It’s now July 1st, and the University of Denver is a full-fledged member of the West Coast Conference (WCC). Dan Ritchie envisioned this exact union when Denver went DI in 1999. Instead of Mavericks, Bison, and Coyotes, the Pioneers will face Pilots, Redhawks, and Waves. Most road trips will include California and Washington State instead of the Dakotas, and the competition is bound to be stiffer, particularly in golf, tennis, volleyball, and, of course, basketball. DU men’s and women’s soccer appear to be ready to meet the challenge. As for hoops, both men’s and women’s basketball face a challenging climb against the hoops-centric conference.
Even DU swim and dive has a future out west. A recent announcement places the team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), joining five other new members in the conference – Denver is one of six athletic departments that accepted an invitation to the MPSF ahead of the upcoming academic year, joining Cal State Bakersfield (M/W), Seattle (M/W), UC San Diego Diego (M/W), UC Santa Barbara (M/W) and San Diego (W).
No doubt, Denver will be able to broaden their recruiting pool with an attractive slate of opponents and locations. Furthermore, most of Denver’s conference games will be on ESPN+, giving the programs and the University greater visibility and reach.
While California provides the second most students to DU’s student body, the opportunity to grow that number in the WCC opens some interesting non-sports opportunities going forward for a university that is highly dependent on tuition revenue for its operations.
August 8th and 9th begin the non-conference portion of the schedule for men’s and women’s soccer, respectively. Conference play begins in late August.
This upcoming season promises to be exciting, interesting, and challenging. We will be there for all of it.
Top Photo: Pepperdine University’s campus in Malibu, not to be confused with South Dakota State’s, in Brookings.
