May 10, 2025
Grand Canyon University boasted one of the nation’s most successful men’s volleyball teams, coming off a Final Four berth in 2024 as well as multiple coach and player accolades. But in a brief, optional meeting called for April 28, the Monday after their season ended, the entire team was abruptly told the program had been cut.
Coaches found out just minutes before the players in a separate meeting and were not allowed to join the player meeting. Players and coaches weren’t just devastated but also confused, they told Front Office Sports.
The team’s annual budget was modest, and changes to college sports, like revenue-sharing and conference realignment, weren’t anticipated to dramatically increase the team’s operating costs. What’s more, the program had established a monopoly on Division I men’s volleyball talent in Arizona, one of the hotbeds of the nation’s fastest-growing team sport.