The Mountain West conference logo on the field at Allegiant Stadium. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Mountain West Adds GCU, Sparking Legal Threats From Boise State And San Diego State

Originally posted on UNLV Rebels on SI
By Mark Morales-Smith | Last updated Jul 11, 2025 3:42 PM ET

This week, we learned that the UNLV Rebels athletic programs would be gaining a new rival in the Mountain West Conference earlier than anticipated when the Grand Canyon University Antelopes were added to the conference a year early by Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez. They were supposed to join for the 2026 -2027 season, but have now joined for the 2025 - 2026 which is causing scheduling issues from some of the departing schools in some sports. At least two of the schools exiting for the Pac-12 next season, the Boise State Broncos and San Diego State Aztecs, are not happy with this move. This decision could cause even more bad blood between teams remaining in the Mountain West and the ones leaving.

Boise State came out and made it very clear that they find this move unacceptable and it will be handled in litigation:

“Significantly and negatively impacts the schedules, opportunities, and budgets of Boise State and the other departing universities. We will address this matter and the harm to the departing universities in litigation.”

San Diego State released a statement and took it a step further:

“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. We will need to evaluate this announcement and make adjustments due to this addition.”

The hope is that this situation can be handled amicably and not end up in court. However, this ending up in front of a judge, does currently look like the most likely scenario. No one wants to see any damage done to either the conference or athletic programs that could ultimately have repercussions on the student athletes. However, as far as the games themselves go, what's a little bad blood between rivals?