Cal’s football expenses are soaring following general manager Ron Rivera’s decision to fire coach Justin Wilcox with two years remaining on his contract. In addition to the dead money, the Bears must hire a replacement — Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi, a former Cal player, is the heavy favorite — and pay for new assistants and support personnel.
All told, the changes could cost in excess of $35 million.
Good thing the Bears will have the cash to cover the transition, courtesy of the University of California.
The so-called Calimony subsidy payments headed to Berkeley from UCLA — to the tune of $30 million over three years — aren’t the half of it. Literally.
The Bears will receive an additional $45 million in “bridge” financing from the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) in three annual installments of $15 million, according to a document obtained by the Hotline through a public records request and supplemental information provided by UCOP.
The additional funding was not approved by the UC regents, although they were made aware of it, and had not been widely disclosed.
All told, $75 million is bound to Berkeley in three installments of $25 million that began in 2024-25 and will continue through the 2026-27 academic year. The cash isn’t specifically for football and will be used to support the overall athletic department budget, according to Cal.
In response to a request for comment on the additional $45 million from UCOP, a university spokesperson provided the following statement:
“The Berkeley campus appreciates the commitment of the University of California system to preserve and build upon Cal Athletics’ tradition of educating student-athletes while enabling them to compete at the highest level of national competition.”
The Bears have plenty of uses for the influx, over and above the coaching change.
They are planning to use privately-raised cash to cover Wilcox’s $11 million buyout but likely will spend at least $20 million on a new coach — a five-year deal at $4 million annually seems like the minimum outlay — and another $5 million (minimum) to dismiss current assistants and hire new ones.
Also, the athletic department reported a budget shortfall in the 2023-24 fiscal year, with $120 million in revenue and $149 million in expenses, according to financial statements reported to the NCAA. Notably, the revenue figure included approximately $35 million in support from central campus. (Figures for FY2025 are not due to the NCAA until January.)
Additionally, life in the ACC isn’t getting cheaper with travel costs, revenue sharing with athletes and a challenging contractual agreement. Like Stanford, the Bears were desperate for a home in the late summer of 2023 and agreed to partial shares of the ACC’s media rights distributions over the bulk of their 12-year membership term. They will receive one-third shares of media revenue for seven years, followed by a laddering-up to full-share status by Year 10.
In fact, the entirety of the $75 million in combined support from UCLA and UCOP can be traced to the realignment wave that forced Cal and Stanford into the ACC in the first place.
In the aftermath of UCLA and USC announcing their move to the Big Ten (June 2022) and the demise of the Pac-12 (August 2023), the UC regents directed the Bruins to provide $10 million annually to Cal for at least three years in what was termed a “contribution” from the Westwood campus.
The decision was made in the spring of 2024, with contributions beginning in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The additional $45 million was described by a UCOP spokesperson as “bridge” financing and approved in June of 2025 by University of California system president Michael Drake, who used a pool of discretionary funds available to his office.
(Drake left the UC at the end of June, per a previous decision to step down following the 2024-25 academic year.)
The cash is not a loan; the Bears don’t need to pay it back.
Asked for an explanation of the funding, the UCOP spokesperson said via email:
“The University of California is committed to the long-term success of campus operations, programs and development, and on occasion provides bridge funding during times of growth and transition. We are confident that under Chancellor (Rich) Lyons’ leadership, UC Berkeley’s athletics program will continue to make reforms that make Cal Athletics successful on and off the field.”
Because UCOP discretionary funds were used, the regents did not need to approve the transfer. However, they “were made aware of the situation,” the spokesperson said.
The specifics of Drake’s communication to the board were not provided by UCOP. The bridge financing plan wasn’t listed as an agenda item for UC regents meetings either in the months leading into June 2025 or those immediately following.
However, Lyons hinted at the funding in a message to the Cal community dated June 11 that was later obtained by the Hotline:
“After the collapse of the Pac-12 conference last year, Cal was allocated an additional $25 million per year, starting this year, for three years, funded in part by UCLA’s sizable media contract from its new conference. The regental discussion at the time indicated that this $25 million per year could continue for an additional three years only if certain conditions were met. A failure to invest in revenue sports over the next two years would materially reduce the likelihood that the allocation will continue for a full six years.”
Why six? When the regents approved UCLA’s contribution to Cal, in June 2024, the initial payment period of six years was trimmed to three with plans to revisit the issue in 2027. The timeframe referenced by Lyons in his message lines up with the regents’ windows for UCLA’s current contribution and potential extension.
The Hotline became aware of Lyons’ letter after the fact, obtained a copy and inquired about the $25 million figure, which was $15 million more than the Calimony payments approved a year earlier.
The university spokesperson described the funds as an “additional three-year commitment from the UC Office of the President of $15 million per year to Cal Athletics.”
Inquiries about all other aspects of the bridge financing were directed to UCOP.
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