Northern Colorado departed the Great West for the Big Sky Conference in every sport as of the 2006 football season and 2006–07 academic year.

In April 2010, South Dakota publicized intentions to join the Summit League for all sports but football, effective as of the 2011–12 academic year.

South Dakota stepped down to football-only status during the 2011–12 academic year, allowing the league to retain five teams in its final season on the gridiron.

The top-seeded men from the South Dakota reaffirmed their regular season success with a 91–86 title game victory over runner-up Houston Baptist.

On the women's side, Utah Valley took advantage of the crowd's support, as the number six seeds upset their way to the crown by wrapping up the stunning run with a 70–62 triumph over regular season winners North Dakota.

Regular season winners Chicago State remained true to form in the women's bracket, outlasting third seeds North Dakota by a score of 74–66.

In 2012, the Great West tournaments shifted to the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center at Chicago State University.

The weekend would end with a clean sweep for North Dakota, as the program's top-seeded women knocked off regular season runners-up Utah Valley 69–56 to claim their maiden league title.

The Great West Conference sponsored its inaugural baseball championship tournament in 2010, and held the event in different cities during each of its four years of existence.

As in other sports, the Great West did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship and no teams within the league earned an at-large invitation.

The GWC held its own men's golf championship in 2009, but the league's members decided to compete under the banner of the older and larger America Sky Men's Golf Conference starting in 2010, even though the option existed to hold a smaller Great West tournament and then participate in the America Sky event as well.

Making men's tennis a league sport was also under discussion, but it never happened because only three schools—Chicago State, NJIT, and Texas Pan-American—had teams as of the 2012 season.