Grand Canyon University Athletics
GCU adds respected voices to best-in-class broadcast production
9/11/2025 3:00:00 PM | Baseball, General, Men's Basketball, Men's Soccer, Men's Tennis, Softball, Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer, Women's Tennis, Women's Volleyball
Daron Sutton, Jody Jackson named to GCU broadcast team, part of several new broadcast announcements for 2025-26
Grand Canyon is continuing to supercharge its live game coverage with several significant enhancements for the department's first year in the Mountain West. With growing national fan interest, GCU continues to invest in making its broadcast production best in class.Â
A pair of recognizable and trusted voices are joining GCU's expanded broadcast team. Longtime national play-by-play voice and former TV voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Daron Sutton, will serve as GCU's TV play-by-play voice for basketball and other select athletic events. Jody Jackson, a mainstay in Phoenix sports coverage, joins to provide analysis for select events, including women's basketball.
"I am thrilled for the opportunity to be the voice of one of the great stories in college sports," Sutton said. "The commitment of the university, the talent of the athletes and the passion of the student body make storytelling for Grand Canyon an unmatched role. I've been fortunate to call about 2,500 live events through the years, yet I am confident these will be as original and joyful as any I've ever done."Â
"I can't wait to join this talented group of broadcasters," Jackson said. "What an exciting time to be part of GCU's growth and the energy the program radiates!"Â
Other major broadcast-related announcements:Â
- The GCU Radio Network is going fully digital. All men's basketball play-by-play will be available free in the GCU Lopes app, continuing to enhance the feature set of the app. The move to in-app audio will allow for additional innovation on game broadcasts, future expansion into podcast franchises and live coverage of other GCU sports.
- GCU is adding live play-by-play audio coverage of women's basketball, both home and away, with Jim Howell returning for his sixth season calling GCU women's basketball. Games will be available for free via the GCU Radio Network in the GCU Lopes app.
- Longtime GCU broadcasters Barry Buetel, Michael Potter, Paul Coro and Kate Longworth will return to fill roles in GCU's expanded television and streaming packages. Dan Bickley will return for his second season on men's basketball broadcasts, and Tim Wilhelm will return for his fifth season on softball.
- GCU is investing in its in-house production technology at Global Credit Union Arena, including building a new control room to enhance internal production capabilities of arena events.
- For the first time in school history, GCU will add live streaming video coverage of men's and women's tennis matches, bringing the number of live streamed sports to nine.
- Opportunities for GCU students are prevalent among the broadcast expansion, including talent and production roles in video streaming and audio streaming.
- In late August, GCU announced an expansive TV partnership with Arizona's Family to become the Official Home of GCU Athletics with more TV coverage than ever on 3TV, CBS 5 and Arizona's Family Sports. Seventeen fall sports events are airing live on local TV with more games to follow for winter and spring sports.
ABOUT GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY: Grand Canyon University was founded in 1949 and is Arizona's premier private Christian university. GCU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and offers 353 academic programs, emphases and certificates for both traditional undergraduate students and working professionals. The University's curriculum emphasizes interaction with classmates, both in-person and online, and individual attention from instructors while fusing academic rigor with Christian values to help students find their purpose and become skilled, caring professionals. For more information, visit gcu.edu.
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