Cal eliminates baseball; rugby loses varsity status
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle September 28, 2010 01:40 PM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Baseball and three other varsity sports teams are being eliminated and men's rugby is being reassigned to "varsity club" status by Cal as part of moves that will save the athletic department $4 million.
In a 2:30 p.m. news conference today on the Berkeley campus, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and athletic director Sandy Barbour will jointly announce that men's and women's gymnastics and lacrosse (women) will also be cut, leaving Cal with 22 varsity sports.
All told, 163 of the university's 814 intercollegiate student-athletes will be impacted by today's decision. As well, 13 full-time coaches will be out of jobs, saving the department $1.1 million. "Clearly, this is a painful outcome after months of deliberation, analysis and the examination of every viable alternative," Barbour said in a statement released by the university. "I deeply regret the impact this will have on so many valued members of our community."
The athletic department under Barbour has operated at a deficit of $10-13 million for several years, a gap made up by the chancellor's discretionary fund and student fees. The university's goal is to reduce campus sport to athletics to $5 million by 2014, a total it believes is "sustainable."
According to the university, Cal's athletic department budget for 2010 was $69 million. University officials anticipate greater revenue to be realized from a new television contract to be negotiated in 2011 that will reflect the expansion to the Pac-12 Conference with the additions of Utah and Colorado.
Men's rugby, the most successful sports team in school history with 25 national championships since 1980, received special consideration by the highest levels of the university and a new category was created for it, a "varsity club" tier.
While rugby will no longer be part of intercollegiate athletics at Cal after the 2010-11 academic year, it will continue to receive campus support. The rugby team will have access to existing training facilities and sports medicine services, and admission slots will be made available for recruited, non-scholarship students.
"This will allow rugby to compete at and maintain the same high level of national and international excellence which it currently enjoys while becoming self-sustaining," Birgeneau wrote in a letter addressed to "students, faculty, staff, alumni, supporters and friends of Cal."
"In addition to these ... reductions, Intercollegiate Athletics will continue to work to reduce the growth of expenses ... and to raise income through fundraising and other avenues of targeted investment such as television revenue."
The university will continue to honor scholarship commitments to student-athletes in the affected sports who choose to remain at Berkeley, up to four years. Athletes in sports that will be eliminated are also free to transfer to another school and be eligible to compete right away, without having to sit out a year as is normally required of transfer students.
While rugby is well funded and nearly self-sustaining, its roster of 61 men further skewed the athletic department's figures regarding gender equity, giving Cal about 150 more male athletes than female.
Today's cuts will eliminate 118 male student-athletes all told, 61 in rugby, 38 in baseball and 19 in men's gymnastics. Forty-five women are affected by the move as well, 30 in lacrosse and 15 in gymnastics.
