GCU Moves to the Mountain West
An unprecedented move as the Lopes will play in the Mountain West this fall!
The wait is over if you are a Lopes fan. GCU is now officially a member of the Mountain West Conference, effective immediately.
This is a banner day for GCU Athletics for many reasons, but most notably because it was without a conference home prior to the announcement.
This now means that GCU will have its Men’s Basketball program joining a conference that has produced countless NCAA Tournament victories, NBA players, and exposure that meets the level of investment from the university.
If you were on the Go Lopes Radio message board, you will know how steadfast we were that GCU would eventually make its way into the conference for this season. As has been sourced, the “Pac 5” (the five schools leaving the Mountain West in 2026 to join the Pac 12) could not vote as part of this process to approve GCU entering early, taking away most of the conflict when it came to GCU entering the conference.
But as west coast realignment has ramped up, there was an ongoing mediation/settlement conversation for nearly two months between the Pac12 and the Mountain West. Two conferences going at it in this manner (lots of money and power at play) made it easy for this process to get dragged out, as both sides had things they wanted moving forward.
There are still plenty of long term questions that have not yet been answered as part of the move. First, will GCU generate any revenue in this first year, or is it a move that will be a $0 rev share for year 1?
The Mountain West conference is also shopping its new TV deal for 2026 and beyond. As of now there is no word on:
The financials or partners of the deal
What GCU’s share of that will be
But most importantly, GCU has found a long term home for most of its athletics programs, and that is the Mountain West conference.
See Ross Dellenger’s tweet here regarding the move, there is no formal announcement from GCU yet.