Report: WCC expected to add Grand Canyon, Seattle

Western Athletic Conference schools will join the WCC effective July 2025

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The West Coast Conference is adding Seattle U and Grand Canyon as members, effective July 1, 2025, according to reports. 

“We are thrilled to welcome two institutions of higher education that each will make significant contributions to the future of the West Coast Conference,” Gonzaga University President and Chair of the WCC Presidents’ Council Dr. Thayne McCulloh said in a news release. “While each university has a unique and distinctive character, both are deeply invested in the welfare of their students and surrounding communities, are making significant investments in their athletics programs and facilities, and will enhance the competitive profile of the West Coast Conference.”

The two newest members of the WCC will compete in 14 of the league’s 16 sponsored sports beginning in the 2025-26 seasons. That includes men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s cross country. GCU will also participate in beach volleyball; Seattle will compete in rowing.

The WCC is now set to have 11 full-time members for the first time in the league’s 71-year history.

The Antelopes have become a rising mid-major power on the West Coast under head coach Bryce Drew, who’s guided the program to three straight 20-win seasons and three NCAA Tournament appearances in the last four years. GCU earned its first NCAA Tournament win in 2024 with an upset over Saint Mary’s, soon to be a league rival, before bowing out in the second round to Alabama, which went on to the Final Four. The Antelopes came up short against Gonzaga in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, which marked the first time the schools had ever faced off.

GCU had been a member of the WAC since it officially joined the Division-I ranks in 2013. 

Seattle U heads from the WAC to the WCC after it was crowned the College Basketball Invitational champion this past season. The Redhawks, who hadn’t won 23 games in a season since 1958-59 until Chris Victor took over, have reached that benchmark now twice in the past three seasons. Time will tell if Vector can get the program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1969 in a new league.

Seattle U finished as the national runner-up in 1958 behind Hall-of-Famer Elgin Baylor. The school appeared in four Sweet 16s from 1953 to 1964 and last made the NCAA Tournament in 1969. Shortly after its last postseason appearance, the Redhawks were a member of the WCC from 1971-80 before going independent for a dozen years. 

Since then, Seattle U has bounced between independence and conference affiliation, even dropping down to the Division-II ranks, before winding up in the WAC in 2012.

The former Western Athletic Conference schools join the WCC after the league added Washington State and Oregon State as affiliate members in basketball and other sports for at least two seasons.

With 13 members (11 full-time, two affiliate) on board for 2025-26, it’s likely the WCC’s scheduling and postseason tournament formats will undergo some changes. League commissioner Stu Jackson alluded to an 18-game regular season after adding WSU and Oregon State. A 20-game schedule isn’t out of the realm of possibility.