\u201cWhile SDSU remains an active member of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026,\u201d a university statement said, \u201cthe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will need to evaluate this announcement and make adjustments due to this addition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boise State released a similarly terse statement, saying the decision \u201csignificantly and negatively impacts schedules, opportunities, and budgets of Boise State and the other departing universities.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added: \u201cWe will address this matter and the harm to the departing universities in the litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether that\u2019s current or future litigation. There had been private talk about filing a lawsuit and seeking an injunction if the Mountain West went ahead with the Grand Canyon decision, arguing that the conference\u2019s remaining seven members were making unilateral decisions that affected the other five without their consent.<\/p>\n
That isn\u2019t expected to happen, at least not immediately, given the tense nature of other litigation between the Mountain West and Pac-12.<\/p>\n
Separate lawsuits over exit and poaching fees totaling close to $150 million were combined into a \u201cglobal\u201d mediation that began May 19 and has dragged into the summer. Both sides are motivated to reach a resolution \u2014 the five departing members and the Pac-12 so they can pay less than the rack rate, and the Mountain West so it can start receiving money to redistribute, as promised, to the seven schools left behind.<\/p>\n
Another lawsuit might slow, or even halt, those negotiations. More likely, the discontent over Grand Canyon will be addressed in the mediation.<\/p>\n
The thought among some athletic administrators was that the Mountain West would settle the exit and poaching fees lawsuits first, then spring the Grand Canyon decision on the so-called Pac-stabbers.<\/p>\n
But as May mediation, initially expected to take a few weeks, continued into July and the start of fall sports seasons grew closer, it became what amounted to a game of chicken: Would the Mountain West keep waiting, or pull the trigger before the mediation was resolved?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe addition of Grand Canyon for the 2025-26 academic year is a significant win for the student-athletes at GCU and in the Mountain West,\u201d Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez was quoted in the release. \u201cIn a time when the student-athlete experience is of utmost importance, we felt it was in the best interest to allow them to compete for conference championships and the NCAA postseason immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cGCU is a great addition to the Mountain West and positively raises the competition level in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grand Canyon was among the replacements last fall after SDSU, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State announced they were leaving for a reformed Pac-12 in 2026-27. The agreement was for GCU and the others to formally join the Mountain West that year as well.<\/p>\n
But even then, the wheels were in motion for 2025-26.<\/p>\n
GCU\u2019s release included the cryptic wording that it would join \u201cno later than July 1, 2026, but possibly as early as the second quarter of 2025 if permitted under the conference\u2019s bylaws.\u201d There were also multiple reports of Antelopes coaches telling recruits that they\u2019d be in Mountain West a year early.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because Grand Canyon had nowhere else to go. It had left the Western Athletic Conference after accepting an invitation from the West Coast Conference starting in 2025-26, then reneged when the Mountain West came calling. The WAC wouldn\u2019t take them back, and the WCC sued GCU for breach of contract.<\/p>\n
![\"Grand](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AP25080811838786.jpg\")
Grand Canyon guard Tyon Grant-Foster (7) reacts after a buzzer beater 3-point basket against Maryland during the first half in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo\/Ryan Sun)<\/p>\n
That meant a year as an independent, which would be particularly harsh on its powerhouse men\u2019s basketball program that has reached the NCAA Tournament for the past two years and has one of the largest NIL war chests on the West Coast.<\/p>\n
But Grand Canyon, the nation\u2019s largest Christian-based university, has seemingly endless supplies of money and is believed to have offered the remaining seven Mountain West schools a lucrative payday to solve its conference predicament for 2025-26.<\/p>\n
A three-quarters vote is necessary for membership decisions, and it\u2019s unlikely GCU would have got that with all 12 voting members.<\/p>\n
The biggest issue with the Antelopes is they\u2019re not like the rest of the animals in the Mountain West ecosystem. Grand Canyon is the lone private, religious-based university in a conference of large public institutions; it doesn\u2019t play football, allowing it to focus an inordinate amount of resources on men\u2019s basketball; it has more than 100,000 enrollment between online students and its 300-acre Phoenix campus; and it is still considered by some regulatory bodies to operate as for-profit despite its nonprofit status from others.<\/p>\n
There are ongoing battles with the Department of Education, which fined GCU $37.7 million in October 2023 because \u201cit lied to more than 7,500 former and current students about the cost of its doctoral programs,\u201d only to rescind it last May under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last year, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) asked Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona about GCU, which she characterized as \u201ca predatory for-profit college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardona responded: \u201cThey have a shiny brochure and a great commercial, but the product is not worth the paper it\u2019s written on \u2026 We are cracking down on them, not only to shut them down, but to send a message across the country that you cannot prey on our students and expect to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
GCU called Cardona\u2019s comments \u201creckless\u201d and demanded a retraction.<\/p>\n