Lopes will join high-profile Western league no later than 2026
(Phoenix, AZ) The extraordinary success story of Grand Canyon and its athletic department began a new chapter on Friday as 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 under the conference’s bylaws.
The move marks another step in GCU’s remarkable transformation as the largest private Division I university in the nation. Residing in the heart of Phoenix, the fifth-largest city in the U.S., 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 roughly 16,600 students living in its 32 on-campus residence halls, GCU is also the largest residential campus among private universities in the country.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the Mountain West Conference’s interest in GCU and their recognition of the value we bring to its membership,” GCU President Brian Mueller said. “Lope Nation has grown first and foremost because of the innovative strategies and creative delivery models that enable us to provide cutting-edge academic programs both on our campus and across the country. That has created a tremendous amount of momentum that benefits our athletic programs.”
Mueller acknowledged that several conferences expressed interest in GCU but said “we felt the long-term interests of the university would best be served by joining the Mountain West Conference.”
The Lopes will join a high-profile conference that consists 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.
“Grand Canyon is a tremendous addition to the Mountain West,” conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez said. “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 enhance the competition across the Mountain West as we strive 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 rapidly grow as an academic institution and as an athletics program,” GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs said. “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 in its 26 years and has financially positioned 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 peaking with six bids this year. After impending membership changes, the Mountain West will continue to feature three men’s basketball teams that ranked in the nation’s top 50 in the final NET rankings for 2023-24.
Even when departing the GCU campus’ impressive athletic facilities, Lopes teams will step into top-tier venues to play road competitions. The indoor arenas of the new-look Mountain West seat more than 10,800 fans on average and include acclaimed men’s basketball atmospheres such as New Mexico’s “The Pit” (nearly 85% filled to its 15,411-fan capacity 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 renowned Havocs student section, 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, emphases 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 to address nationwide workforce shortages in areas such as teaching, nursing and counseling.
GCU’s enrollment growth has occurred while also raising admissions standards, with incoming GPAs of approximately 3.6 each of the past six years on 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 ascension has mirrored that of the university. In its final two years at the D-II level, GCU was honored with the Learfield Directors’ Cup as the highest-performing athletics 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, which is presented to the conference’s top-performing athletic department, has been won by GCU in the last 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 successful completion of 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 five more programs have qualified individual competitors for NCAA Championships. In 2023-24, GCU finished the season ranked in the top 100 nationally in all eight sports that utilize NCAA Ratings Percentage Index or NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings.
Of GCU’s 21 sports, 17 will make 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 will continue on to The Big West as previously announced. GCU’s process of finding conference homes for beach volleyball and men’s soccer is already underway.
In 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.
Press Release courtesy of Grand Canyon University Athletics- Josh Hauser
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