This post was updated June 6 at 2:32 p.m.

UCLA’s time in the Pac-12 has nearly reached its end, as its official entrance to the Big Ten is just under two months away. Daily Bruin Sports’ senior staffers – or fourth-year staffers, in Gavin Carlson’s case – Jack Nelson, Olivia Simons, Lauryn Wang and Grace Whitaker debate UCLA Athletics’ best Pac-12 moments this century in the first Battle of the Senior Staff.

Softball caps off time in the Pac-12 with run of conference crowns
Gavin Carlson, Daily Bruin staff

The 2019 season will never be forgotten by UCLA softball fans.

Behind one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, Rachel Garcia, the Bruins won their final eight NCAA tournament contests to capture their 12th and most recent national championship. And the walk-off victory to clinch the title, No. 118 for the school as a whole, came on the ninth anniversary of the death of the school’s winningest coach – John Wooden.

But outside of a storybook national championship victory, that specific campaign also marked the beginning of an era of Pac-12 dominance for UCLA.

The 2019 season was the first of four regular season conference championships in the final five full seasons of the Pac-12. The COVID-19 pandemic cut the Bruins’ 25-1 start to the 2020 season short, but it also allowed Garcia to return to a stacked roster in 2021 to help defend the 2019 conference title.

Alongside several UCLA legends – including infielder Briana Perez, pitcher Megan Faraimo and then-redshirt freshman utility Maya Brady – Garcia and the Bruins went 19-2 against conference foes to cruise to a second consecutive Pac-12 regular season title.

Garcia left in 2022, and it was Perez who capped off her legendary career by ascending to the top five of several all-time UCLA leaderboards. Simultaneously, the Bruins still went 19-5 in the conference despite falling short of the regular season crown.

Behind the leadership of former player and longtime coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, UCLA returned to the top of the Pac-12 mountain with 21-3 and 17-4 conference records in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Faraimo and Brady both completed their iconic careers in Westwood with conference titles in their respective senior campaigns, all as Easton Stadium continued to hold its status as the place to be for UCLA fans every spring.

Fittingly, UCLA’s final season in the conference ended with its first Pac-12 tournament championship as well. Given the Bruins’ recent dominance in the conference – and national championship pedigree – it’s only right that their name be the final one etched into the record books as Pac-12 victors.

Men’s basketball dominates the Pac-10 in the mid-2000s
Jack Nelson, Daily Bruin senior staff

The men’s basketball standard in Westwood is impossible to match and fuels an inescapable conversation.

Coach John Wooden wielded wizardry with 10 national championships in 12 years, entrenching the Bruins as a blue blood and turning dominance into a synonymous term.

There was a brief time when that glorious aura returned – at least at the conference level.

UCLA was a borderline unstoppable force in the then-Pac-10 between 2005 and 2008, claiming 5-of-6 regular-season and tournament titles combined during the span. Its 45-9 conference record somehow paled in comparison to a 97-17 overall mark, culminating in back-to-back-to-back Final Four appearances.

Ben Howland – bench boss from 2003 to 2013 – led a triumphant return for the Bruins in his third campaign at the helm, winning their first regular-season crown since 1997 en route to their first NCAA championship appearance since 1995.

Star power underlined the entire endeavor.

A Bruin claimed Pac-10 Player of the Year twice over, first in the form of guard Arron Afflalo in 2007 and followed by forward Kevin Love in 2008. And Howland himself preceded both of them by earning conference coach of the year honors in 2006.

Those mid-2000s teams were also a professional pipeline. Eight players went to the NBA, and two are bona fide Hall of Fame candidates – Miami Heat forward/center Love and Los Angeles Clippers guard Russell Westbrook.

Talent and execution combined to create a winning formula and maintained a perfect balance.

Such a feat warrants recognition in modern UCLA Athletics history.

Men’s tennis wins four straight regular-season titles and two tournament wins
Olivia Simons, Daily Bruin senior staff

UCLA men’s tennis maintained a stronghold in the “Conference of Champions” since its inception.

But one four-year stretch – 2016-2019 – truly showed the Bruins’ dominance.

UCLA won the Pac-12 tournament twice and swept the regular-season title those four years, the first time a team outright won at least four regular-season titles in a row since the 1960s – excluding years when the conference was split into northern and southern divisions.

