On the good side, they defeated Slack, 48-18, in October.

Does Berkeley/st Mary’s give scholarships for rugby?

At Cal, Rugby is a sponsored varsity sport. Cal fans are very proud of their team. Rugby is a huge deal there.

I have heard rumors and allegations both ways about rugby scholarships at Cal, but in the end, I don't believe that they do. As a varsity sport, within what ever department handles NCAA and other intercollegiate athletics at Cal, I believe they get some perks, such as a few preferential admissions, access to training and medical facilities, access to study programs, preferential class enrollment....but I don't believe they offer athletic scholarships.

I also understand that the school holds the team to the same standards as other varsity sports, particularly regarding recruiting,...I am not sure if that applies to grades and inter-college transfers.

However I also understand that their participation is included in Title IX issues...and that Cal Rugby, (and possibly other men's sports [baseball??]) help fund some women't sports.

Rugby at St. Mary's is still, like almost every other college, within the club sport program. I have never heard that they offer athletic scholarships for rugby at St. Mary's.

One thing both teams have in common is a strong program with good and consistent coaching. So many club sports rely on a coach who is woefully underpaid and who does it for a few years before moving on. Clark has been at Cal for decades, and O'Brien has been at St. Mary's for 16 years. Both men love the game, there isn't any Nick Saban type money in coaching collegiate rugby.

Success breeds success and the schools lure top level players.

Cal in particular has a strong backing from alumni and fans. They play their home matches at Witter Field, named for the family that started the Dean Witter investment business. Imagine having your own pitch and not having to share it with other teams or with the intramural program.

I did find an 7-8 year old article in cal-magazine which interviewed rugby coach Clark about cal rugby when it was under siege due to UC Berkeley’s massive athletic debt. In the interview were some surprising facts regarding cal-rugby:
No scholarships
Full time paid coach
#3 in merchandise sales
#5 in concessions sales
#3-4 in paid attendance
5 million endowment
Men’s rugby is not an NCAA sport
Woman’s rugby IS an NCAA sport
Cal football was going to take away witter field rugby and put in a turf practice field
Cal rugby has an incredibly powerful alumni base.
Now this is an old article and I have no idea if it is still accurate.

Tongue in cheek piece from Bob Dunning's Enterprise column:

AGGIES TO PAC-12? … so, I was calmly reading the sports section of The New York Times, the second-best newspaper in the country, when I came across a story titled “Another Season Comes and Goes While Pac-12 Struggles to Keep Up.”


It’s rare for The Times to do in-depth pieces on West Coast football, so I took the bait and delved into an interesting piece about money woes in my favorite conference … the Pac-12, as the name suggests, is composed of 12 universities, each of which has an athletic director running the show.

In this long and detailed piece, not a single current Pac-12 athletic director was quoted, but I did come across this: “Kevin Blue, the athletic director at California-Davis, who was previously a senior associate AD at Stanford, said the SEC and the Big Ten ‘are setting the market’ for coaching salaries.”

If you live east of the Rockies, the logical assumption here is that UC Davis has finally been offered membership in the Pac-12, making it now the Pac-13 … if that’s not confusing enough, how about that “California-Davis” reference? … the NY Times should know better … we are not California-Davis or Cal-Davis or Cal State Davis or Davis State or Jerome C. Davis A&M … we are UC Davis — Pac-12 member-to-be

https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-singing-the-praises-of-dixon/

i'm pretty good at math....so (less money than SEC)/(12 teams) < (less money than SEC)/(more than 12 teams). that's assuming that adding davis does NOT increase the numerator, just increases the denominator.

so, why would the current 12 want MORE teams to take a piece of the pie? again, good at math, not so good at economics, so i'm PROBABLY missing the benefit.

Was the article a joke?

It was a joke. Plus, “Pac13” is very bad JU JU and creates an odd number of teams. So, add Utah State Aggies and UC Davis Aggies? Not so great, but I guess possible. Maybe by 2050 something will happen like this.

The thought of this is enticing, in theory. Personally I would love nothing more than to grow the UCD football fan base, have a roaring sold-out stadium and compete with the likes of Cal and Stanford. Realistically, however, teams that have made the jump from FCS to FBS are pretty much just bottom of the barrel FBS teams. The last thing I would want is to end up like Idaho-- average 1,000 in attendance in a 16,000 capacity stadium (did not fact check), and have to drop back down because no one watches their games.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, Idaho averaged around 10,000 for home games but I used to work there and 10,000 is definitely a ballooned number.

Welcome to the Boards!

Thanks!

The only thing that will increase crowd size at Davis is winning. Just keep winning, and the "good" days of 8500 showing up will turn into steady 10,000's, 11,000's...

...and when we're packed to brim consistently for about 5-10 years, and depending on how the Rocky Mountain / Pacific FBS schools shake out conference-wise, we may find a football fit at that level.

For now however, I think we're an exciting brand of football at the FCS level...and it does help to not have to compete directly with Stanfurd/Kal for the types of kids we recruit academically and athletically.

Was there a time when 8500+ showed up to the games? I'm still very green in terms of the history of the athletic department-- I jokingly brag to co-workers about JT O'Sullivan.

To be honest, I didn't follow Davis sports until I attended the University, and even then, it took several years after I graduated before I developed any sort of pride and fandom for the program. To me, it didn't really seem like Davis was much of a sports town-- and to an extent, the Sacramento area as a whole didn't come across that way either. I like to think that if this jump from the FCS to FBS were to happen, Davis could be Oregon St. esque. What's your vibe on sports in the Sac area?

Sac vibe is tribal, little pockets around the area follow their high schools, colleges, and then pro teams like the Kings (and eventually the Republic) will take fans. Also draw from the Bay Area, Stanfurd/Kal alumni.

Davis' strong suit is the older alumni who remember the long streaks of winning, the decades of DII dominance, they have Aggie Football ingrained in their soul, but like all alumni, we move on and live our lives, raise our kids, pursue our careers. 2007-2015 was a dark, dark time for the program. The transition was not easy, that's basically a decade of football where the new stadium was great, but the level of football, program excellence, outcome just hadn't caught up. There were exciting moments, but if you don't have consistent winning tendencies, enough people won't be present to see them all.

When you win, like last season, people come to the games, you host a NCAA Playoff game, the vibe totally changes (and we were a late defensive meltdown away from hosting a semi-final game last season). Nothing brings in more energy and money than winning...and nothing brings in winning like a program and athletic department willing to do what it takes to get there. Hiring Hawk changed everything, the program is back, and the momentum has to be maintained to keep this thing going to that pinnacle we all want in Frisco, Texas.

I wanted to scream "YEAHH!!" after the last paragraph.

Yes, there was a time when we p[acked Aggie stadium and then some. I was there from 1975 to 79'. And yes, I can remember many great games with fantastic attendance. the playoffs were just awesome! Beat NDSU with O'Brien was one of the most exciting plays.

Goes to show that it’s not the level, it’s winning that creates an event and draws attendance. I think we’re better off if as an FCS playoff contender than being an FBS also ran hopping to go to the Cheez-it bowl every ten years or so.

I agree