Cal Family –

Greetings from Haas Pavilion!

As our fall sports continue to compete hard and our student-athletes make us proud in our last year in the Pac-12, we are simultaneously preparing for our transition to the ACC. Last week, we hosted a group of ACC senior officials, including the ACC commissioner Jim Phillips for a half-day of meetings, and it was exciting to begin to forge relationships with leaders from the conference and continue our planning for next year. My takeaway is that we are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a group of experienced and innovative leaders, and I can already feel the partnership taking hold. The wheels are in motion in so many areas already, and I am confident we will be able to hit the ground running when we officially join the ACC on August 2, 2024.

Our football team is in the middle of one of the toughest stretches of the schedule in our history – after playing ranked opponents in each of our past two games, three of our final five games are also against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press top 25, and another is just outside the poll. We've shown signs of promise in every game, and I know we are close to putting together the type of complete performance that Coach Wilcox and our team are working toward. We all know winning in football is critically important to our university, and we will continue to fight for California. Our loss at Utah last weekend really came down to a handful of plays that didn't go our way, and if we can turn those around, I'm confident we will be doing some celebrating very soon.

The football team has a much-deserved bye this week before returning to California Memorial Stadium on Oct. 28 for our final Pac-12 game ever against USC. It will be the Hall of Fame Weekend, and the night before the game we will honor our eight newest inductees into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame. If you haven't purchased your tickets to the annual Hall of Fame Gala, click here and join us for a special evening to celebrate all of our newest inductees' accomplishments.

With our last home conference game against USC comes the end of another tradition – the Joe Roth game against either USC or UCLA. As many of you know, we honor our legendary quarterback every year with our home game against either the Trojans or Bruins. We are already discussing beginning a new tradition and looking at options when to play the Joe Roth Game beginning next season. As for now, our players will continue to wear a version of the Joe Roth helmet against USC next week, and we have several other plans to mark the occasion. Stay tuned! Lastly, if you are joining us at Stanford or UCLA for our away games in November, make sure to register for the official Cal Athletics Tailgates here. 

Both of our basketball teams have been practicing for a couple of weeks now, and last week participated in Pac-12 Media Day in Las Vegas. The excitement is building, and it won't be long before we tip off the season on November 6 with a doubleheader featuring both our men's and women's teams. Our men's team begins the year with four home games in a row while our women's team plays three in succession at Haas Pavilion to start the season. Between November 6 and November 16, there will be seven basketball games played at Haas. Make your plans now to come out and support the Bears! In addition, don't miss the chance to join the Men's Basketball Excellence Initiative and the Women's Basketball Golden Way - the philanthropic giving societies of our men's and women's basketball programs. Joining now will grant insider access to the teams, invitations to member-only events, and exclusive home and away game experiences. 

You can get your first peek at our basketball teams – as well as our women's gymnastics squad – at our "Late Night At Haas" event this Thursday at Haas. It begins at 7 p.m. and will feature team introductions, student-athlete competitions, fan and student contests and more. There will also be an appearance by Bay Area artist StunnaMan02 as well as appearances by our dance and cheerleading teams and the Straw Hat Band. Come join us!!!

We held our annual National Championship Week during the final week of September, which is a humbling and thrilling time for our department. Chancellor Christ hosted her annual National Championship reception at the University House, and our national champions from last year – men's water polo, men's swimming & diving and men's rowing – each presented her with a championship gift. It's always a memorable event, and it is yet another reminder of the unwavering support the Chancellor has given us during her time leading our campus.

As most of you know, in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, it's becoming increasingly critical to support our student-athletes' ability to capitalize on name, image and likeness (NIL). I'd like to encourage our Cal Family to contribute to the California Legends Collective, whose mission is to assist our student-athletes with these types of pursuits.

I wanted to give a special shout-out to our golf teams, who have turned Berkeley into a hotbed of college golf recently! Our women's team has won two tournaments in a row for the first time since 2012, and they also teamed up with our men's team to win the Big Match over Stanford! Our men's team also just won the Alister MacKenzie Invitational for the second year in a row, and has finished in the top 5 in each of the three tournaments it has played so far this season.

As we move into the middle of the fall semester, I wanted to highlight our Cameron Institute, which plays a crucial role in ensuring our student-athletes are successful both during their time at Cal and in their pursuits after graduation. Whether it's community engagement, mental performance, or connecting student-athletes with leadership opportunities and career mentors, the Cameron Institute is a powerful resource that Cal is lucky to have. This month, please consider participating in the crowdfunding campaign for the Cameron Institute so it can continue supporting our student-athletes in meaningful and impactful ways.

Thank you for all of your support, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the USC game next weekend.

Go Bears!
 


Jim