Conference realignment never really stops, the latest example of that landing Friday. Grand Canyon and Seattle University are leaving the Western Athletic Conference and will join the West Coast Conference on July 1, 2025, the WCC announced.
It’s the second time in less than five months that the WCC has brought in a pair of schools to its ranks. In December, Oregon State and Washington State were voted in for most sports for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. (But not football, which is going to be affiliated with the Mountain West the next two years.)
It’s a coup for new commissioner Stu Jackson, who took over running the WCC a little more than a year ago.
GCU and Seattle U coming aboard means the WCC will be an 11-school league next season (with Oregon State and Wazzu) and then will increase to 13 schools (barring other movement) for 2025-26. That is expected to be the only 13-school season for the WCC, though.
The two-year affiliation agreement with Oregon State and Washington State expires June 30, 2026. Oregon State and Washington State remaining as affiliate members in the WCC beyond 2026 is highly unlikely, sources said. The most probable end game for the Beavers and Cougars is linking up with the Mountain West and/or reforming a new league under Pac-12 branding, sources told CBS Sports, due to the tens of millions of dollars OSU and Wazzu gained amid the fallout of the Pac-12’s demise. (The current buyout for Mountain West programs is $37 million and the league’s media rights deal runs through June 30, 2026.)
Seattle U is a geographic fit, in addition to being a religious one; it is a Jesuit university, like many other WCC schools. Grand Canyon, on the other hand, was previously exclusively known as a for-profit institution. The Christian-based institution has promoted a change in its financial standing to nonprofit status in recent years. The IRS, the State of Arizona and the NCAA…
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