GCU, Seattle departures places WAC, its 3 Utah colleges, again in limbo

SALT LAKE CITY — The faculty basketball map within the west is shifting once more, and a league that has been revived too many instances to rely is as soon as once more within the crosshairs.

Grand Canyon and Seattle U. are headed from the Western Athletic Convention to the West Coast Convention, which can depart the WAC with simply eight full-time member establishments: Abilene Christian, California Baptist, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton, UT Arlington, Utah Tech and Utah Valley.

Of the group, Stephen F. Austin has reportedly been in deep discussions with the Southland Convention a couple of return to its former house, as first reported by Additional Factors with Matt Brown. A number of sources near the WAC and inside school athletics count on the Lumberjacks to formalize the dedication to its new house quickly.

The Lopes and Redhawks will be part of the West Coast Convention starting July 1, 2025, competing in 14 of the convention’s 16 championship sports activities and swelling the WCC’s membership to 11 full-time members (Oregon State and Washington State will be part of as non-football members beneath a two-year settlement for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons).

The place does that depart the WAC, particularly Utah colleges of Southern Utah, Utah Tech and Utah Valley?

The primary choice could be rebuilding the WAC — once more — primarily with different colleges within the western half of the US. In that regard, the College of Denver, which performed within the WAC for one season in 2012-13, must be thought of a prime goal.

A supply indicated to KSL.com that the Pioneers have been in shut contact with the convention a couple of transfer from its present house within the Summit League. Denver is the western-most faculty within the Summit League, although Northern Colorado performs baseball and males’s golf within the convention and Weber State is becoming a member of the league subsequent yr as a males’s golf affiliate.

Representatives from the WAC didn’t touch upon the departing colleges.

However Denver’s nearest full-time geographic rivals within the convention are Omaha, Kansas Metropolis and South Dakota — a mere 540, 604 and 690 miles away, respectively.

Complicating the maths is the WAC’s latest resolution to re-add soccer within the type of an alliance between the WAC and ASUN convention, formally however unofficially generally known as the United Athletic Convention. SFA’s departure would depart the WAC facet of the alliance with simply 4 football-playing colleges: Southern Utah, Utah Tech, ACU and Tarleton.

ACU and Tarleton could have curiosity in becoming a member of the ASUN full-time, in response to Additional Factors, in addition to UT Arlington, which doesn’t sponsor soccer.

Therefore, conversations involving WAC colleges and the Summit League may go each methods. Maybe the league could be all in favour of including the trio of Utah colleges to kind a western coalition together with Denver.

The league doesn’t sponsor soccer, however 4 members — North Dakokta, North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State — at the moment play within the Missouri Valley Soccer Convention, a single-sport convention that can drop to 10 members when Missouri State joins Convention USA in all sports activities in 2025-26.

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Southern Utah was previously a member of the Summit League from 2007-12, in addition to its direct predecessor the Mid-Continental Convention from 1997-2007. The Thunderbirds joined the Large Sky in 2012 earlier than departing to hyperlink up with a lately reclassified Utah Tech for the WAC starting July 1, 2022.

A number of sources have indicated to KSL.com {that a} return to the Large Sky is unlikely for Southern Utah — although these sources confused that conversations may change repeatedly within the ever-shifting world of convention realignment.

The Large Sky, of which Weber State is a founding member, hasn’t added a full member since North Dakota and SUU in 2012 (Idaho joined the league as a non-football member in 2014 earlier than its soccer program reclassified to FCS and joined the league in 2018).

Utah Tech joined the WAC in 2020 upon transferring up from Division II. Utah Valley joined the convention in 2013 as a part of a mass migration that additionally included GCU, Seattle, UT Arlington (earlier than leaving and returning) and UT Rio Grande Valley.