GCU accepts invitation to Mountain West Conference

The extraordinary success story of Grand Canyon and its athletic department began a new chapter Friday when GCU accepted an invitation to the Mountain West Conference.

GCU will join the Mountain West no later than July 1, 2026, but possibly as early as the second quarter of 2025 if permitted by conference bylaws.

The move marks another step in GCU’s remarkable transformation as the largest private Division I university in the nation. Located in the heart of Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the United States, GCU has gone from nearly closing its doors 20 years ago to having an enrollment today of nearly 25,000 on its campus and over 95,000 students studying online. With approximately 16,600 students living in its 32 residence halls on campus, GCU is also the largest residential campus among private universities in the country.

“We are incredibly grateful for the Mountain West Conference’s interest in GCU and their recognition of the value we bring to its membership,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. “Lope Nation has grown primarily because of the innovative strategies and creative delivery models that enable us to deliver cutting-edge academic programs both on our campus and across the country. This has created a tremendous amount of momentum that benefits our athletic programs.”

Mueller acknowledged that several conferences expressed interest in GCU, but said that “we felt the long-term interests of the university would be best served by joining the Mountain West Conference.”

The Lopes will join a high-profile conference comprised of competitive institutions with national brands, passionate fan bases and first-class facilities.

GCU will be centrally located in a western footprint that includes six existing members: Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San José State, UNLV and Wyoming. Hawai’i and UTEP have also signed agreements to join the Mountain West.

“The Grand Canyon is a tremendous addition to the Mountain West,” said Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez. “We are excited to expand our footprint into the city of Phoenix and the state of Arizona. Grand Canyon has been on an upward trajectory both academically and athletically for the past decade, and its addition to the league will increase competition across the Mountain West as we strive to to earn NCAA postseason bids and compete for national championships.”

GCU is set to join an elite trio of non-football universities playing in FBS conferences, college athletics’ upper echelon of notoriety and competitiveness. That list will include GCU, Wichita State (American Athletic Conference) and Gonzaga (Pac-12 Conference).

“GCU continues to grow rapidly as an academic institution and as an athletics program,” said GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs. “We want to best position ourselves to be nationally competitive, and we are excited about the vision and future of the Mountain West. We are joining a conference that has enjoyed national success, has developed a rich tradition over its 26 years, and has positioned say financially. us for competitive success in this changing collegiate landscape We are eager to compete for championships with our future peers in the Mountain West.”

The Mountain West built a powerful basketball brand by becoming one of the nation’s top seven men’s basketball conferences each of the last three seasons, earning at least four bids to the NCAA Tournament and topping out with six bids this year. Following impending membership changes, the Mountain West will continue to have three men’s basketball teams ranked in the nation’s top 50 in the final NET rankings for 2023-24.

Even when leaving the impressive athletic facilities of the GCU campus, the Lopes teams will step into top-tier venues to play road contests. The indoor arenas in the new Mountain West average more than 10,800 fans and include renowned men’s basketball venues such as New Mexico’s “The Pit” (almost 85% filled to its capacity of 15,411 fans in 2023-24), Nevada’s Lawlor Events Center (over 8,500 fans per game in 2023-24) and UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center (capacity of 18,000).

Combined with the atmosphere inside Global Credit Union Arena created by GCU’s nationally recognized Havocs student chapter, the scenes from Mountain West basketball games will be among the sport’s elite.

With nearly 25,000 students on its 300-acre Phoenix campus and more than 95,000 studying online, GCU’s ascension as an academic institution is exemplified by the nearly 30,000 graduates it has produced each of the past three years.

Since 2008, the university has tripled the number of academic programs, majors and certificates to nearly 350 and expanded the number of colleges from four to 10 by focusing its curriculum on high-growth job fields such as engineering, computer science, cybersecurity and business, while also making significant investments for to remedy the nationwide shortage of labor in areas such as teaching, nursing and counselling.

GCU’s enrollment growth has occurred while raising admissions standards, with incoming GPAs of approximately 3.6 each of the last six years at its Phoenix campus. In addition, GCU’s Honors College has grown to over 2,900 students with an average incoming weighted GPA of 4.1.

Athletically, GCU’s ascent has mirrored that of the university. For the past two years at the D-II level, GCU was honored with the Learfield Directors’ Cup as the highest performing athletic department in the nation. At the Division I level, GCU has won 70 conference championships, including 41 in the last four years. The WAC Commissioner’s Cup, presented to the conference’s top performing athletic department, has been won by GCU for the past six fully completed academic years. In the past calendar year alone, the Lopes have won NCAA tournament games in softball, baseball, men’s basketball and men’s volleyball.

After successfully completing a four-year transition to Division I, GCU has been postseason eligible since 2017-18. In those seven short years, 12 of GCU’s programs have sent teams to the NCAA postseason, while another five programs have qualified individual competitors for the NCAA Championships. In 2023-24, GCU finished the season ranked in the top 100 nationally in all eight sports using the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index or NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings.

Of GCU’s 21 sports, 17 will find their new home in the Mountain West. The conference does not sponsor beach volleyball, men’s soccer, men’s swimming and diving, or men’s volleyball. Men’s volleyball will continue to compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, where the Lopes recently captured a conference tournament title and reached the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. Men’s swimming and diving continue to The Big West as previously announced. GCU’s process to find conference housing for beach volleyball and men’s soccer is already underway.

By joining the Mountain West Conference, GCU has formally declined an invitation from the West Coast Conference that would have seen the Lopes become WCC members on July 1, 2025.