College Sports Chaos: MW defectors criticize decision on Grand Canyon
The Mountain West grew immediately by another school Tuesday, but the news wasn’t welcomed by at least two of the defecting schools.
Grand Canyon will be eligible to compete for conference championships and NCAA postseason berths beginning in the 2025-26 academic year. The school was originally scheduled to join the league in July 2026.
“The addition of Grand Canyon is a significant win for the student-athletes at GCU and in the Mountain West,” conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement.
Five schools — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State — will leave the Mountain West for the Pac-12 after the 2025-26 academic year.
To replace them, the Mountain West added Hawaii and UTEP as full members, Northern Illinois for football only, and Grand Canyon and UC Davis for all sports except football.
Against the move
Not everyone was in favor of Grand Canyon joining the Mountain West a year early. But once the five defectors made official in May their intent to leave for the Pac-12, their voting rights were stripped.
“While SDSU remains an active member of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026,” a San Diego State statement said, “the university was not consulted or permitted to vote on the early invitation to Grand Canyon University, which is surprising and disappointing given prior representations that the Mountain West and its commissioner made to SDSU and the negative impact this addition will have on already-planned athletic competition schedules for this academic year.
“We will need to evaluate this announcement and make adjustments due to this addition.”
Boise State also released a statement disagreeing with the early arrival.
“The Mountain West Conference’s addition of Grand Canyon University for the 2025-26 academic year significantly and negatively impacts the schedule opportunities and budgets of Boise State and the other departing universities. … We will address this matter and the harm to the departing universities in the litigation.”
The litigation is believed to be mediation between the Mountain West and Pac-12. In that case, the issues center on exit fees owed by the five schools for leaving and so-called “poaching fees.”
The Mountain West believes the fees — the Pac-12 would pay $10 million per school with escalators that would total $55 million — should remain.
The Pac-12 has filed a federal lawsuit in the case while challenging the poaching fees.
A Mountain West source said Tuesday the arrival of Grand Canyon would “not affect any of our schools financially in a negative manner whatsoever.”
A UNLV spokesman said the school would have no comment on the latest development.
Good in basketball
Grand Canyon, located in Phoenix, is the largest private Division I university in the nation. The school went from nearly closing 20 years ago to having an enrollment this fall of more than 25,000 on its campus and more than 100,000 studying online.
Grand Canyon will compete in 17 conference-sponsored sports in the Mountain West.
Its men’s basketball team has averaged 26 wins the past four seasons and advanced to three straight NCAA Tournaments.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the Mountain West Conference’s support of our student-athletes, our university and our fans for the opportunity to compete this fall,” Grand Canyon president Brian Mueller said in a statement.
Grand Canyon won seven conference championships in 2024-25 in the Western Athletic Conference.
The school almost didn’t have a league to call home for the upcoming academic year.
Grand Canyon departed the WAC and accepted an invitation to the West Coast Conference for 2025-26, but backed out of that agreement when the Mountain West extended an offer. The WCC is suing Grand Canyon for breach of contract.
Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.