As soon as Grand Canyon received approval on July 8 to begin competing in the Mountain West Conference for the 2025-26 academic year, everything took off.
Just eight months earlier, GCU accepted the MWC’s invitation to start playing no later than the summer of 2026. But that was moved up a year and the change has progressed at a rapid rate.
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In late August, the Lopes announced a TV partnership with Arizona’s Family as the official home for GCU athletics with select games across their sports landscape being televised live locally. Much of the spotlight would be on men’s and women’s basketball games.
This complements the Mountain West’s media rights, which include national TV partnerships with CBS and FOX, as well as CBS Sports Network and FS1.
If any of GCU’s basketball games aren’t picked up by those national outlets, then they will be streamed free on the Mountain West Network and become eligible for local broadcasts on Arizona’s Family (Ch. 3 in Phoenix).
Grand Canyon University guard Makaih Williams (2) brings the ball up against Eastern New Mexico during an exhibition game at Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix on Oct. 29, 2024.
On Sept. 3, the conference announced its tournament bracket format that will feature a 12-team field, starting with the women’s tournament March 7-10, followed by the men’s tournament March 11-14 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
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The first four finishers in the regular season receive first-round byes. The 8 and 9 seeds will play each other and the 5 seed will play the 12 seed in the first round. The 7 and 10 and the 6 and 11 seeds will play each other. The 12-team tournament was created because of the addition of GCU.
On Sept. 5, the conference announced its base schedule, with dates that can be moved by one day in either direction, depending on national TV selections.
On Sept. 11, the Lopes announced that they’ve added Daron Sutton and Jody Jackson to their broadcast team.
Sutton, former TV voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks, will serve as GCU’s TV play-by-play announcer for basketball and other select athletic events. Jackson, highly involved in Phoenix sports coverage, including the Diamondbacks, will provide analysis for select events, including women’s basketball.
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The GCU Radio Network will go fully digital with all men’s basketball play-by-play available on free in the GCU Lopes app. GCU stated in a news release the move to in-app audio will allow for additional innovation on game broadcasts, future expansion into podcast franchises and live coverage of other GCU sports.
Jim Howell will return for his sixth season calling GCU women’s basketball in the play-by-play audio coverage. The school also announced that Barry Buetel, Michael Potter, Paul Coro and Kate Longworth will return to fill roles in GCU’s expanded television and streaming packages. Dan Bickley will return for his second season on men’s basketball broadcasts, and Tim Wilhelm will return for his fifth season on softball, the school said.
The school is ramping up its in-house production technology at Global Credit Union Arena, building a new control room to enhance internal production capabilities of arena events, GCU said.
And, for the first time, the school is adding live streaming video coverage of men’s and women’s tennis matches, giving the Lopes nine live-streamed sports. There will be opportunities for GCU students to be involved in the broadcast expansion, including talent and production roles in the video and audio streaming, the school said.
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GCU men’s 2025-26 basketball schedule
Note: if a national TV provider selects one of GCU’s conference games, the date published can move by one day in either direction. That should be finalized by Mountain West in early to mid October.
Oct. 10: at Baylor (exhibition), 2 p.m.
Oct. 25: USC (exhibition), 6:30 p.m.
Nov. 3: Purdue Fort Wayne, 7 p.m.
Nov. 7: Youngstown State, 7 p.m.
Nov. 10: Northern Illinois, 7 p.m.
Nov. 15: at Saint Louis, time to be announced
Nov. 21: Northwestern State, 7 p.m.
Nov. 25: Utah, at Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert, California, 10 p.m.
Nov. 26: Iowa or Ole Miss, at Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert, California, 7:30 or 10 p.m.
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Dec. 2: Stetson, 7 p.m.
Dec. 6: Oklahoma State, at PHX Arena, TBA
Dec. 13: Coastal Carolina, 6 p.m.
Dec. 20: at Wyoming
Dec. 22: IU Indianapolis
Jan. 3: Colorado State
Jan. 6: at Boise State
Jan. 10: San Jose State
Jan. 13: at New Mexico
Jan. 17: Utah State
Jan. 20: San Diego State
Jan. 24: at Fresno State
Jan. 27: at Nevada
Jan. 31: Boise State
Feb. 3: Air Force
Feb. 7: at UNLV
Feb. 10: New Mexico
Feb. 14: at San Jose State
Feb. 17: at San Diego State
Feb. 21: Wyoming
Feb. 24: UNLV
Feb. 28: at Utah State
March 3: at Air Force
March 7: Fresno State
March 11-14: Mountain West Conference Tournament, at Thomas & Mack Center
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Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How GCU’s Mountain West entry has expanded its reach
