Cal's New Co-Athletic Directors Will Not Oversee Football

In their June 2 introduction as Cal’s new co-athletic directors, Jay Larson and Jenny Simon-O’Neill noted the innovative leadership model they will carry out during their 12-month stint in co-athletic directors.

But one sentence tells most observers what they need to know about their responsibilities:

In addition to our Co-AD paired leadership model, we are looking forward to partnering with Ron Rivera, the general manager of our football program. In this new model, Ron will directly oversee the football program, including personnel and the operating budget, while we will be responsible for the supervision of the other 29 sports and the department support units.

In short, Rivera will have the final word on all Cal football situations, including the hiring a firing of a head coach as well as personnel and budget decisions.

Larson and Simon-O’Neill will deal with all other sports, which includes men’s and women’s basketball.

However, Larson said in the video below that football is a major priority of the Cal athletic department:

"We really want to partner with Ron to elevate the football program and continue to elevate that program," Larson said. "That's a top priority for us."

The new athletic directors and Rivera must deal with the new era of college sports, ushered in by the approval of the NCAA House settlement, which allows universities to make payments directly to athletes. Schools are allowed to pay up to $20.5 million to athletes in all sports in the upcoming school year. A majority of that sum is expected to go to football players, as Cal tries to keep up with the country’s elite football programs in the biggest revenue-generating sport.

These financial demands have led to five Cal sports – rugby, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s water polo and men’s swimming and diving – becoming endowed based on contributions directed to those sports. Cal is attempting to make more of its sports endowed, hoping the university does not have to consider the possibility of eliminating sports.

One other important sentence in the co-athletic directors’ statement addresses this:

During the year to come, it will be our responsibility, working in concert with the campus, Cal Athletics leadership and our community of supporters, to build a sustainable financial model – including philanthropy, campus funding, and the creation of new revenue generation streams. 

Their full statement is available here.

Here is a short interview with the new co-athletic directors: