The extraordinary success story of Grand Canyon and its athletics 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 soon as the second quarter of 2025, if permitted by the conference’s bylaws.
The move marks another step in GCU’s remarkable transformation as the nation’s largest private Division I university. GCU, located in the heart of Phoenix, the fifth-largest city in the U.S., has gone from nearly closing almost two decades ago to an enrollment of nearly 25,000 on campus and more than 95,000 students studying online. With approximately 16,600 students living in the 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 members,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. “Lope Nation has grown primarily because of the innovative strategies and creative delivery models that allow us to offer groundbreaking academic programs both on our campus and across the country. That has created an enormous amount of momentum that will benefit our athletics programs comes. ”
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 participate in a high-profile conference featuring competitive institutions with national brands, passionate fans and world-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 great addition to the Mountain West,” said conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez. “We are excited to expand our footprint to the city of Phoenix and the state of Arizona. Grand Canyon has been on an upward trajectory both academically and athletically over the past decade, and its addition to the league will increase competition in the Mountain West .as we strive to earn NCAA postseason bids and compete for national championships.
GCU will join an elite trio of non-football universities competing in FBS conferences, the highest echelon of prominence and competitiveness in college athletics. That list includes 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 Jamie Boggs, GCU vice president of athletics. “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 seen national success, developed a rich tradition in its 26 years and financially positions 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 has built a powerful basketball brand by becoming one of the top seven men’s basketball conferences in the country each of the past three seasons, earning at least four bids to the NCAA Tournament and peaking this year with six bids. Following upcoming membership changes, the Mountain West will continue to feature three men’s basketball teams ranked in the top 50 in the nation in the final 2023-2024 NET rankings.
Even as they leave the impressive athletic facilities of the GCU campus, Lopes teams will enter the prime venues to play road games. The revamped Mountain West’s indoor arenas average more than 10,800 fans and include acclaimed men’s basketball atmospheres such as New Mexico’s ‘The Pit’ (nearly 85% capacity to its 15,411 fan capacity in 2023-2024), Lawlor of Nevada. Events Center (over 8,500 fans per game in 2023-2024) and UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center (capacity of 18,000).
Combined with the atmosphere in the Global Credit Union Arena created by GCU’s nationally renowned 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 students studying online, GCU’s rise 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 ten by focusing its curriculum on fast-growing fields such as engineering, computer science, cybersecurity and business, while also making significant investments to address the national workforce shortage in areas such as education, nursing and counseling.
Enrollment growth at GCU has occurred while admissions standards have also increased, with incoming GPAs of approximately 3.6 each over the past six years at the Phoenix campus. Additionally, GCU’s Honors College has grown to more than 2,900 students with an average incoming weighted GPA of 4.1.
Athletically, GCU’s rise mirrors that of the university. In its last two years at the D-II level, GCU was honored with the Learfield Directors’ Cup as the nation’s top-performing athletic department. At the Division I level, GCU has won 70 conference championships, including 41 in the last four years. The WAC Commissioner’s Cup, awarded to the conference’s top-performing athletic department, has been won by GCU for the past six 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, twelve of GCU’s programs have sent teams to the NCAA postseason, while five more programs have qualified individuals for the NCAA Championships. In 2023-2024, GCU finished the season ranked in the top 100 nationally in all eight sports that use 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 will move on to The Big West as previously announced. GCU’s process to find conference houses 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, with the Lopes set to become WCC members on July 1, 2025.
