ARCHIVED: Division I Transition Plan - Grand Canyon University Athletics

NCAA Division I Athletics Transition and Regulations at Grand Canyon University

NCAA Division I Institutional Performance Program Self-Study
Grand Canyon University President Brian Mueller announced on July 7, 2015 that GCU will begin a year-long, campus-wide effort to study its athletics program as part of the NCAA Division I Institutional Performance Program (IPP). Specific areas the study will cover are governance and commitment to rules compliance, academic integrity, and gender/diversity and student-athlete wellbeing.

While academic accreditation is common in colleges and universities, this program focuses solely on the athletics programs. Following a two-year pilot project, the NCAA Division I membership overwhelmingly supported the program and its standards at the 1993 NCAA Convention.

Mission of the Institutional Performance Program
The Institutional Performance Program's purpose is to help ensure integrity in the institution's athletics operations. The program opens up athletics to the rest of the university/college community and to the public. Institutions will benefit by increasing campus-wide awareness and knowledge of the athletics program, confirming its strengths and developing plans to improve areas of concern.

Committees Performing the Study
The committees responsible for the study will include President Brian Mueller, Brian Roberts (Steering Committee), Dan Steimel (Governance and Compliance Committee), Antoinette Farmer (Academic Integrity Committee) and Jennifer Lech (Gender Equity, Diversity and Student-Athlete Welfare Committee), as well as various members of the institution's faculty and staff and athletics department personnel.

A member of the NCAA academic and membership affairs staff will conduct a one-day orientation visit with the committee and its subcommittees. Within each area to be studied by the committee, the program has standards known as operating principles that were adopted by the Association to establish benchmarks by which all active Division I members are evaluated.

Peer Review and Evaluation
When GCU has concluded its study, an external team of reviewers will conduct a three or four-day evaluation visit on campus. The reviewers will be peers from other colleges, universities or conference offices. The peer-review team will report to the NCAA Division I Committee on Institutional Performance. The committee will then determine whether the institution has successfully completed the Institutional Performance Program process. The institution must successfully complete the process prior to being considered for election to the Division I membership.

About the National Collegiate Athletic Association
The NCAA is a membership organization of colleges and universities that participate in intercollegiate athletics. The primary purpose of the Association is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body. Activities of the NCAA membership include formulating rules of play for NCAA sports, conducting national championships, adopting and enforcing standards of eligibility and studying all phases of intercollegiate athletics.

Institutional Performance Program and GCU's Self-Study

Institutional Performance Program: Origins and History
The Institutional Performance Program was approved for Division I institutions at the 1993 NCAA Convention as a key part of the NCAA reform agenda. It was originally introduced in 1989 and tested in a two-year pilot program. Participants generally agreed that the pilot program was valuable, but it could be improved by limiting the scope of the self-study. After a special committee reworked the idea during the next year, the NCAA Presidents Commission, the NCAA Council and the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics supported a revised version of the program.

Purpose of the Institutional Performance Program
The Institutional Performance Program is meant to ensure the NCAA's fundamental commitment to integrity in intercollegiate athletics. The program is structured to achieve its goal in several ways:

Open the athletics affairs to the university community and public
- Key campus constituent groups must be meaningfully involved in the development of the institution's self-study and may be asked to review the institution's self-study report after it has been drafted.
- Self-study reports are evaluated by teams of peer-reviewers from other institutions and conference offices.
- Decisions of the committee related to an active Division I member institution's status are announced publicly.
Set standards (called operating principles) for the operation of Division I athletics programs
- These operating principles originally were adopted overwhelmingly at the 1993 Convention. They cover three basic areas-governance and commitment to rules compliance, academic integrity and gender/diversity issues and student-athlete wellbeing.
- Instate tough sanctions for institutions that fail to conduct a comprehensive self-study or to correct deficiencies
The Institutional Performance Program is intended to help an institution. For this reason, the program allows ample time for an institution to consider its programs, identify deficiencies and correct them. Institutions that fail to make an honest effort may face serious consequences, including ineligibility for NCAA championships and, eventually, removal from active membership in the Association.

Self-Study Benefits
The core of the Institutional Performance Program is the institution's self-study, in which broad-based campus participation is critical. An effective self-study benefits the institution by providing:

Self-Awareness: The self-study offers a unique opportunity to educate individuals across campus about the athletics program's goals and purposes, the many challenges facing athletics and the ways in which athletics supports the institution's mission.
Affirmation: The Institutional Performance Program is meant to be a positive experience. The self-study process will reveal many aspects of the athletics program worthy of praise.
Opportunities to Improve: Even an outstanding program can be better, and issues will be identified routinely as part of any institution's self-study. As these issues come to light, the Institutional Performance Program process will offer a forum for suggestions from individuals with a wide range of experience.

Institutional Performance Program and GCU's Self-Study Timeline

Click here to review the PDF format of the self-study timeline.

NCAA Division I at GCU: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

How many GCU teams compete in NCAA Division I?
GCU student-athletes compete in 22 Division I men's and women's sports, including tennis, golf, track and field, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, swimming and diving, cross country and soccer.

What conference is GCU a member of?
GCU competes in the Western Athletic Conference. The WAC consists of 8 members: Grand Canyon University, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Utah Valley University, New Mexico State University, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Chicago State University, Seattle University and California State University, Bakersfield.

When will GCU be eligible for postseason play?
All GCU NCAA teams (with the exception of men's volleyball) will be eligible for postseason in the 2017-18 season. The men's volleyball team, a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, is currently eligible for postseason play.

Has GCU made any significant investments in athletic facilities for the move to NCAA Division I?
GCU has made a significant investment to ensure high-level facilities for its student-athletes. The Lopes Performance Center, a 55,000 square-foot facility, opened in fall of 2010 and includes two weight rooms, three basketball courts and state-of-the-art men's and women's locker rooms.

Grand Canyon University Arena, a 5,000 seat arena that was expanded to 7,000 in 2014, opened in the fall of 2011. GCU Arena houses both the men's and women's basketball teams, as well as many other athletics events.

A 3,000 seat soccer stadium is set to open on GCU's campus in the fall of 2015. The brand-new soccer stadium will be the new home of the men's and women's soccer teams.

Does GCU intend to remove or add any sports during the transition to Division I?
While there are no current plans to add or remove athletic teams, Grand Canyon University assesses and evaluates the impact on its student-athletes when making significant changes to its athletic programs.

How will the move to NCAA Division I increase the academic reputation of the university?
The move to NCAA Division I will bolster the already growing GCU brand and increase the visibility of the university, both academically and athletically.