WCC Expansion

Talking to some knowledgeable sources, I've been told the WCC would like to expand to 12 schools, and possibly 14.

I have not gained any insight into which schools might one day join the league, but Seattle U., Grand Canyon, and Denver have been in the conversation for many years and continue to be in the conversation because, in addition to being generally smaller private schools in the WCC tradition, they are in terrific media markets.

Three other schools I have recently heard discussed were UCSB, UNLV, and Boise St., but those schools would certainly be outliers in terms of size/mission.

I have also heard about a Big East/WCC "consortium" of sorts where there would be an eastern and western, and perhaps one day, a mid-western division.

It is all just talk for now, but the commissioner, the presidents, and ADs are discussing the future of the WCC.

One other school I have heard of being mentioned once or trice in the mix is Cal Baptist.

Geezaldinho wrote:One other school I have heard of being mentioned once or trice in the mix is Cal Baptist.

Seems that would be an excellent addition.

With LMU and PU already in the LA market, Cal Baptist could bring with them the Inland Empire audience, and they fit the WCC profile.

Seattle U: absolutely.
Denver: yes.
Cal Baptist: sure, why not?
Grand Canyon: hard pass, as long as it's still a for-profit institution.

Grand Canyon Student Population - There are 103,072 students including 65,870 undergraduate and 37,202 graduate students at Grand Canyon University for academic year 2021-2022. By attending status, there are 22,295 full-time and 80,777 part-time students with gender distribution of 27,655 male and 75,417 female students.

Not quite a "smaller private school"

Hello Pilot fans, I'm a fan and alum of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. With NDSU and SDSU potentially considering a jump to FBS depending on what happens with the Pac-12 and MWC, I'm worried that my Roos might be left without a conference as the result of a hypothetical Summit League collapse. With the WCC also considering expansion depending on what Gonzaga goes, do you think your conference would ever consider a school like UMKC?

I know that we do not fit the profile of a traditional WCC institution (private university on the west coast), but I believe we could be an attractive candidate for several reasons:

- UMKC is in the process of planning a new 5,000-seat, on-campus arena that would give us the facilities to grow our men's basketball program. We also do not sponsor football, which aligns with the rest of the WCC
- UMKC is a top 250 university in the country by US News and is under consideration for an R1 Carnegie Classification
- UMKC has an undergrad enrollment just over 10,000 (right in line with the Univ. of San Francisco) and is situated in the beautiful Country Club Plaza neighborhood of Kansas City
- UMKC would help the WCC unlock the Kansas City, MO market for undergrad recruiting purposes; additionally, our new airport has direct flights to the majority of the west coast, including Portland

I know this would likely never happen, but the WCC is one of my favorite basketball conferences to follow from afar. I loved when my Roos were in the WAC and got to travel to Phoenix and Seattle for games. The WCC would essentially be taking a flier on a program with decent potential moving forward. If you're going to poach the University of Denver from us, perhaps we could be a package deal?

true2theroos wrote:Hello Pilot fans, I'm a fan and alum of the University of Missouri-Kansas City....  

....If you're going to poach the University of Denver from us, perhaps we could be a package deal?

In today's ever changing sports landscape, you just never know.

I do know that among WCC school presidents there has been some pushback against welcoming Grand Canyon to the conference due to there "for profit" status, which GCU denies despite strong evidence against their claim.

The recent headline and story, Largest Christian University In US Faces Record Fine After Federal Probe Into Alleged Deception will certainly not make the school more attractive to the WCC.

https://www.kxl.com/largest-christian-university-in-us-faces-record-fine-after-federal-probe-into-alleged-deception/

true2theroos wrote:

I know this would likely never happen, but the WCC is one of my favorite basketball conferences to follow from afar. I loved when my Roos were in the WAC and got to travel to Phoenix and Seattle for games. The WCC would essentially be taking a flier on a program with decent potential moving forward. If you're going to poach the University of Denver from us, perhaps we could be a package deal?

Hi roo, Some history you may or may not be aware of…

10+ years ago, before the WCC added conference members Pacific and BYU, former member Seattle wanted to join the conference again. The issue with them was substandard facilities in basketball and soccer. Their AD at the time was the former AD at USF.

Denver made a strong push to join the conference at around the same time, even offering to subsidize travel expenses to Denver for conference members. The issue at the time with them was that they prioritized the use of their arena for ice hockey instead of basketball on Saturdays, which was not compatible with BYU , which doesn’t schedule sports on Sundays for religious reasons. I think that was when Denver joined the Summit league. With BYU joining the Big12, Sunday events are no longer an issue.

I think there were talks with Nevada-Reno at about the same time, as they are also former WCC members. And there have been at least informal talks with Cal Baptist, among other schools, specifically some Cal State institutions more recently.

So get in line for consideration. I expect in the near future we will see expansion to 12 teams, probably from the list I mentioned.

wrv wrote:Big news, OSU and. WSU likely to join WCC for two years except in football and baseball. The conference will be markedly change, competition

Interesting conference next year.

Go Pilots.

https://www.cougcenter.com/2023/12/20/24010401/wsu-ous-wcc-gonzaga-saint-marys

This is absolutely wild.

Rob's Jacket wrote:

wrv wrote:Big news, OSU and. WSU likely to join WCC for two years except in football and baseball. The conference will be markedly change, competition

Interesting conference next year.

Go Pilots.

https://www.cougcenter.com/2023/12/20/24010401/wsu-ous-wcc-gonzaga-saint-marys

This is absolutely wild.

I'm glad my musings about Stanford's non-football sports being in the WCC are partially validated here.

It seems official, according to Oregonlive.

The presidents approved a two year deal with OSU and WAZZU for up to 17 sports. The PAC2 has 30 days to decide on baseball.

https://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/2023/12/west-coast-conference-approves-2-year-affiliate-membership-for-oregon-state-washington-state-in-as-many-as-17-sports.html

And it’s a full day for the PAC2. First they join our conference, then they reach a settlement with the other 10 schools who left the PAC12.

https://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/2023/12/10-departing-pac-12-schools-agree-to-settlement-with-oregon-state-wsu.html?utm_campaign=theoregonian_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

wrv wrote:Big news, OSU and. WSU likely to join WCC for two years except in football and baseball. The conference will be markedly changing competition

WCC Commissioner Stu Jackson discusses the changed league and the reasoning behind an 18-game men's basketball schedule vs. the 20-game women's round robin schedule.  

https://www.swxlocalsports.com/spokane/gonzaga/all-sports/wcc-commissioner-explains-wsu-osu-partially-joining-wcc-addresses-rumors-of-gonzaga-possibly-joining-big/article_c47296a8-e180-11ee-bb2c-3fcbdd994e27.html

Any ideas what the 2025 tournament bracket will look like with 11 teams? Three play-in games? Still the top two bye to the semifinals?

This is weird. On ESPN in their NCAAM page, when I select WCC conference teams, the Dayton Flyers are on the list. Not OSU or WSU, but Dayton. Must be a glitch.

up7587 wrote:This is weird.  On ESPN in their NCAAM page, when I select WCC conference teams, the Dayton Flyers are on the list.  Not OSU or WSU, but Dayton.  Must be a glitch.

After watching them take down Nevada in this year's Tournament before losing to Arizona, Dayton would certainly push GU and SMC to the limits for the WCC title...

But I don't see them leaving the Atlantic 10 Conference.. .