Three-time singles All-American Mackenzie McDonald started the charge in his final year in Westwood, claiming ITA National Player of the Year accolades as well as a spot in the All-Pac-12 First Team in 2016. McDonald ended the season ranked No. 1 in singles in the country, helping to bring his team to a 24-2 record on the season.

Martin Redlicki – McDonald’s doubles partner – helped take over the reins after the All-American’s departure, playing on the top court for UCLA in 2018 and clinching the doubles point and first singles point for the Bruins in the conference tournament final over USC.

Evan Zhu, Austin Rapp, Keegan Smith and Maxime Cressy round out the list of All-American winners crowned during UCLA’s undefeated stretch in the Pac-12 regular season. Not only did these Bruins win every regular-season title from 2016-2019, they also never lost a match during the conference season during the historic span.

UCLA’s undefeated streak continued into the first two conference matches of 2020 before the pandemic shut down the campaign. When the Bruins returned to the Los Angeles Tennis Center, they were fresh out of momentum and had only one All-American – Smith, whose final season ended early because of injury.

No matter how the historic stretch ended, it still remains a crowning jewel in the history of UCLA’s Pac-12 legacy.

Women’s golf wins consecutive Pac-10 titles in 2004, 2005 and 2006
Lauryn Wang, Daily Bruin senior staff

The Bruins turned the page at the turn of the century.

In 1999, UCLA women’s golf hired Carrie Forsyth as its head coach.

And in a whirlwind to mark the early 2000s, Forsyth spearheaded a dominant UCLA Pac-10 pedigree.

By 2004, Forsyth touted a conference title, an NCAA championship, two Pac-10 Coach of the Year awards and an NCGA Coach of the Year award while producing four All-Americans.

Charlotte Mayorkas captured the Pac-10 tournament individual title while Hannah Jun earned Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year and later became the first Bruin to win the NCAA West Regional.

The following year, UCLA yet again clinched both the Pac-10 and NCAA West Regional titles en route to a runner-up finish in the championship.

And none other than Forsyth was crowned Pac-10 Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

The momentum persisted into 2006, when for the first time in program history, the Bruins claimed three straight conference titles.

Entering the final day of play with an eight-stroke lead over Arizona State – one of two teams at the time with a conference-best six Pac-10 titles – UCLA maintained a slim advantage to finish the tournament one stroke ahead of the Sun Devils.

The conference underwent changes and expanded to include Utah and Colorado in 2011, and UCLA couldn’t quite reach the top of the mountain again until 2017.

Forsyth – a former Bruin golfer herself – retired a season ago, but the impressive Pac-10 run she catalyzed in her early coaching career must undoubtedly be considered a highlight.

The final Pac-12 women’s basketball season
Grace Whitaker, Daily Bruin senior staff

UCLA coach Cori Close said it best: The 2023-2024 season was Pac-12 women’s basketball’s best – end of story.

“It used to be Stanford and the 11 dwarfs, and now look at it,” Close said.

After seasons of below-average all-around performances from Pac-12 opponents, with the silver lining of the “Conference of Champions” being Stanford – a program with three national titles – it appeared that the Pac-12 would go out as a conference destined for success in many sports, just not women’s basketball.

But with 10 schools bidding adieu to the conference for so-called greener pastures, many coaches around the league appeared in agreement that they couldn’t go out this way.

Across the 2023-2024 campaign, a half dozen Pac-12 opponents featured in the top 25 at some points, battling with one another at other moments for top spots. The Pac-12 tournament in March became a marquee event in women’s basketball, with a mix of teams ranked in the top 25 and rising household names such as UCLA sophomore guard Kiki Rice and USC guard JuJu Watkins set to face off.

Watkins ended up leading her team to its second Pac-12 tournament victory in program history and an Elite Eight spot. While UCLA didn’t find the same success, it still managed to move its program forward with a second consecutive Sweet 16 berth.

The Bruins had a huge role in cementing the 2023-2024 season of Pac-12 women’s basketball within icon status.

What was once a conference of mediocrity became the top conference in the league. It wasn’t the one to end up with a ring at the end, but it helped fight a much bigger war, the growth of women’s sports.