Cal's baseball, men's gymnastics, women's gymnastics, and women's lacrosse will all enter their final year this season. At today's announcement, Chancellor Birgeneau and AD Sandy Barbour addressed the need to cut four sports to balance the athletic budget.
The move, announced Tuesday, is part of the school's attempt to trim a nearly $13 million athletics-department subsidy from the overall campus budget. The cuts will save $4 million in 2011-12, the school said.
The decision will affect 163 athletes, and 13 coaches will lose their jobs. University leaders hope to lower the department subsidy to $5 million by 2014, a number Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has called acceptable.
"This decision was not entered into lightly or in haste," Birgeneau said at a news conference, adding that no other teams would be cut in the near future. "Everyone deeply regrets the human toll these decisions will take."
Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said she and others tried to find ways to raise money so they could avoid cuts. In the end, she said, the elimination of several teams "was the best available option."
The university will continue to pay athletic scholarships to the affected students and will help those who want to transfer to other schools, officials said.
After the jump Rugby hopes to continue playing at championship-level caliber, Tedford holds a special media session to address the Arizona loss, the Bears get an early start for UCLA preparations, and Cal basketball has eight more games televised nationally.
Cuts to Sports
- Robert Birgeneau wrote a letter to the Cal community addressing the need for changes to be made to balance the athletics budget.
- A FAQ posted by the university outlines several details of the cuts. Among other topics, it addresses the changes (minimal, hopefully) Rugby will undergo as it becomes a club sport.
As a varsity club sport, men's rugby, currently the only program to have varsity status among more than 325 Division I schools, will continue to use Witter Rugby Field as its primary training and competition venue, as well as have its offices located in the Doc Hudson Field House. In the very near future, Athletics and university leadership look forward to working with members of the rugby program to address a plan to cover the support services they need to maintain their high level of success, including admissions, sports medicine and access to training facilities. Rugby was previously designated as a club sport from the late 1950s until the early 1990s.
- BearInsider sums up the numbers involved in the decision to proceed with cutting sports.
- Cam Inman says cutting the baseball program was a poor decision.
Cal Football
- Arizona Daily Star looks at some issues that will be discussed next Wednesday at the Pac-10 athletic directors meeting.
- Tedford held a meeting with the press to discuss the loss to Arizona and preparation for UCLA. Without the weekly media luncheon (due to the bye week), Tedford wanted to address some questions he was sure reporters had. He said Keenan Allen still isn't 100% healthy, but he should be fully recovered by the UCLA game.
- Wilner gives Cal a C- in its loss. He faults the offense and special teams while praising the defense.
- Ted Miller constructs the perfect Pac-10 college town, which features no Cal-related elements.
- Cal-UCLA will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net.
- Scout looks back to the Arizona loss and looks ahead to what Cal will have to improve on during the bye week and against UCLA.
- After Tuesday's practice Tedford talked about Aaron Rodger's Monday Night Football performance and commented on UCLA's win over Texas.
- Daily Cal asks (and answers) some questions about Cal, UCLA, Oregon State, and USC after the first four games of the season.
- Eight(!) more games have been picked up on national telecasts (7 FSN, 1 ESPN2). Cal fans nationwide rejoice!
Golf
- Only two shots behind the winner, men's golf finished third at the Windon Memorial Classic.