Grand Canyon formally signing up with Mountain West

Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Personnel WriterNov 1, 2024, 02:30 PM ET

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• Covers college football.Joined ESPN in 2014. Attended Washington State University.Grand Canyon will sign up with the Mountain West Conference by at least 2026, the school and conference revealed Friday.The choice comes six months after GCU revealed it would join the West Coast Conference in 2025.

  “We want to finest position ourselves to be nationally competitive, and we are delighted about the vision and future of the Mountain West,”GU athletic director Jamie Boggs said in a declaration.”We are signing up with a conference that has enjoyed nationwide success, has actually established a rich tradition in its 26 years and has financially positioned us for competitive success in this changing college landscape. We aspire to contend for championships with our future peers in the Mountain West. “GCU will compete in 17 conference-sponsored sports, most significantly guys’s basketball. The Antelopes have actually gotten approved for the previous three NCAA men’s basketball tournaments, the most current of which included a first-round upset of fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s.”Grand Canyon is a remarkable addition to the Mountain West. We are thrilled to expand our footprint into the City of Phoenix and the State of

  Arizona,”MW commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement. “Grand Canyon has actually been on an upward trajectory both academically and athletically for the previous years, and its addition to the league will improve the competitors throughout the Mountain West as we make every effort to earn NCAA postseason quotes and contend for national championships.” The MW began targeting GCU for growth after five of its members– Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State– revealed they were leaving

  for the Pac-12 previously this year.GCU’s decision was not well gotten by the WCC, which announced in Might that GCU– together with Seattle– would sign up with the conference in July 2025.” We are disappointed with its decision to look for conference subscription elsewhere simply months after finishing its membership arrangement with the WCC that would have improved its nationwide profile,”WCC commissioner Stu Jackson stated.

  “The WCC views GCU’s decision as a missed opportunity to be part of among the premier conferences in males’s basketball. The WCC is a perennial multibid league with a rich history that includes numerous national champions, 6 Final Four looks and numerous deep runs in the NCAA Guys’s Basketball Champion.”The WCC Presidents’Council will continue to examine the existing landscape of Department I athletics, move forward ambitiously in analyzing growth and alliance opportunities that place the WCC for NCAA success; pursue significant scheduling

  opportunities for all members; and produce national exposure for the Conference through expansive broadcast visibility to which it has actually become accustomed.”The WCC likewise just recently lost conference-power Gonzaga, which announced last month it would join the Pac-12 in 2026. As part of the statement, GCU stated it might join the MW as early as” the 2nd quarter of 2025 if permitted under the conference’s bylaws.”