I'd convert "possibly true" into "both the school and the Sun Belt Conference scream from the mountaintops." I think the mountains they chose are too high.

If Pacific wants in the WCC, a 10th school is a good idea to create the enticement. Maybe, possibly, the way to the conference's heart isn't so much a profile school, but a travel partner for San Diego. For lo these many years, since the conference makes Loyola-Marymount and Pepperdine an obvious travel pair, San Diego gets rotated among the Bay Area threesome (San Francisco, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's). Who's got a program in a "religious" or thereabouts school in the Southland- or Arizona (?)- that's ready to move up?

8-)
Pepperdine is Church of Christ.
All other WCC members are Catholic.
WCC-West Catholic Conference

Are these Arizona, Arizona State, Northern Arizona, and Grand Canyon the only recognized four-year undergraduate institutions located in Arizona?

Apparently Grand Canyon is a non-denominational Christian institution and a former member of the (D-II) CCAA...

Pacific was founded as a Methodist institution and was also a charter member of the WCC...

Seattle University (Catholic) and Seattle Pacific University (Methodist) are both members of the (D-II) GNAC...

If memory serves, Seattle is a former member of the WCC who left D-I (and the NCAA) around 1980, later becoming a member of the NAIA before returning to the NCAA (D-II) relatively recently...

At this time, it seems as though Seattle Pacific would be more poised for D-I and WCC membership...

Denver is too far east for the WCC and too far west for the MVC (if "The Valley" were to be interested)...

Denver and Utah Valley State are the only I-AAA programs in the Mountain Time Zone, the next closest I-AAA program to the West is in Spokane (Gonzaga); to the East, Omaha (Creighton) and Wichita (State)...