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Sources: Cal Athletics Task Force Not Expected To Recommend Cutting Sports This Month

The task force charged with “framing a future for Cal athletics is not expected to recommend cutting sports when its findings are presented to campus leadership later this month,” according to sources cited by Jon Wilner of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. The move “isn’t surprising given the emotional nature of the topic.” However, that also should not be seen "as an endorsement for Cal’s current 30-sport model, which is by far the largest for a public university in the Pac-12.” Cal was $22M in the red last year and is expecting FY ’17 to be "nearly as bleak, with no end to the bleeding in sight.” The cost of maintaining a department of that size is "exorbitant, especially with a stagnating football program.” But Cal’s budgetary challenge is “made exponentially more difficult” by the $18M annual payments required to service the debt for the Memorial Stadium and Simpson Training Center projects. Without “specific recommendations for a new model for Cal athletics, the fate of the department is likely to fall” to incoming Chancellor Carol Christ. Sources believe as many as 10 or 12 sports "could eventually be eliminated -- the current model simply isn’t sustainable with revenue trends, increasing costs and the unrelenting debt service that’s on the books for decades to come” (MERCURYNEWS.com, 6/1). Cal in February '11 decided to drop baseball and men's gymnastics, but in April of that year reversed course on the baseball program after donors raised $9M in support of the team (THE DAILY).

BEAR MARKET: Cal and Under Armour "launched their campus-wide partnership on Thursday, kicking things off with a set of rebranded logos." The signature "Cal" script will "remain as the primary logo, and a new 'California' wordmark has been added to mirror the main Cal mark." A combination of the "profile Golden Bear and the Block C will serve as the new secondary logo" (ESPN.com, 6/1).

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