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 its 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.
Great move for DU and this should help with recruiting new students overall. Yes, it will be tougher competition but that is usually what athletes want anyway. Hope men’s basketball can be semi-competitive!
Long overdue, and sets a higher bar for the entire department. Recruiting and visibility will improve, and with more quality coaching and development, I have no doubts that DU can be an immediate conference leader in one sport, (MSoccer) a tough contender in others (W. Soccer, Golf, Tennis, and Volleyball) and at least relevant in M and W hoops with a bit more time and investment.
A bigger challenge DU faces with the WCC (and one that no one really talks about) is making these other low-key private WCC opponents into a gate attractions in Denver. Will Colorado locals turn out to see the Loyola-Marymount’s, the Pepperdine’s and the San Diego’s of the world any more than turning out to see the South Dakota’s, the Omaha’s and St. Thomas’s? No. They won’t… The proximity isn’t there and the private schools of the WCC won’t have the automatic geographic and state resident attraction that public schools offer…
My guess is that making this Gonzaga-less and BYU-less WCC conference relevant in Colorado will take time, and will be heavily contingent on DU men’s hoops winning 20+ basketball games as a regular occurrence in a world where mid-major basketball rosters must be rebuilt annually. A heavy lift indeed. That said, it is a lift that is worth doing, and should DU someday make the NCAA tournament in basketball, it will be THE catalyst for future relevance…
Awesome news. I’m anxious to see how we (UC Santa Barbara) fare in the WCC.
Puck, I can’t wait to read your opinion of us and UC San Diego both joining in 2027. I’ve had a soft spot for the Pios for years