WCC makes another addition to combat Gonzaga's departure in 2026

The West Coast Conference secured a significant media footprint for its future on Friday, welcoming the University of Denver Pioneers starting on July 1, 2026.

“In the University of Denver, the West Coast Conference adds a geographically-aligned, perennial top performer among the winningest non-football athletic programs in the nation,” said West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson. “Denver’s commitment to elevate men’s and women’s basketball to a level which matches its nationally recognized success in other sports, while maintaining a focus on student-athlete development and experiences, is among the foundational pillars to this expansion. Their multi-year basketball growth plan shows an intentional focus that meets our basketball-centric identity. The Conference also values the addition of another large metropolitan area and top media market which will broaden our reach and deliver greater opportunity for our membership."

The WCC is losing Gonzaga and affiliate members Oregon State and Washington State after this year, with all three moving on to the new-look Pac-12. Seattle University has joined starting this season, and the WCC also has an agreement with UC San Diego to join starting in 2027-28, but Denver will come in a year sooner to bring the conference up to 10 members for the 2026-27 season.

The WCC was initially going to operate with just nine teams in 2026-27: Saint Mary's, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Pacific, San Diego, Seattle, and Portland. However, a nine-team league is not only challenging for scheduling reasons, but the risk of Saint Mary's getting poached by either the Pac-12 or Mountain West was too significant for the conference to sit on its heels.

Instead, Commissioner Jackson made a move to bring in a program based in a major media market in Denver, and a school with the largest enrollment (12,894) of anyone currently in the league — although UCSD will easily surpass that when they join the following year.

West Coast Conference commissioner Stu Jackson | Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Denver is joining the WCC in nine sports: men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis, and women's volleyball. The Pioneers have had quite a bit of success on the soccer pitch, but basketball has never been an area of strength for this program.

The Pios open the 2025-26 season ranked No. 344 out of 363 D1 teams at KenPom, projected to go just 10-21 this season and 5-11 in the Summit League. Denver has not finished above 250th at KenPom since 2018, and the men's program has never made the NCAA Tournament.

In fact, over the past five seasons — using KenPom's end-of-year rankings — Denver would have finished dead last in the WCC four times, with an eighth-place finish in 2024 ahead of Portland and Pacific.

Part of the agreement between DU and the WCC is for the school to install new seats in the Hamilton Gymnasium, which commissioner Jackson alluded to when discussing Denver's commitment to elevate the basketball programs.

Joining a league with a bigger media payout should also result in the Pios being able to better fund their hoops programs going forward, but there's a good chance this team is a bottom-feeder in men's basketball, at least in the early going.

Fans will get an early look at how Denver fares against WCC competition, as they open up the 2025-26 season on Monday, Nov. 3, against the Seattle Redhawks.

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