Dive Snapshot:
- Sonoma State University is relaunching its Division II NCAA athletics program after scrapping it last year amid a budget crisis.
- Beginning in the 2027-28 academic year, Sonoma State athletes will play in 10 Division II sports in the California Collegiate Athletic Conference, the public institution said in a news release Monday.
- Sonoma State faced outcry and a lawsuit over its decision to eliminate athletics in 2025 as part of broader academic and administrative cuts to close a $24 million deficit.
The impact: In the announcement, Sonoma State said it plans to relaunch its women’s basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball and volleyball programs, as well as its men’s basketball, cross country, golf and soccer programs. Recruitment will begin when the university fills the coach and staffing positions for the sports.
Sonoma State is basing its revived athletics program on the findings of a campus feasibility team that studied the topic.
In a January white paper, the team recommended restarting 13 men’s and women’s sports that it determined “best assist the institution with enrollment, budget implications, Title IX, generating school spirit, and community engagement.”
The team also described athletics as “vital to the institution” and argued they should be “a funding priority,” recommending that Sonoma State reinstate a portion of student fee revenue going to athletics.
In addition, the programs will get a boost from a one-time $8 million injection from the state dedicated to helping Sonoma State restart athletics. The feasibility team advised using a large chunk of that for track and artificial turf, as well as for a new gym floor and upgraded training facilities.
The funding was part of a larger $45 million state infusion last June to help stabilize Sonoma State’s finances and invest in new programs.
The context: The decision to fold its athletics program accompanied a plan to cut over 20 academic programs and dozens of faculty and staff positions. Along with resurrecting athletics, Sonoma State has also since then revived some of the programs it had previously suspended, including physics and geology.
The cuts has been met with grief and anger among the Sonoma State community. The decision to eliminate NCAA sports and academic programs also drew a lawsuit from several college athletes, who alleged that officials violated regulatory procedures and knew long before the announcement they would shutter the sports programs. The case is under review by California’s state supreme court after a lower court ruled that the university could proceed with the cuts.
Since the retrenchment announcement, Sonoma State brought in Michael Spagna in January to spearhead its turnaround as president. “We’re out of the cutting mode,” Spagna said this April, according to the student news site Sonoma State Star. “We are in the mode of strategic investment.”
What we’re watching: Many colleges struggle with the financial tensions inherent in collegiate sports. On the one hand, they can help attract college athletes and others who see sports as a key part of the college experience. But they are often very expensive to maintain. Sonoma State’s feasibility team assumed a $7.6 million budget for the program.
Time will tell if Sonoma State’s relaunched athletics program can be sustained without weighing on the institution’s overall budget.
