The 2009 edition was the first played at a neutral site, namely Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas.

When the tournament began in 1987, when the conference had eight members, it used a standard single-elimination bracket that was reseeded after the first round so that the highest and lowest remaining seeds played one another in the semifinals.

For 2019 and beyond, the tournament returned to a format similar to that used from 2003–2011, with slight changes to the terminology used for the rounds prior to the semifinals.

[1] According to media reports, the major impetus for this and other changes to WCC basketball was the potential loss of Gonzaga to the Mountain West Conference after the 2017–18 season, which in the end did not happen.

Gonzaga and Saint Mary's have combined to win 26 out of the last 30 conference championship games, including each of the last 16.

[26] Saint Mary's has upset a number 1 ranked Zags squad twice – once in the 2019 WCC final as an unranked team and once in 2022 as #23 in Moraga.