Home Pac-12 Cal Baseball will NOT be Reinstated

Cal Baseball will NOT be Reinstated

by Brian Foley
7 comments

According to Aaron Fitt of Baseball America, Cal Baseball will not be reinstated. He tweeted the following:

“Bad news: Cal baseball will not be reinstated, according to assistant coach Dan Hubbs.”

The full Cal release is below. You can check out Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau comments by clicking here.

Three athletic teams at the University of California, Berkeley, slated to cease intercollegiate competition at the end of this academic year – women’s lacrosse, women’s gymnastics and rugby – will be preserved, campus officials announced today (Friday, Feb. 11). New philanthropic commitments will support the teams’ expenses while plans are implemented for long-term financial self-sufficiency. With today’s announcement, the campus remains on track to meet its commitment to cap annual allocations for Intercollegiate Athletics at no more than $5 million annually by 2014.

Chancellor Birgeneau’s statement on continuation of sports teams
In September 2010, UC Berkeley announced its intention to eliminate four teams – women’s and men’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse and baseball – and to assign rugby to a newly created sports tier. During the last several months, alumni, student-athletes, coaches and fans mobilized to solicit funding to preserve the teams’ intercollegiate status.

After a comprehensive, sport-by-sport review of the philanthropic commitments, unfortunately, it was determined that the pledges for baseball and men’s gymnastics fell short of the criteria provided to potential donors: sufficient funding to support team expenses for the next seven to 10 years and the presentation of a feasible plan for sustained financial independence.

Cal rugby, along with women’s gymnastics and lacrosse, will continue as varsity sports, campus officials announced Friday. (GoldenBearSports.com photo)
“We are all greatly impressed by how our community organized itself in the attempt to help these five sports and the university,” said Vice Chancellor Frank Yeary. “We are delighted that, together, we have found a path that allows us to retain the two women’s teams and our rugby program without adding costs to the strained budgets of the university and Cal Athletics.”

“Sadly, the efforts did not meet these criteria insofar as baseball and men’s gymnastics are concerned,” he said. “Although the amount of money raised for these two programs is meaningful, the teams’ costs are also significant. Both programs would have needed to raise multiples of what they actually did raise to meet our criteria. In the context of both current and forecasted economic and financial conditions, we simply could not agree to short-term, stopgap measures.”

As part of the fundraising process, a number of donors have come forward to help sustain the costs of women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse. In addition, rugby has committed to support its own costs as well as to contribute to the stabilization of the women’s programs.

All told, the campus received $12 million to $13 million in philanthropic pledges from the organizers of the fundraising efforts. Of that total, the campus is confident that at least $8 million will be available to support the net expenses of women’s lacrosse, women’s gymnastics and rugby. This new and incremental philanthropy gives the university the confidence that these three teams will cover their costs for at least the next seven to 10 years.

Funds raised in excess of those directed and necessary to help rugby or the two women’s sports would have, if they were all immediately available, covered the projected funding shortfall of men’s gymnastics and baseball for approximately two years.

“On behalf of all our program’s student-athletes, alumni and supporters, we are honored that Cal rugby will continue within Intercollegiate Athletics,” said rugby coach Jack Clark. “Our donors have once again generously demonstrated their high regard for Cal rugby through their impassioned response to these financial challenges. We also sincerely appreciate the university’s willingness to work with us these past months to allow rugby to maintain its status on campus.”

The initial criteria provided to donors last fall asked for up to $100 million to fund a new endowment for all five teams. However, due to the early optimism and response from the alumni community and team supporters, the funding criteria were amended in November 2010 to require solid commitments for $25 million in interim funding that would have supported all five teams’ operational expenses while plans were implemented for long-term, sustainable funding.

Campus officials said that the criteria established for reinstatement were based on the same understandings and principles that informed their initial decision: As state disinvestment in higher education continues, the university cannot continue to provide Intercollegiate Athletics with annual allocations in the $10 million to $15 million range, and the program must be placed on a financially sustainable path.

If the campus’s financial challenges were serious when the scope decision was announced in September, they have only grown more severe in the wake of Gov. Brown’s proposal to cut another $500 million from the University of California’s budget, officials said.

