For years, Arizona State University has declined to compete against Grand Canyon University in athletics due to GCU's status as a for-profit school.
But just a few months ago, GCU reverted back to non-profit status. Could that open up the door for some cross-town matchups between the Lopes and Sun Devils in the near future?
GCU men's basketball coach Dan Majerle hopes so. In fact, he'd love to schedule a home-and-home series -- one game at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, and one game at GCU Arena in Phoenix -- against Bobby Hurley's team.
"It’s always been a possibility for us. It's up to ASU," Majerle said during a Facebook Live Q&A with ABC15 on Wednesday. "I think it’d be great for college basketball. It’d be great for Phoenix and the state of Arizona.
"Yeah, we’d welcome a rivalry -- a home-and-home -- with ASU every year, so hopefully that does happen."
Some ASU vs. GCU matchups might not be far off, as Cronkite News' Nathaniel Gabler reported that ASU president Michael Crow and GCU president Brian Mueller had a productive conversation last summer.
“There’s a lot of people, a lot of presidents, that want to have strong relationships with Grand Canyon, but they felt, they were queasy about doing that because of our for-profit status. Now that’s been removed, so it’s a good thing for them and us," Mueller told Cronkite News.
GCU's men's basketball team is in its sixth year at the NCAA Division I level. The Lopes have already faced the Arizona Wildcats, losing a hard-fought game in Tucson two seasons ago. GCU even had a number of fans make the trip to McKale Center -- something UA coach Sean Miller noticed.
.@GCU_MBB fans helped Arizona beat Texas A&M in Phoenix tonight.
— ABC15 Sports (@abc15sports) December 6, 2017
Sean Miller still remembers how loud Lopes fans were in Tucson last year. pic.twitter.com/5sTR8Bhu3f
But Majerle would love to compete against the Wildcats' rivals to the north, and possibly create their own rivalry with the Sun Devils.
"We respect both ASU and UA," Majerle said. "I think Sean Miller’s done a great job. They’re a program we want to emulate as far as where they’ve been and how good they are, and we have traveled to Tucson to play them.
"We would do the same thing for ASU. I think that would be a great situation, for us to play ASU in a home-and-home (series). That would be awesome."
