The Pac-12 is including Gonzaga as a member in all sports activities applications starting July 1, 2026, the college and convention introduced Tuesday. The Bulldogs will even be exiting the West Coast Convention (WCC). Gonzaga will be a part of the Pac-12 as its eighth member.
“Following discussions with Pac-12 member presidents, I imagine membership will symbolize a possibility to take part in constructing a convention that imagines new, forward-thinking methods to help student-athletes in a quickly altering collegiate sports activities panorama,” Gonzaga College President Thayne McCulloh mentioned.
“Partnerships with a brand new group of universities also can help in our scholar recruitment and enrollment efforts, create alternatives for educational collaboration with new school colleagues, and appeal to extra college students who worth a superb training distinctively rooted in our Jesuit id and custom. I’m significantly excited in regards to the alternatives partnering with this group of establishments can supply our college students, school, and workers for multi-institutional collaboration.”
The Pac-12 Convention and Gonzaga College are proud to announce their partnership, because the Bulldogs will be a part of the convention efficient July 1, 2026.
📰Press Launch: https://t.co/N1MISXXxcE pic.twitter.com/NKmyyweKqH— Gonzaga Athletics (@GonzagaBulldogs) October 1, 2024
Ten of 12 Pac-12 member colleges have departed over the previous yr, leaving solely Oregon State and Washington State behind. The convention managed to barter a scheduling settlement with the Mountain West Convention (MWC) for Oregon State and Washington State in soccer this season. As a part of the deal, the colleges would function affiliate members of the WCC in basketball.
In response to ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Kyle Bonagura, talks between the Pac-12 and Gonzaga intensified over the previous three days. In an announcement, West Coast Convention commissioner Stu Jackson mentioned they’d been notified of Gonzaga’s choice, saying Gonzaga had been a “valued member of the WCC for greater than 4 a long time.”
Pac-12 will add Gonzaga, however the college can not depend because the league’s eighth full-time member as a result of it doesn’t have soccer
Though Gonzaga is the Pac-12’s eighth member, it is not going to depend because the league’s eighth full-time member, as the college doesn’t have soccer. The Pac-12 nonetheless wants so as to add one other member to achieve minimal convention thresholds.
Gonzaga is about to affix Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Oregon State, San Diego State, Utah State, and Washington State within the convention.
The Pac-12 has additionally had preliminary discussions with Grand Canyon and Saint Mary’s, each of which participated in within the NCAA males’s basketball event final yr.
The final yr of the Gonzaga soccer program was 1941.
The ultimate sport the Bulldogs performed on the gridiron was towards who else however new convention opponent, Washington State.
If the Pac-12 can come again to life, so can also Gonzaga soccer. https://t.co/KGDiR6XVyR pic.twitter.com/0ZEXiiIYVH
— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) October 1, 2024
Nonetheless, the Pac-12 is extra centered on including one other football-playing college than basketball program. Gonzaga has been a member of the WCC because the 1989-90 season.
The Bulldogs are one of many high manufacturers and most constant winners in males’s school basketball. Gonzaga has reached the spherical of 16 of the boys’s NCAA event 9 consecutive instances. The Bulldogs have additionally reached each males’s NCAA event since 1999.
Moreover, Gonzaga has one of many nation’s most revered males’s basketball coaches in Mark Few, who has been on the college since 2000. Below Few, the Bulldogs have reached the Ultimate 4 twice.
