A week before Gonzaga left the West Coast Conference for ostensibly greener pastures in the Pac-12, US News came out with its Best University rankings, placing Denver at #121. These two events could and should be linked, especially when evaluating conference affiliation.
When it comes to school rankings, the West Coast Conference – the subject of many articles on this site and we fully recognize that – is comprised of many private universities that are ranked ahead of Denver including Loyola Marymount (#91), Pepperdine (#80), San Diego (#109), and Santa Clara (#63). Portland and St. Mary’s are highly-rated “regional colleges,” not included in the Best Universities rankings. This 10-member conference, with the stark exception of Grand Canyon University (#392), is mostly private and academically focused.
This is important because peer assessment, the highest valued metric on the US News Best Colleges annual poll, places a 20% value on this metric. The Summit League, comprised of a mix of two private and seven public universities, does little to elevate DU’s academic reputation. St. Thomas (#148), for example, is Denver’s highest-ranked Summit League peer and the others trail the Tommies significantly.
Considering the national decline in enrollment at colleges and universities, Denver’s current affiliation with the Summit League provides little upside in drawing students and athletes from their conference footprint. As it stands now, California is the second-highest state in terms of undergraduate enrollment at DU. Furthermore, California is surrounded by high-growth states, rising incomes, and increased student mobility. DU could garner greater visibility and draw more students (and athletes) while aligning with other ‘like’ schools.
Rumblings from around the realignment water cooler have indicated that WCC Commissioner Stu Jackson pushing for 12-14 conference members.
It seems that Jackson’s next targets are DU and California Baptist (#30 US Regional University/US News). Denver adds another major market for the conference while California Baptist adds California’s Inland Empire geography. Jackson recently added Grand Canyon University for basketball and the Phoenix market while Seattle U brings the Seattle market and a solid academic fit. The BIG EAST, Denver’s home for men’s and women’s lacrosse, will almost certainly be adding private schools and major markets east of the Mississippi while the WCC will be adding private universities out west.
While the Summit League has been a solid athletics partner for the Pioneers, Denver’s overall academic profile, peer awareness, and visibility would benefit by actively pursuing membership as a West Coast Conference member. The WCC would benefit from Denver’s academic profile and add a major market.
Finally, and this is possibly the most crucial part, DU currently benchmarks its own University performance against several WCC members, and membership in that conference would play a central role in elevating DU back into the “Top 100.”
It’s becoming more and more obvious as the years pass – joining the WCC must be one of the necessary steps if DU wants to return to the Top 100 schools in an era of declining enrollment and overall skepticism regarding the value of a college education.
Totally agree.
The Summit League does nothing for DU, except provide a schedule of teams to play and a chance for a NCAA bid. The schools are not academically similar and rarely do they draw a crowd when in Denver. Yes, the league you compete in is important! People associate Denver with the Summit League and that’s not good. The top DU sports which are hockey, lacrosse, gymnastics and skiing are all non-Summit sports. Men’s soccer has to play a tough non-conference schedule to compete. Great column and I agree with the conclusion.
Go west young school go west
If the WCC showed any interest in Denver, I am sure the Pioneers would strongly consider joining, but, as far as I know, there has been zero expression of interest from the Jackson (and the WCC presidents) towards the Pios. If there is such an expression, I would love to see any such expression in print…
In any conference move at the mid-major level money is most important factor. DU has a $1.5 million dollar exit penalty to pay out if they leave the Summit plus the loss of league revenue sharing, as far as I know, and I would guess that the WCC would also charge an entrance fee to join, so there is is that financial need right off the top. I’m sure DU could swing both fees if it needed to find that money.
The NCAA men’s D-I hoops conference unit payouts to the WCC (about $12 million in 2023) are likely to drop significantly without Gonzaga in the league going forward (the Zags earned about $3.4 million in NCAA money in 2023, and the other WCC schools were in the $500,000 per school range, which is still better than DU would get in the Summit, where the NCAA per-school payouts have been the $75,000 per year range recently.
Outside of league fees and payouts, the WCC and Summit finances are a likely wash for Denver. The little amount that DU might save in heavier traffic routes/lower cost airfares to the West Coast are likely offset by the higher hotel costs on the West Coast vs the Dakotas.
The move would make a lot of sense from the private school/academic comfort side of things as the article suggested, but I’ve been told that most of the DU deans and faculty don’t really care about this peer school issue very much, although the DU admissions dept would probably welcome it.
And sports wise, DU’s basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, swimming and golf programs on both the men’s and women’s side would likely all benefit from WCC membership, as recruiting the far west would become far easier without having to sell the non-glamor travel to the upper midwest.
From a Denver spectator standpoint, would more fans in Denver turn out to see Pepperdine, St. Mary’s and Loyola-Marymount than they do for Omaha, SD State and St. Thomas? Probably not. Rivalries? Would DU miss playing North Dakota, Omaha and St. Thomas in non-hockey games? Not really.
If it ever happened, the WCC would be a net positive for DU, but I don’t see DU going all out anymore for this…
I would say that from a fan perspective, the WCC teams would be a lot more attractive. I think fans, alums, students, athletes and potential recruits (sport and non-sport) would all relate to teams in the west better than the Summit schools which have very limited appeal.
The WCC would be a win for the university overall and its academic reputation, and a win for the athletic department.
Puck, that was a thoughtful analysis, but it appears the interest was higher than you perceived. Welcome to the WCC.
The WCC probably felt burned by the GCU debacle (which was in litigation last I checked) and so kept it’s interest in Denver quiet. it’s often better to keep such negotiations as private as possible until it’s truly done.
While conference affiliation may be important, DU accepts over 80% of its applicants. Nothing is going to raise DU’s rep when it admits anybody who can fog a mirror. I am one of those.
DU’s acceptance rate is at or better than four members: Pacific, Seattle U, Portland and, of course Grand Canyon. Acceptance rate is one metric but other factors like GPA, test scores, faculty quality and reputation are equally important. DU would be the only WCC conference member rated R1 (Research University). One question to consider would be membership awareness in the WCC west coast markets vs the Summit league Dakotas markets. Over the long term, would Denver gain more awareness in a higher populated conference/markets and thus a lower acceptance rate in the WCC? My guess would be clearly a lower acceptance rate with more applicatants in the WCC. With the common app students apply to multiple schools. Generally speaking, schools in highly populated areas are likely to have higher awareness and a lower acceptance rate due to more applicants, geographic proximity and greater awareness. Most of DU’s students come from +500 miles due to the lack of immediate population of potential student applicants. So, long story short, acceptance is but one factor of many to consider.
Grand Canyon has backed out of the WCC in the last week, leaving that conference at 9 teams. Is it time for DU to move, and does the WCC want us?
Footnote to the comment above: Cal Baptist University (Riverside, Calif.) fans are wanting their institution to replace GCU as a 10th member in the WCC. That may make more sense…