GCU A.D. Baker: Once upon a time, football was on the radar

Grand Canyon University is in the midst of its first season as a Division I basketball school, with the Antelopes sporting a 12-11 (7-3) record as part of the Western Athletic Conference.

So, naturally, the biggest question is when the school will have a football team.

“That’s a great question and I get it all the time,” GCU Athletic Director Keith Baker told the Doug and Wolf Show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM as part of Newsmakers Week. “Mostly from folks that are starting to work at Grand Canyon, new employee orientation. I usually get that about every other week.”

Baker said there was a time, back when GCU was still at the Division II level, that football was looked at as an option.

“We were moving down that road, but kind of about-faced,” he said. “The move to Division I, the involvement with the Western Athletic Conference — a conference that’s moving away from football membership — kind of leads us into the area where basketball is the predominant sport on the men’s and women’s side.

“And so that’s really where the focus is right now.”

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