Last week, the West Coast Conference (WCC) announced the addition of Grand Canyon and Seattle University. The universities are leaving their current home, the West Athletic Conference (WAC),  to assume full membership in 2025. The two moves bypass the University of Denver. However, this is likely not the last expansion move for the  WCC. Conference insiders have said that the conference will eventually stand at 12-14 full-time members.

At this time, there is no public indication that DU pursued membership during this realignment cycle.

While joining the WCC is often said to be all about basketball, Denver is surely as strong as Seattle U and would fit in the bottom tier of the conference while bringing a major market and fielding national tournament contenders in soccer, volleyball, tennis, and golf. However, both Grand Canyon and Seattle U also offer baseball, a popular West Coast sport which may have contributed to their selection. Denver provides a large media market, though, which is a key factor according to conference commissioner, Stu Jackson who said the following to Talking Zags :

The Big East was founded and reconfigured around the notion that they would operate in big media markets. To my vision, I think the WCC has an opportunity to do something similar (to the Big East) just on the other side of the country. To that end, that is something we want to pursue that we would add heavily in terms of full-time membership – perhaps even with Oregon State and Washington State as affiliates. But certainly beyond. Our ability to grow and continue to stabilize our conference from a financial standpoint, a competitive standpoint, and continue to offer student-athletes the types of experience they deserve in the WCC. Expanding in major markets will help that a bit.

Could the 12th program be the University of Denver? It should be. California Baptist in Riverside, California, though, has been mentioned as well as another mid-sized, regional, private, religious-based institution that aligns with the mostly Jesuit membership.

The WCC currently includes San Diego, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, Santa Clara, Pacific, San Francisco, St. Mary’s, Portland, and Gonzaga. The conference is temporarily hosting Washington State and Oregon State for the 2025-26 campaigns. Once Washington State and Oregon State cycle out of the conference, the addition of Grand Canyon and Seattle will bring the conference total to 11 full-time members.

It appears that Denver is ‘comfortable’ in the Summit League for now, gobbling up Directors’ Cup points. Denver would have a more difficult path to win the annual Division I-AAA Directors’ Cup, which they’ve won nearly every year for the better part of two decades, in a more competitive conference like the WCC.

Frankly, the urgency is not there for Denver to make a change now, unlike Seattle University and Grand Canyon, each ill-suited to the disparate Western Athletic Conference (WAC). As we have mentioned many times before, the schism between public and private institutions is widening (especially with football) and the formation of a Division I private conference seems inevitable as we have discussed before.

Denver would likely have to up their basketball program and facilities. However, DU would have an easier time recruiting quality players as well. Travel costs would be a wash versus the Summit League as we have discussed. One would assume fan interest would increase along with greater visibility to a West Coast undergraduate pool. However, the main reason for membership in the WCC (and the BIG EAST for that matter) is that member institutions have common value propositions, resources, and academic priorities and will be best suited to manage the rapidly changing Division I athletic landscape.

Denver’s key sports conference affiliation of lacrosse (BIG EAST), gymnastics (Big 12), hockey (NCHC), and Triathlon (unaffiliated) would remain unchanged, either way.

The ultimate decision for Denver may not be by choice, though. The Summit League, currently held together by chewing gum and bailing wire by the Dakota schools, may be broken apart by football. If the PAC-12 tries to reconstitute itself, it may raid the Mountain West and the American Athletic Conference (AAC) for new members. To survive the potential loss of conference members, the Mountain West almost certainly will recruit South Dakota State and North Dakota State to make the leap from FCS to FBS.  The timing of any potential football shakeup will happen in several years, the same time Washington State and Oregon State cycle out of their temporary residency in the West Coast Conference as they would be a part of the reconstituted PAC-12.

If this occurs, Denver will get another bite at the WCC apple. Furthermore, the role of NIL, conference realignment, and NCAA legislation will be better known at that time. Denver can then make a more calculated decision regarding conference affiliation. However, make no mistake, Denver is going to end up in a private non-football conference, it is just a matter of if, not when, this occurs. Simply put, Denver will not have a major role in shaping the future of collegiate athletics for private schools until they exit the Summit League and join peer schools for their Olympic sports.