Five of the departed members—Idaho State, Northern Colorado, Portland State, Sacramento State, and Weber State—were full Big Sky members. With that conference adding two new softball-sponsoring schools in 2012, giving it the six softball members it needed to qualify for an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship, the Big Sky announced it would begin sponsoring the sport in the 2013 season. The other departing member, Seattle, was an independent before joining the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) for all sports, including softball, in 2012.