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Grand Canyon University will be joining the WAC and moving up to Division I athletics. Grand Canyon is replacing Denver in the WAC, who will be moving to the Summit League, according to Las Cruces Sun News. Denver joins Texas State-San Antonio, Texas-Arlington, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State and Utah State in another mass exodus from the conference.
GCU currently competes in Division II as a member of the Pacific West Conference. The exceptions are men's volleyball and wrestling, which compete in Division I Midwestern Collegiate Volleyball Association and the Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
The school had been looking for an opening to move up, and recently built the GCU Arena, a 5,000-seat events center that mainly houses the men's and women's baskeball teams on campus in Phoenix.
Functioning as a for-profit Christian school, Grand Canyon serves as one of the top online colleges in the country. GCU does have a growing brick-and-mortar campus, and has put over $200 million into expansion projects in recent years.