They have almost 27K students on campus from the latest that I can find. The school has been around since 1949, so likely has a similar number of alumni from their brick and mortar school as UNLV plus a lot of online graduates who would either support GCU sports or no school at all. As a side note, Grand Canyon University has 10 national championships at the lower level prior to D1. If they are similar to the University of Phoenix, explain to me when the University of Phoenix started their athletics department. GCU has had athletics since 1949, which included a basketball team, so they have had athletics longer than UNLV. While GCU has only been D1 since 2013, that says a lot about the fact they already have become very competitive in most of their athletics, including basketball, in such a short time span. As for Saint Mary's they lost 75-66 last year in the playoffs to GCU. GCU also beat #4 seed Alabama 72-61 and #25 ranked SDSU last year. St. Mary's has a total student count of 2,775 as of fall 2023 compared to Gonzaga with about 7,500 students. With only 2,775 students, there is little likelihood that the athletic department will show any improvement in other programs and once Gonzaga is gone, the WCC will disappear in basketball relevance.
Boise State only moved up to division 1 in 2001, so the length of time really doesn't mean anything considering UNLV hasn't been to the basketball tournament in a long time (2013) while GCU has gone in 2021, 2023 and 2024.
