Grand Canyon to join Mountain West Conference for 2025-26 season

The Mountain West Conference is kicking off its restructuring a year early.

According to multiple reports, Grand Canyon will be a full member of the MWC this fall. The Lopes were previously slated to join the MWC for the 2026-27 athletics season. 

The MWC will be a 12-team conference for men’s and women’s basketball this season: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Grand Canyon, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, Utah State, UNLV and Wyoming. The Lopes do not compete in football. 

During the 2024-25 basketball season, the MWC introduced a fully-balanced 20-game conference schedule for the first time. With the addition of Grand Canyon, the MWC will likely return to an unbalanced schedule this season. 

The Lopes have reached four of the last five men’s basketball NCAA Tournaments under head coach Bryce Drew. 

Grand Canyon had accepted an invitation to join the West Coast Conference last May for the 2025-26 school year. After Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State of the MWC and Gonzaga of the WCC committed to the Pac-12, the Lopes flipped course and ditched the WCC for the MWC.

The Lopes were set to be an independent for the 2025-26 athletics season after leaving the Western Athletic Conference. Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger was the first to report Grand Canyon’s early admission to the MWC.  

With the loss of five schools to the Pac-12, the MWC has nine football-playing members signed up for the 2026 season: Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Illinois (football-only), San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming. UC Davis is also coming aboard as a non-football member in 2026. 

The reborn Pac-12 added its eighth football-playing member last week in Texas State of the Sun Belt Conference. 

The Pac-12 is up to nine schools for the 2026-27 school year: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State and Washington State.

Last week’s addition of Texas State was critical for the Pac-12, which needed to add another football-playing school before July 1, 2026 to reach the NCAA’s eight-team minimum to qualify as an FBS conference. Gonzaga does not compete in football.