[1][2] The conference's member institutions originally included the "Big Six": the large public universities of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho; the Washington State and Oregon State public agricultural colleges, and the private Whitman College.
[3][2] In January 1908 officials at Whitman College called a conference of seven primary athletics-oriented universities in the region to reform a new intercollegiate athletics association.
At a two-day conference in Walla Walla, February 7–8, 1908, discussions on a broad range of topics were planned, including the eligibility of those participating in paid summer baseball, the development of a combined football schedule, and establishment of regional meets for track and field and debate.
[6] Rationalization of the football schedule was particularly desired, with the hope expressed that the newly rejuvenated conference would "either take control of, or in some way influence the arrangement of football schedules so that the northwest championship may be definitely decided each year, instead of leaving the schedule-making to a haphazard choice by individual managers.
[7] The dual membership statuses remained in place a decade, even as other member schools also later joined the PCC.