Cal 2022-23 Review: Great on the Water, Poor in Revenue Sports
Cal was sort of the penguin of sports in 2022-23 – comfortable and efficient in water, but slow and awkward on land. National titles in three men’s water sports – rowing, water polo and swimming and diving – as well as a national runnerup finish in rugby made Cal athletics look good. The Bears’ three national championships were second among Pac-12 schools, behind only Stanford, which claimed four such titles, including a sailing national championship.
Cal's three national titles in 2022-23 are also believed to be the second-most among all Division I schools, behind Stanford's four. The Bears' two NCAA titles (men's swimming and men's water polo) are tied with eight other schools for the second most among Division I schools, behind Stanford's three.
However, those Cal results were offset by the Bears being among the worst in the country in revenue sports this past school year.
One fact symbolizes Cal’s 2022-23 sports image: Cal was one of just two schools from Power Five conferences that did not reach the postseason in any of the four biggest college sports -- football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball. The other such school was Georgia Tech. Nebraska and Rutgers got to the postseason only in the women’s NIT and the men’s NIT, respectively, but that’s more than Cal managed.
No. 5 in the sports pecking order is probably softball, and the Bears did get to the NCAA tournament in that sport, but lost in the regionals after finishing sixth in the Pac-12 standings.
The other three sports placed among the elite group of college sports by the Capital One Cup are men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball. Cal’s women’s soccer squad reached the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round. However, the Bears men’s soccer team won only one conference game and Cal’s women’s volleyball went winless in conference play.
Here is how the Capital One Cup assigns points:
The final Capital One Cup standings, which rank colleges based on their combined performances in nearly every sport, were released this week, and the Cal men finished 18th overall and second in the Pac-12. Not bad, and it could have been better, but men’s rowing and rugby don’t have NCAA postseason tournaments and are not included in the Capital One Cup calculations.
The Cal women came in 41st overall in the Capital One Cup and seventh in the conference. Not great, but not horrible.
Florida finished first in men’s Capital One Cup standings, and Texas was first among the women, with Stanford second in both.
Other notable performances by Cal teams in 2022-23 included an NCAA tournament quarterfinal berths by the women’s water polo squad and the women’s beach volleyball duo, a third-place finish in the NCAA women’s gymnastics semifinals (the top two advanced to the finals), and NCAA postseason berths in men’s and women’s tennis.
Individually, Destin Lasco was the NCAA swimming champion in the 200 backstroke, and Nikolaos Papanikolaou won the Peter J. Cutino Award as the nation’s best men’s water polo player.
But the Bears struggled in the most visible sports, as indicated by their 2022-23 records here:
Football: 4-8 overall, 2-7 in Pac-12 play (tied for ninth), the 13th straight season in which Cal had a losing conference record.
Men’s basketball: 3-29 overall, 2-18 in Pac-12 play (12th place), the worst overall record by winning percentage in Cal history.
Women’s basketball: 13-17 overall, 4-14 in Pac-12 play (10th place)
Baseball: 24-28 overall, 12-18 in Pac-12 play (tied for eighth place in an 11-team league)
Cover photo of Cal's national championship men's swimming and diving team is by Brett Davis, USA TODAY Sports
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