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AD Mike Roth: Maintaining status in WCC 'right thing for Gonzaga'

Men's College Basketball, NCAA - Other, Gonzaga Bulldogs

Gonzaga will not join the Mountain West Conference and instead will remain in the West Coast Conference, its longtime home, athletic director Mike Roth confirmed Monday.

"Our decision is to remain in the WCC, where we've had a great relationship for 39 years going on 40," Roth said, according to The Spokesman-Review. "We appreciate the Mountain West pursuing us. However, for a number of reasons, maintaining our status in the WCC is the right thing for Gonzaga University."

According to the newspaper, Roth met with university president Thayne McCulloh on Monday and finalized the decision.

The MWC had been looking to add Gonzaga in all sports, but men's basketball would have been the marquee addition.

The Bulldogs' men's basketball team has become one of the nation's most consistent. It has won six straight WCC tournament titles and has won at least a share of 18 of the past 19 regular-season titles overall.

Over the weekend, MWC commissioner Craig Thompson told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the conference did not expect the Bulldogs to become its newest member, citing changes the WCC made to its scheduling and revenue distribution.

"You look at what the West Coast Conference did to accommodate them," Thompson told the newspaper. "Congratulations, that's a good deal for them. There are just some things in there that I don't think our membership would have accepted.

"They're offering some things that probably don't make sense for our league. Most conferences are adding games. They're going to fewer games [18 to 16]. We've increased our [NCAA tournament] unit bonus, but what I'm hearing they're doing, we're not going to do that."

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