Golden Nuggets: Jack Clark on the Decision to Demote Cal Rugby

After Cal Rugby was demoted to club status, Jack Clark his team are unsure if they'll be able to excel as they have in recent decades (see 21 of the past 25 rugby championships).  For more of Coach Clark's comments, read this insightful interview from RugbyMag.com.

"Yesterday was the worst day of my life. This almost seems surreal," Clark said. "I've literally woken up every morning of my life for 30 years and tried to bring credit to this university "... tried to make Cal people more proud of Cal.

"And to have my university demote my sport and then aggressively defend the decision, which was my take of yesterday, it rips my heart out."

Primarily, Clark disputes the notion that everything will be basically the same with rugby given varsity club status. He said the team would be required to pay to get services from sports medicine and lift weights at the new High Performance Center.
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He argued that rugby could financially sustain a women's varsity equivalent, which would share facilities and remove the gender-equity obstacle. And he said it's not too late to make that happen, although he received notice Tuesday morning of his termination, effective the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year.

"I told them I want to create a dynamic women's rugby team, where we're going to create Olympians and national champions," Clark said. "That's the spirit of Title IX, growing women's opportunities. It's unfortunate that it's turned into some kind of a math test that ends up reducing men's (programs)."

After the jump members of other discontinued sports provide insight into how the cuts have affected their programs.  Also Tedford makes some comments on the budget issues, Mike Mohamed becomes a finalist for the "Academic Heisman,"  and Mike Montgomery talks about improvements his players have made during the offseason.

Athletics Cuts

• Kendall Rodgers of Yahoo Sports ties the budget issues to the BCS system.
• The long, storied history of Cal baseball suggested that the team had a low probability of being cut.  The unfortunate surprise has elicited a wide array of reactions from the team's players.
• Theresa Sherry, coach of the women's lacross team, is not sure why her team was cut, considering its annual budget is only $175,000.  The timing is unfortunate as the east coast-dominated sport is finally becoming more prominent on the west coast.
• Members of women's gymnastics respond to the cuts.  Members of the team are hurting right now, especially those struggling with the decision about whether they will stay at Cal.
• Despite the low operating expenditures of just under $64,000, men's gymnastics was cut partially due to limited local and regional varsity competition.

Football

• Looking for answers on how the Pac-10 divisions will be broken down?  Don't expect them to emerge after next week's Pac-10 AD meeting.  Revenue will be the most important topic at the meetings, with division splits and other issues to be addressed afterwards.
• Tedford gives his take on the decision to cut five sports.
• Mike Mohamed is a semi-finalist for the Campbell Award (formerly the Draddy Award, aka the Academic Heisman).
• Cal used the Wednesday practice to get a head start on preparing for the UCLA pistol offense.  Tedford makes some comments on the UCLA offense and compares it to how Nevada runs its pistol.  Not surprisingly, Tedford considers Nevada to be the more formidable offense.
• The Cal defense is rising on Ted Miller's Pac-10 Pac-10 stock report.