Money is the biggest deal in college athletics today and money problems aren’t just limited to those outside of the Power 5 conferences.
However, one of the more historic athletic programs in the country, the Cal Bears, may be in some serious jeopardy of being cut.
That’s what happens when you are facing a nearly $20 million debt issue along with a school-wide budget deficit of nearly $150 million.
According to a report in the San Jose Mercury News, that $20 million debt has put the team in the cross-hairs of administrators looking to find ways to survive as a university, let alone an athletic department.
For its part, it appears Cal has had a major issue servicing the debt it took on in its major renovation project at Memorial Stadium.
While it is unlikely that the entire athletic department will be going away, a program that features some 30 sports may see a lot of said sports trimmed from the roster. The savings may just save the program, and it isn’t unprecedented.
Not even at Cal, where the athletic department faced a very similar problem just six years ago. The outcome? Cutting sports…sort of:
The Bears ventured down that road six years ago, when a fiscal crisis placed five sports (baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s rugby and women’s lacrosse) on the chopping block — only to have them reinstated thanks, in part, to aggressive fundraising efforts.
This time? It is unlikely that those sports that will be cut are coming back any time soon. Not until the athletic department and university are on much more safe financial footing.
Other schools have had to go to extreme measures as well.
Maryland just went through a similar issue a few years ago and Wisconsin infamously had to cut some high-profile sports like baseball in an effort to get the budget and Title IX situations under control in the late 80’s.
But, what makes Cal’s athletic budget issue unique is that it is all of its own creation. It is the one that chose to tackle a massive $450 million stadium renovation project and take on all of the debt without the necessary financials in order to offset the debt it had taken on.
Given the highly politicized campus and the emotional ties that athletics bring to any university, this is going to be one interesting situation to watch.
