After beating Charleston by 16 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, No. 4 seed Alabama will be facing a No. 12 seeded Grand Canyon team that authored one of the more entertaining upsets of March thus far.

The game is set for 6:10 p.m. CT and will be played at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington.

But Grand Canyon is quite new on the scene. Its boisterous student section drew the eye of the college basketball. So what exactly is Grand Canyon all about? It’s been a steep and sudden rise to the top level of college basketball.

But it’s a checkered history rife with recent government investigations, fines and violations.

The history of an online school birthed into a Division I program

According to the University’s website, Grand Canyon University began as Grand Canyon College in 1949 as a Baptist-affiliated school. Originally, the school was in Prescott, Arizona before moving to Phoenix. It first received accreditation in 1968.

But the school changed drastically at the turn of the millennium.

Grand Canyon’s website writes that financial hardship led a group of investors to take control of the school and turn it into a for-profit institution with a focus on online classes.

The student body ballooned, and between 2005-2010, the school spent more than $200 million for campus renovations in Phoenix and expansion to bring more students onto a physical campus.

That included a 7,000-seat basketball arena.

Athletically, GCU was an NAIA school at first before moving to Division II and in 2013, with the new facilities it had built, announced it was beginning the process to move to a Division I program.

In 2017, GCU announced it had been cleared to join Division I after its four-year probation period.

GCU’s basketball team went 81-46 during this four-year transition period.

Academic and financial controversy

But GCU’s record is not clean. It’s not exactly a Cinderella story.

Grand Canyon joined D1 as the only for-profit school in that classification.

In 2008, GCU was sued by the federal government. It was alleged the school violated Department of Education protocol for paying enrollment counselors based on how many students were attending the school while the school also received federal aid.

No school accepts more federal financial aid than GCU, with federal records showing it took in more than $1 billion during the 2020-21 academic year. The next closest is Arizona State at $839 million.

That case was settled and GCU paid out more than $5 million.

The school has submitted applications to gain non-profit status as recently as 2018, but is still considered a for-profit school by the Department of Education.

ESPN reported part of that desire to become a non-profit was to skirt a $9.2 million property tax.

In 2023, GCU was fined $37.7 million for “deceiving” students about the cost of certain degrees.

USA Today reports that, “fewer than 2% of students who graduated from GCU’s doctoral programs requiring dissertations paid the amount the university advertised as the total cost, federal regulators said.”

USA Today also reported it’s the largest “fine of its kind” given out by the Department of Education.

GCU denied the allegations.

Grand Canyon’s basketball rise

So what happened since Grand Canyon joined Division I for good?

In now seven seasons as a fully-fledged D1 program, Grand Canyon basketball is 149-74.

Head coach Dan Marjele was fired after the 2019-20 season. Marjele had guided GCU every year through its transition to Division I basketball and its first three seasons after achieving official status. He was fired after his first and only losing season. He would go on to sue Grand Canyon for the handling of his firing and salary he believed was due.

Grand Canyon hired former Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew. Drew had been fired from Vanderbilt after the 2018-19 season when he went 0-18 in SEC play.

Since getting to Grand Canyon, he’s been among the winningest coaches in America. Drew is 94-31 thus far through his first four seasons in Arizona. He brought Grand Canyon to the NCAA Tournament three times in those four years — the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bids.

And with a win Friday over No. 5 Saint Mary’s, Drew got Grand Canyon its first-ever NCAA Tournament win. Next up is Alabama.

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]