, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and men’s volleyball.
• Nine Pepperdine teams had perfect 1,000 scores in the most recent NCAA Academic Progress Rate data (released June 2022): men’s track, women’s basketball, women’s beach volleyball, women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s swimming and diving, women’s track and women’s indoor volleyball.
• The Waves have CoSIDA Academic All-Americans on 17 occasions (most recently, Ashley Lahey earned first team honors in both 2020 and 2021), as well as 10 WCC Gilleran Scholar-Athlete of the Year winners and four WCC Postgraduate Scholarship receipients.
• 2021-22 departmental highlights: 3.125 departmental GPA ... 10 student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 GPA ... 65% of student-athletes earned a GPA of 3.0 or greater ... 33% of student-athletes earned a GPA of 3.5 or greater ... 11 teams earned a GPA of 3.0 or better ... 178 student-athletes earned Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete status.
• 2021-22 conference highlights: 85 student-athletes earned conference all-academic honors (39 on the first team) ... 119 student-athletes earned a place on the West Coast Conference’s Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
