UCLA and Long Beach State met tonight for the NCAA Men's Volleyball National Championship. The Final Four was made up of blue-blood programs in the sport, along with Pepperdine and Hawai’i.
But one year ago, Grand Canyon University (GCU) crashed the party of the traditional powerhouses, coming within five points of playing for an NCAA title.
Less than a year later, the university shut down the program without notice, leaving many still yearning for answers.
“Pretty unfortunate,” said senior Karter Rogers. “Something that nobody was really expecting.”
“We want to know why it was our program, why we didn't hear about it sooner, why they [the GCU administration] aren't doing anything to help us,” said junior setter and Valley native Jaxon Herr. “It's been two weeks since we found out, and we haven't heard a single thing. We had a program. One day we came in for five minutes and we found out we don't have one.”
It was April 28, and the Lopes recently lost in the MPSF tournament to end their season. Players were called into an optional meeting that 15 of the 21 attended. They thought it was for an update on the search for a new head coach. Come to find out, their coaching staff was told five minutes prior, and subsequently held out of the players meeting that notified them the program was being shuttered after 17 years. At the same time, an Instagram post went out to the masses announcing the news.
“I was sitting in the meeting FaceTiming one of our other players, and I had about 40 different text messages from guys in our group chat, my parents, other people asking me, ‘what the heck just happened?’ And I don't even know myself,” said Herr.
Ten incoming players found out on social media they no longer had a place to play, and there aren't many landing spots elsewhere. The statement pointed out that men's volleyball is sponsored by only 27 of more than 360 Division I universities, and none in the Mountain West Conference.
But there weren't any in the WAC, either. In fact, men's soccer, men’s swimming and diving and women's beach volleyball also aren't offered in the Mountain West. Swim and dive will continue in the Big West, women's beach volleyball in the MPSF -- just as the men's volleyball team was planning on. The former programs with a fraction of the national prominence of the latter.
The statement saying, in a rapidly evolving college athletics landscape, the move will allow GCU to support its remaining 20 athletic programs.
“We have all these intangibles within our culture that has allowed us to progress. Adding in the whole dynamic of now NIL, the House settlement, we're in a great position because we have such a great, stable financial model,” Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs said on the Big Mountain Podcast back in December. “Enrollment is strong, and there is a correlation between the health of the university and the health of athletics.”
The House settlement removes scholarship limits but reduces the number of players that can be rostered. Men's volleyball had trimmed from 24 to 23 to 21 over the last three years. They only had 4.5 scholarships, with most guys paying their own way at GCU.
“Is there any amount of money of we can raise? Is there anything else we can do to help solve this problem that, apparently, we have with our program as to why it’s being cut,” Herr wondered had they been informed sooner.
In July 2020, Stanford announced plans to cut 11 non-revenue Olympic sports, including men’s volleyball, but had given those programs one year’s notice. Met with swift backlash, Stanford reversed that decision less than a year later.
In 2024, the program became the first in GCU history to be ranked number one nationally in any sport. And while volleyball is the fastest growing male team sport in the country, GCU was uniquely positioned as the lone Division I program in a state that has become a hotbed for volleyball talent.
“Obviously, I like beating them, but we want them to stay. It's bad for the sport of volleyball, and Arizona volleyball as a whole,” said UCLA outside hitter Cooper Robinson. “Those kids grow up and they look up to the GCU program because it's the best in their state.”
“It's sad, because I remember being a 14-year-old kid and I had all these GCU guys coming in helping me with practice. Like you very much look up to these guys,” said Herr, who won a 6A State Championship at Sandra Day O’Connor High School alongside Hawai’i freshman Finn Kearney and UCLA star Zach Rama.
A Change.org petition to save the GCU men's volleyball program has already gotten nearly 23,000 signatures.
More than 1,800 miles away in Columbus, Ohio -- the site of the NCAA men's volleyball championships -- fans and opposing teams wore ‘Save GCU MVB’ shirts, and other programs used their press conferences to speak out about GCU.
“Just surprising,” said UCLA head coach John Hawks. “It's the most successful program in the department, and the growth of men's volleyball across the country is astronomical. I think it’s surprising that they would do it, and I think it's short-sighted.”
“Just sad, because you put in a lot of work and time building something,” said Rogers, who spent five years at GCU. “Just to see it taken away is kind of unfortunate.”
We requested comment from GCU Athletic Director Jamie Boggs, but a university spokesman said she wouldn't be doing any interviews or providing any additional statements.
