Denver Pioneers to join the West Coast Conference, leave Summit League

The University of Denver is joining the West Coast Conference. The league's presidents' council on Friday approved Denver's admittance beginning July 1, 2026. DU is a current member of the Summit League.

Chancellor Jeremy Haefner described it as "an exciting day for the University of Denver and an incredible opportunity to continue to advance our exceptional academic and athletic programs."

"The excellence of schools that are part of the West Coast Conference is a perfect complement to DU and will help us continue to recruit the very best students and faculty," Haefner said in a prepared statement.

The Pioneers join UC San Diego in moving to the WCC in recent months. The conference will have 10 competing members during the 2026-27 academic year, including Denver, and 11 beginning in 2027-28 when UCSD becomes official.

"The University of Denver is a superb addition to the growing constellation of top-flight schools in the West Coast Conference," said Christopher Callahan, the chair of the WCC's presidents' council.

Callahan added that "we look forward to setting our sights on recruiting" a 12th school to the league.

Callahan praised the addition of the Pioneers, calling DU an academically strong university with a championship-winning pedigree in athletics. It brings the WCC another major media market "while keeping true to our geographic profile" and "ensuring our student-athletes are not burdened with excessive travel," he said.

The conference's footprint now stretches across 1,200 miles of the western region and covers four states: California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. The conference has representation in eight of the nine largest metropolitan cities in the West and has seven of the top 30 media markets in the United States in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Denver, Sacramento, Portland and San Diego.

Denver will compete in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's and women's golf, and men's and women's tennis.

The University of Denver is now the third college in the state in recent years to make a notable move to a new athletic conference. The University of Colorado moved from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 and Colorado State University moved from the Mountain West to the Pac-12.

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