Governor Newsom: UCLA Must Explain Why It Left Pac-12 Without Cal
California Governor Gavin Newsom made a rare appearance at a closed-door UC Regents meeting on Wednesday in San Francisco, and he made it clear he did not like the fact that UCLA decided to leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten in 2024 while leaving its UC-system sister campus at Cal behind.
This is how the Los Angeles Times reported Newsom's appearance
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday demanded that UCLA explain how its Pac-12 exit for the Big Ten will benefit all of its student-athletes and honor its relationship with UC Berkeley — the only UC campus that will be left behind and will likely take a big financial hit in a conference weakened by big-name defections.
“The first duty of every public university is to the people — especially students,” Newsom said in a statement. “UCLA must clearly explain to the public how this deal will improve the experience for all its student-athletes, will honor its century-old partnership with UC Berkeley, and will preserve the histories, rivalries, and traditions that enrich our communities.”
Newsom made an unusual appearance Wednesday at the San Francisco meeting of the UC Board of Regents, where he serves as an ex-officio member, to join the board’s closed-door discussion on the issue.
The decision by UCLA -- along with USC -- to leave the Pac-12 Conference in August 2024 has left Cal and other remaining conference teams reeling over the threat of losing millions in media rights revenue, not to mention the holdovers’ viability as a major player in the rapidly shifting college sports landscape.
UCLA and UC Berkeley have declined comment on the issue.
The governor does not have the authority to cancel UCLA's deal with the Big Ten, but as a regent he can ask the regent board to request that UCLA explain its move in a public setting or how it could help Cal deal with the financial problems that will result from UCLA's departure from the conference.
It should be noted that UC system gets billions of dollars in state funding each year, so the state can apply indirect pressure on UCLA even if it cannot officially block the move.
The lack of transparency in UCLA's negotiations with the Big Ten is what bothers Newsom the most.
Ben Chida, the governor’s principal advisor on education, told the L.A. Times, "It's about more than sports and more than money. It’s about public trust. It’s about student-athlete mental health. And it’s about honoring the partnerships, histories and traditions that have lasted a century.”
The Times reported that UC President Michael V. Drake knew about UCLA’s discussions with Big Ten officials. However, the UC Regents as a group were not included in those conversations and only a few of them were informed of UCLA's decision to leave before it was announced.
Cal and UCLA have been in the same football conference every year since 1928, and have played each other in football every year since 1933. They have been together through five conference names -- from the Pacific Coast Conference to the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) to the Pac-8 to the Pac-10 to the Pac-12.
Cal is scheduled to play UCLA in 2022 and 2023, but that annual rivalry presumably will end in 2024, unless some scheduling manipulation or conference realignment makes it possible to continue.
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Cover photo of Governor Newsome is by Ron Holman, Visalia Times-Delta via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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