Cal Eliminates Five Varsity Programs
Earlier this afternoon, Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated reportedthat UC Berkeley will hold a press conference this afternoon to discuss its “athletic future.”
As we’ve been noting for several months, a combination of budget pressures and Title IX compliance questions could very well lead to the school eliminating a number of athletic programs — more than likely all of them men’s teams. Speculation in recent weeks has surrounded both the men’s gymnastics as well as men’s rugby teams. Of course, there is always the distinct possibility that the school might very well use roster caps as a device to cut down on the number of male athletes. For our entire archive on the situation at Cal, click here.
In any case, stay tuned, and we’ll pass along the details as we learn them.
UPDATE: Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com and Baseball America tweeted that the members of the Cal Baseball team have been told the team will be eliminated after the 2011 season. More as details are shared with us.
UPDATE: Five teams eliminated at Cal. Baseball, Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics and Women’s Lacrosse will be eliminated at the end of the season. Men’s rugby, the only varsity program in the entire country, will be downgraded to “varsity club” status — which in essence is an accounting device to get the team’s players off the books to help with Title IX enforcement. Click here for details from the Daily Cal.
UPDATE: More details from Yahoo! Sports and the San Francisco Chronicle.
LATE UPDATE: California Golden Blogs is hosting an interesting back and forth on the cuts.