“Throughout this painful process, the student-athletes on the impacted teams have been foremost in my mind. We spent long months analyzing every conceivable option that could have precluded the need to reduce the scope of the Cal Athletics program,” said Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. “While we will honor every existing scholarship, I know that many of the student-athletes on the two teams slated to cease competition on behalf of the university are now grappling with a difficult choice. I deeply regret that some will choose to go elsewhere.”

“The steps we are taking in regard to Cal Athletics are no different, and no less painful, than those we have taken in regard to every other aspect of our operations,” he said. “This is an indication of the extent of our challenges, and the degree to which they can be surmounted only if the burden is equitably shared. Cal Athletics, as an integral part of campus life in good times and bad, cannot and should not be completely insulated from a reality we cannot avoid.”

“While every member of the Cal Athletics family is saddened by the fact that the fundraising was not sufficient to bring back all five teams,” said Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, “I want to express my great appreciation and thanks to the literally hundreds of our alumni and friends who rallied to show the kind of financial and emotional support that was necessary to make this decision possible.”

“We will now focus our attention on doing all that it will take to bring our community together, provide our student-athletes with all that they need to excel, and honor our commitment to maintain the budgetary discipline necessary to meet the chancellor’s decision to cap annual allocations for Intercollegiate Athletics at no more than $5 million annually by 2014,” she said.

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7 comments

GlenW February 11, 2011 - 6:24 pm

Oh no! I thought it would have worked out. They are one of the oldest baseball programs in the country.

Brian Foley February 11, 2011 - 6:31 pm

Sad day indeed…I am currently not at a computer to share my thoughts!rnSent on the Sprintu00ae Now Network from my BlackBerryu00ae

Not blinded by liberalism February 12, 2011 - 2:36 am

Title IX is playing a bigger role in the mens teams demise than the college is willing to state publicly!nOther schools without “financial hardships” have been dumping mens team sports to create womens teams who do not even have enough players or interest to compete.nJust like affirmative action was perverted into a discriminatory program, so to has Title IX created problems it’s promoters never envisioned.

Brian Foley February 12, 2011 - 2:40 am

I agreed but the problem with your statement is the fact that you are not giving the other option. Cal could have added other female sports to get the numbers in line with Title IX. This is not a new situation and I believe you see Men’s Lax at Cal before you see baseball again. Lax has more of a cliental for the Cal alumni base.

Not blinded by liberalism February 12, 2011 - 4:21 am

Sorry but that would just be giving into a system that should not exist. nnHaving more female sports and scholarship opportunities is a fine goal, and if that was all Title IX was about, then it would be fine. nHowever insisting on “gender equity” which is akin to “social justice” in some of the far lefts minds is what is causing this problem. If a group is willing to privately fund a team the school district should be thrilled as it is a win win. However since Title IX is being interpreted as needing to be involved in private financing consideration, so as to mitigate possible lawsuits, any excuse can be deemed ok all in the appearance of “fairness”. How dismantling a baseball program that existed for over a century is fair at the alter of Title Ix cannot be explained nor excused. Sadly not enough people are willing to take a stand because of another left wing baby, that being political correctness.nThen again, Cal Berkeley is getting what it deserves since it is a bastion of liberal, left wing zealots. I just feel sorry for the normal people that try to play sports and get an education there.

Brian Foley February 12, 2011 - 4:30 am

You do recognize that Title IX isn’t about sports correct? It is about equal funding for men and women in an educational setting. Someone looked at the legislation and it got applied to athletic departments which are also federally funded. nnI am hearing the same things today that I heard when Providence tried to save their program. PC had a couple of players in the Majors and was just as good as Cal has been in the last five years and got the same treatment.

Brian Foley February 12, 2011 - 2:40 am

I agreed but the problem with your statement is the fact that you are not giving the other option. Cal could have added other female sports to get the numbers in line with Title IX. This is not a new situation and I believe you see Men’s Lax at Cal before you see baseball again. Lax has more of a cliental for the Cal alumni base.

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