Grand Canyon to Move to DI

[star2city]

Someone may need to mention that there's still a DI moratorium on moving up until 2011. This probably means Grand Canyon will not pursue a football program.

Independent programs in the West,: GCU, CSU-Bakersfield, Seattle, UVU, with Denver (soon to be out), and SUU looking elsewhere

Grand Canyon to DI?

Russ Pennell, who guided Arizona to the Sweet 16 as interim coach, will be hired as coach of Grand Canyon. A news conference is scheduled for today.

What's Grand Canyon, you ask? It's a Division II school in Phoenix that has been competing in the Pacific West Conference, but is petitioning to move up to Division I. The process to become a full D-I school takes four years, and the school has plans to build a new 6,000-seat arena.

Why Grand Canyon? We won't know until Pennell says today, but Pennell lived in Phoenix for a long time before Lute Olson hired him as an assistant coach before last season.

Pennell was an assistant under Rob Evans at Arizona State for eight seasons, then served as ASU's radio color commentator and ran the Arizona Premier League -- a summer AAU circuit. Also, Grand Canyon is a non-denominational Christian school, and Pennell is a very active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.