Pac-12 CEOs question for-profit Grand Canyon's move to Division I

Pac-12 Conference officials question Grand Canyon University's entrance into Division I. (Courtesy GCU)

Pac-12 Conference CEOs sent a letter to the NCAA seeking answers about the admittance of for-profit schools to Division I, CBSSports.com reports.

Phoenix-based Division II Grand Canyon University looks to be target of the letter.

Grand Canyon University began transition to Division I on June 1 and will join the Western Athletic Conference in basketball next season and be eligible for the NCAA tournament in 2017-18.

Grand Canyon is a private, Christian-based public-traded institution with almost 8,500 full-time undergraduate students. Division I basketball has more than 340 members.

“It's gotten on the radar of our schools and are trying to raise it as a policy issue as to whether for-profit schools ought to be playing Division I athletics, or not, before there are any,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. “It's always hard to put the genie back in the bottle. Tt's not about Grand Canyon. It's about institutions whether they should be granted membership to Division I. This issue has been flagged by our presidents as something as they think the NCAA board and the membership more broadly ought to really think about just before letting it happen."

“We are an investment-based model institution,” Grand Canyon athletic director Keith Baker said. “Operating as a for-profit model, we don't get tax breaks.”