  The possibility of achieving a gauge coupling grand unification by increasing
the QCD degrees of freedom at higher energies is investigated. When confronted
with precision low-energy data, the generic weak-mixing angle relation
sin^2(theta_W) = N/2(N+1) requires N=7 colors at the GUT scale M_U ~ 10^17 GeV.
With the exclusive addition of light Higgs doublets to the standard model
particle content, such a unification may also occur if N=5 at M_U ~ 10^16 GeV.
