Welcome to the Pac-12 Challenge:

Stanford University Edition

The cache IS at the posted coordinates. 

The difficulty is because of the distance you must travel to qualify for the challenge!

Actual difficulty of the hide is more like a 1 

Parking during game day or reunion weekend might be hard, but all other times should be real easy!

You can sign the log anytime, but to claim a find, you need to complete the following challenge:

Stanford University

- Santa Clara County, California -

Your challenge is to find a geocache (or attend an event) for at least 6 of the Pac-12 Universities.  That means logging a find in at least 6 of the counties that ARE home to the Pac-12 (while it lasts) or WERE home to the Pac-12 once it's gone. Here's a list of all the PAC-12 conference schools and their respective counties... and links to other editions of this Challenge.  If you are interested in creating a version of your own on another qualifying campus, let me know!

University of Arizona - Pima County, Arizona

Arizona State University - Maricopa County, Arizona

University of California, Berkeley - Alameda County, California

University of California, Los Angeles - Los Angeles County, California

University of Colorado Boulder - Boulder County, Colorado

University of Oregon - Lane County, Oregon

Oregon State University - Benton County, Oregon

University of Southern California - Los Angeles County, California

Stanford University - Santa Clara County, California

University of Utah - Salt Lake County, Utah

University of Washington - King County, Washington

Washington State University - Spokane County, Washington

Note: You can count up to 2 finds in Los Angeles County, because it has two Pac-12 universities in it.  It doesn't matter what date your finds were hidden, what date you find them, what type they are, size, terrain, nor what difficulty. As long as you have at least 6 of the counties from the list (or 5 if you can count LA twice) represented in your finds, you are victorious and can log this as found after signing.

For the visual learners among you, here is a map of the conference.

History of the Pac-12

The roots of the Pac-12 Conference date back more than 100 years to December 2, 1915, when the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was founded at a meeting at the Imperial Hotel in Portland, Oregon. The original membership consisted of four schools - the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). All four are still charter members of the Conference.

Pacific Coast Conference play began in 1916 and, one year later, Washington State College (now Washington State University) was accepted into the league, with Stanford University following in 1918.

In 1922, the PCC expanded to eight teams with the admission of the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Idaho. In 1924, the University of Montana joined the league roster and in 1928, the PCC grew to 10 members with the addition of UCLA.

The Pacific Coast Conference competed as a 10-member league until 1950, with the exception of 1943-45 when World War II curtailed intercollegiate athletic competition to a minimum. During that time, the league’s first commissioner was named. Edwin N. Atherton was Commissioner in 1940 and was succeeded by Victor O. Schmidt in 1944. In 1950, Montana resigned from the Conference and the PCC continued as a nine-team Conference through 1958.

In 1959, the PCC was dissolved and the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) was formed with Thomas J. Hamilton appointed Commissioner of the new league. The original AAWU membership included California, Stanford, USC, UCLA, and Washington. Washington State joined the membership in 1962, while Oregon and Oregon State joined in 1964. Under Hamilton’s watch, the name Pacific-8 Conference was adopted in 1968. In 1971, Wiles Hallock took over as Commissioner of the Pac-8.

Ten years later, on July 1, 1978, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University were admitted to the league and the Pacific-10 Conference became a reality. In 1986-87, the league took on a new look, expanding to include 10 women’s sports. Since then, the Conference has been considered the premier league in women’s athletics, securing the most NCAA titles in women’s sports of any conference nearly every year.

Thomas C. Hansen was named the Commissioner of the Pac-10 in 1983, a role he would hold for 26 years until 2009, when he was succeeded by Larry Scott who held the role from 2009 to June 30, 2021. Scott was succeeded by current Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff who was announced on May 13, 2021 and formally assumed the role on July 1, 2021.

The University of Colorado accepted its invitation to join the Pac-12 on June 11, 2010, and on June 17, 2010, the University of Utah agreed to join the Conference. The Conference became the Pac-12 and officially began competition on July 1, 2011.  

Congratulations to our FTFirst Conference Champion:  mblatch

First to run the complete conference going 12 for 12: mblatch

Here is a checker to see if you passed the challenge yet:

As of publication in December 2023, I qualify having found caches for 10 of the 12 Universities as shown below: