Two Great Updates on Grand Canyon University - New PhD Offerings and NCAA D1 Status

I've been considering Grand Canyon University GCU for a while since they offer 100% online PhDs with no residencies. They also have a brick-and-mortar school. I just found out about these two important updates:

1. New specializations in their general psychology PhD program: a) performance psychology; b) integrating technology, learning, and psychology.

2. Conversion to NCAA D1 status. Beginning with the 2013-2014 academic year, GCU, which currently has D2 status, will join the Western Athletic Conference as D1 members of the NCAA. This conversion has been covered by many major media outlets:

New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/sports/ncaafootball/for-profit-universitys-shift-to-division-i-stokes-debate.html

Huffington Post - Grand Canyon University Joins WAC, Becomes First For-Profit College In Division I Athletics

ESPN - Troubled WAC loses Denver, adds Grand Canyon - ESPN

 

After perfecting the "full court press" in student recruitment, GCU now poised to unleash it upon the Western Athletic Conference. God help you, San Jose State.

 

San Jose State won't be affected by GCU's move at all. SJSU, and most other current WAC members, have already announced that they are leaving the WAC as of July 2013, which is when GCU joins.

The WAC currently has 10 member schools. But eight of them currently plan to leave in 2013 or 2014:

San Jose State, Utah State: Leaving in July 2013 to join the Mountain West Conference.
Louisiana Tech, University of Texas-San Antonio: Leaving in July 2013 to join Conference USA
University of Texas–Arlington, Texas State University-San Marcos: Leaving in July 2013 to join the Sun Belt Conference.
University of Denver: Leaving in July 2013 to join The Summit League.
University of Idaho: Leaving in July 2014 to join the Big Sky Conference.

So who is left?

New Mexico State University and Seattle University are staying.

And in July 2013, five new schools will be added, including GCU. The other four are:

Cal State Bakersfield
Utah Valley University
Chicago State
Universitiy of Texas-Pan American

So those are GCU's new rivals -- not San Jose State.

It will be interesting to see if GCU organizes a football team. It appears that most WAC schools after July 2013 won't have football teams, and so football will be dropped as a WAC sport after the current season.

 

Thanks for stepping on the punchline. But maybe I should do more research into WAC comings and goings before I make a joke. So, shame on me.

 

The point is really that the WAC, while still a well-known name in college sports, is just a shadow of its former self. They used to be one of the top mid-major conferences in NCAA Division I. But they have not fared well in the conference realignment game, and now are just struggling to survive.

In the 1980s, a WAC team (BYU) won the national championship in football. But BYU -- and every other WAC team of that era -- is long gone, and WAC football will disappear entirely after this season.

To stay viable in basketball, the WAC needed seven teams, because that is the minimum that a conference needs to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. With GCU, they get to seven.

It's obviously newsworthy that a for-profit school joined a well-known Division I athletic conference. But realistically, the WAC probably would have taken any school at all, given their current problems.

 

Good to know, for a second there I thought that the new WAC members were: university of Phoenix, Devry, ITT Tech and Kaplan. Maybe Capella, Walden, Trident, and NCU will soon create their own conference, the VAC, Virtual Athletic Conference. :scratchchin::naughty:

 

They totally should. They could compete in a virtual online environment, using sports video games.

 

Phoenix even has a stadium already!

 

Here is some footage from the celebration. The link is from GCU's homepage.

GCU Accepts Division I Invitation - YouTube