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.

Earlier last month, a U.S. House bill, the SCORE Act, was pulled for further work. Endorsed by the NCAA’s College Sports Commission, the goal of the bill was to create and enforce a set of uniform, federal rules to regulate name, image, and likeness (NIL), revenue sharing and add controls to the transfer portal. The opponents to the bill argued that the legislation came at the expense of athletes and was a gift to the NCAA and the Power conferences. The bill would have permitted the NCAA to cap NIL deals, set a limit on transfers, establish fair-market-value on NIL deals, and limit conflicts with existing university sponsorship deals. Finally, the bill stopped athletes from becoming employees and shielded the NCAA and the Commission from antitrust and state court lawsuits. The argument by the legislative opposition contended that this legislation was not ready for ‘prime time.’ Continue reading Upheaval Plagues College Sports at Year’s End →

Just when we thought university athletics were getting too professionalized, they go a step further. With the blessing of the NCAA, the University of Utah is creating Utah Brands & Entertainment, a company to oversee its major revenue sources. Otro Capital (a private equity firm) would be the minority owner of for-profit Utah Brands, which will manage operations such as ticket sales, media, stadium events, concessions, and trademark and licensing matters. All this while many universities, especially those in the Power Four conferences, are sharing $20+ million of current department revenue with their student-athletes on top of declining media revenue and soaring operating costs. Continue reading University of Utah Athletics Signs Private Equity Deal with Otro Capital →