WCC so as to add Grand Canyon, Seattle U to get to 13 groups in 2025-26, however after that it will get sophisticated

Convention realignment by no means actually stops, the most recent instance of that touchdown Friday. Grand Canyon and Seattle College are leaving the Western Athletic Convention and can be a part of the West Coast Convention on July 1, 2025, the WCC introduced.

It is the second time in lower than 5 months that the WCC has introduced in a pair of colleges to its ranks. In December, Oregon State and Washington State had been voted in for many sports activities for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. (However not soccer, which goes to be affiliated with the Mountain West the subsequent two years.) 

It is a coup for brand new commissioner Stu Jackson, who took over working the WCC somewhat greater than a 12 months in the past.

GCU and Seattle U coming aboard means the WCC will likely be an 11-school league subsequent season (with Oregon State and Wazzu) after which will enhance to 13 faculties (barring different motion) for 2025-26. That’s anticipated to be the one 13-school season for the WCC, although. 

The 2-year affiliation settlement with Oregon State and Washington State expires June 30, 2026. Oregon State and Washington State remaining as affiliate members within the WCC past 2026 is extremely unlikely, sources stated. Essentially the most possible finish sport for the Beavers and Cougars is linking up with the Mountain West and/or reforming a brand new league below Pac-12 branding, sources instructed CBS Sports activities, as a result of tens of tens of millions of {dollars} OSU and Wazzu gained amid the fallout of the Pac-12’s demise. (The present buyout for Mountain West packages is $37 million and the league’s media rights deal runs by means of June 30, 2026.)

Seattle U is a geographic match, along with being a spiritual one; it’s a Jesuit college, like many different WCC faculties. Grand Canyon, alternatively, was beforehand solely often called a for-profit establishment. The Christian-based establishment has promoted a change in its monetary standing to nonprofit standing lately. The IRS, the State of Arizona and the NCAA all acknowledge that change, although the U.S. Division of Schooling nonetheless classifies GCU as a for-profit entity; an ongoing authorized matter has but to settle the dispute. Which was why WCC leaders waited and deliberated for years earlier than finally voting to convey GCU aboard. Grand Canyon’s transfer to the WCC had been within the works for a really very long time, however it wasn’t a streamlined course of.

Jackson labored diligently with some WCC presidents who had been beforehand on the fence or in opposition to GCU approaching resulting from its for-profit mannequin (along with its stature in academia). The massive promote was how a lot upside GCU’s basketball program supplied in making the WCC a greater convention. The contingency, per a supply, was to convey Seattle U in as a package deal deal. It is also two groups being added for the anticipated lack of Oregon State and Washington State in 2026. 

“Presidents needed to verify they’d two faculties coming into the convention,” a supply instructed CBS Sports activities. “With all the things occurring within the tv world, that as a lot as something is an element. Now we’re choosing up one of many high markets, in Arizona, and choosing up Seattle and the west aspect of Washington.”

The Antelopes have been a significant factor in males’s school basketball in current seasons, having made three of the previous 4 NCAA Tournaments below Bryce Drew. In March, Twelfth-seeded Grand Canyon upset its future convention brethren in an NCAA Event first spherical victory vs. Saint Mary’s. Drew is 94-32 in 4 seasons with this system.

The newest with Gonzaga

This latest blast of realignment comes amid lingering hypothesis over the viability of Gonzaga leaving the WCC for a much bigger convention. Most not too long ago, the Bulldogs had been hooked up to potential Massive 12 membership. Massive 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has been championing Gonzaga to hitch his league for almost two years as a result of he believes school basketball as a property stays considerably undervalued. Regardless, there isn’t a momentum for Gonzaga to the Massive 12 as issues presently stand, based on sources. 

Talks about Gonzaga becoming a member of the Massive 12 stalled in December, sources beforehand instructed CBS Sports activities, and so they have not gained traction since. Gonzaga not having soccer is the largest prohibitor to its candidacy, along with many Massive 12 presidents and athletic administrators wanting to attend plenty of years to see how the new-look 16-school Massive 12 settles in earlier than severely contemplating one other realignment transfer. 

To that time: At the very least week’s Massive 12 conferences in Phoenix, Gonzaga was not on any of the agendas and didn’t come up in a number of conferences between athletic administrators and coaches, sources instructed CBS Sports activities. 

“This in all probability solidifies Gonzaga’s retention for now as a lot as something as a result of they will find yourself getting not less than two higher video games throughout the convention,” one supply stated re: Grand Canyon becoming a member of the WCC. 

Mark Few’s program stays among the many greatest in school basketball and is coming off a ninth straight Candy 16 look amid its twenty fifth consecutive NCAA Event. It is poised to be a top-15 staff heading subsequent season as nicely. Gonzaga continues to thrive due to its dominance over the WCC, whereas the WCC continues to be viable as a result of it has Gonzaga. 

As for the WAC and its losses of GCU and Seattle U, the league is as soon as extra in hassle after briefly having fun with a fruitful spate of additives. The WAC was at 13 groups as not too long ago because the 2022-23 season however is now solely assured of eight packages come July 1, 2025. Sam Houston and New Mexico State joined CUSA in 2023 (CUSA additionally introduced on Friday that Missouri State was becoming a member of in 2025). Two years in the past, Incarnate Phrase shortly made its method again to the Southland after initially planning to hitch the WAC. UTRGV can also be heading to the Southland. Lamar additionally returned to the Southland in 2022 after a winless season within the WAC in males’s basketball.

Led by Grand Canyon’s 30-5 document, the convention ranked 14th in males’s basketball at KenPom.com final season, ending eleventh the season earlier than that. It was the strongest two-year run in males’s basketball for the league in a decade. Grand Canyon’s dominant run each helped the WAC but in addition distanced itself from different leagues in males’s basketball. It was additionally working with extra assets than some other program.

Correction: An earlier model of this story by chance recognized UT Arlington as an alternative of UTRGV as a staff leaving the WAC for the Southland.