The Pacific-12 Conference (Pac-12) is a college athletic conference that operates in the Western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two levels of NCAA Division I football competition. The conference's 12 members, which are primarily flagship research universities in their respective regions, well-regarded academically, and with relatively large student enrollment, compete in 22 NCAA sports. It was founded as the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), in 1915, whose principal members founded the (Athletic Association of Western Universities) (AAWU) in 1959, and went by the names Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, Pacific-10, becoming the Pacific-12 in 2011.