A new home: Seattle U to join West Coast Conference in 2025
May 10, 2024, 10:53 AM
Alex Schumacher of Seattle U drives past Grand Canyon's Collin Moore on March 15. (Candice Ward/Getty Images)
(Candice Ward/Getty Images)
Seattle U has joined the conference realignment shuffle.
The Redhawks are joining the West Coast Conference beginning July 1, 2025, the league announced Friday morning. Grand Canyon University in Phoenix is also moving to the WCC.
Beginning in the 2025-26 seasons, Seattle U will compete in 14 of the WCC’s 16 sponsored sports: Men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, softball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s cross country, women’s cross country and rowing.
The WCC currently has nine schools full-time members: Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara. The WSU Cougars and Oregon State are also joining the WCC this summer as two-year affiliate members for 12 sports, including men’s and women’s basketball.
Seattle U has competed in the Western Athletic Conference since 2012.
“We are thrilled that Seattle University will be joining the West Coast Conference,” Seattle U president Eduardo M. Peñalver said in the WCC press release. “This is an exciting moment for our student athletes, alumni and university that places SU in excellent position for the future in the rapidly changing world of college sports. We are especially well-aligned with the WCC and its member schools from an academic, athletics and geographic standpoint.”
Seattle U was previously a member of the WCC under its former name – the West Coast Athletic Conference – from 1971 to 1980. After leaving the NCAA’s Division I level in 1980, the Redhawks spent nearly three decades competing at the NAIA, Division III and Division II levels. They rejoined Division I as an independent in 2009 and then joined the WAC in 2012.
Seattle U men’s basketball has been on the rise with three consecutive 20-win seasons. The Redhawks went 23-14 this past season, which they capped by winning the College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament.
