San Diego State unhappy about Grand Canyon’s early admission to Mountain West

The move comes as a surprise to the five teams leaving for the Pac-12 next year

Grand Canyon University head coach Bryce Drew. | Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

San Diego State isn’t happy with Tuesday’s surprise announcement that Grand Canyon University will be admitted to the Mountain West effective immediately rather than beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that SDSU and the other four schools leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12 opposed the early entry by Grand Canyon, but were excluded from the vote. That’s because once the five schools gave notice of their intended departure from the MW in late May, they were removed from the board and lost their voting rights.

That didn’t stop SDSU from expressing its displeasure with the move.

“While SDSU remains an active member of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026, the 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,” the university said in a statement. 

“We will need to evaluate this announcement and make adjustments due to this addition.”

What that might be remains to be seen.

As the U-T pointed out, separate lawsuits over exit and poaching fees totaling close to $150 million were combined into a “global” mediation that began May 19 and has dragged into the summer.

Another lawsuit might slow, or even halt, those negotiations, according to the U-T, which suggested the discontent over Grand Canyon will be addressed in the mediation.

In its announcement, the MW said it “extended a unique opportunity to GCU and its student-athletes, allowing them to compete for conference championships and NCAA postseason eligibility immediately.”

GCU doesn’t play football, either. The Antelopes reportedly will be added to MW schedules in all other sports.

The accelerated move came about because GCU faced the prospect of not having a conference affiliation for 2025-26. The Lopes left the Western Athletic Conference for the West Coast Conference effective in 2025-26. But with five schools — including SDSU — leaving the MW for the rebuilding Pac-12, the Lopes and the MW were quick to make this move. 

One of the immediate concerns raised by some observers is that the addition of Grand Canyon will increase the number of men’s basketball teams to 12, which likely means a return to an unbalanced schedule. The conference league went to a fully balanced, 20-game schedule last season.

That means one lucky team won’t have to play GCU in its home bandbox arena, which has a capacity of just 7,000, and face the student section known as the Havocs. 

SDSU experienced the full blast of the Havocs on Dec. 5, 2023, when it suffered a 79-73 upset loss in front of an overflow crowd at GCU. It was the first-ever win for the Lopes against a Top 25 opponent, leading to the fans storming the court. That was the season after the Aztecs reached the national championship game before losing to UConn.

SDSU is 1-4 overall against the Lopes in basketball.