How will Mountain West’s early Grand Canyon admission impact ongoing mediation with Pac-12?

The Mountain West and commissioner Gloria Nevarez angered at least two of the conference’s five departing schools with the early addition of Grand Canyon.

The Lopes are joining the MWC for the 2025-26 athletics season after previously agreeing to come aboard in July 2026. 

Boise State said the move “significantly and negatively impacts the schedules, opportunities, and budgets of Boise State and the other departing universities” in a statement released to Bronco Nation News. “We will address this matter and the harm to the departing universities in litigation,” the statement also said. 

San Diego State, which is leaving for the Pac-12 alongside Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State next summer, also criticized the decision. 

“While SDSU remains an active member of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026, the university was not consulted or permitted to vote on the early invitation to Grand Canyon University, which is surprising and disappointing given prior representations that the Mountain West and its Commissioner made to SDSU and the negative impact this addition will have on already-planned athletic competition schedules for this academic year,” the Aztecs said in a statement. “We will need to evaluate this announcement and make adjustments due to this addition.”

The late addition of Grand Canyon will cause scheduling issues in several sports. 

The MWC must re-do its volleyball and women’s soccer schedules, which were already released without Grand Canyon. The men’s basketball schedule will also be unbalanced for the 2025-26 season. 

In a recent radio appearance on The Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano, Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune said that the Grand Canyon move could be a sign that mediation between the Pac-12 and MWC is not going well. 

In September 2024, the Pac-12 filed a lawsuit against the MWC over $55 million in poaching penalties. Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State are also suing the MWC over exit fees. 

The Pac-12 and MWC began mediation in May. The deadline to reach a resolution through mediation is Tuesday, July 15. 

“I don’t think they’re going to come to any type of resolution,” Zeigler told Canzano. “I think this thing might proceed down the court and trial path. I think things were promising at first, and I think they’ve started to unravel a little bit and I think this (move) — maybe because they were unraveling — the Mountain West decided ‘OK, let’s throw this Grand Canyon curveball at them because it doesn’t look like we’re getting anywhere in mediation.’ 

“I’ll be interested to see where it goes. Maybe if the Mountain West is a little bit more desperate to get that thing resolved, they’ll come back to the table with a better offer, I don’t know. But this certainly isn’t going to help those negotiations.”