The Big West School Spotlight: Cal Poly

10/3/2025 9:00:00 AM

2025-26 Feature Series: The Big West School Spotlights
• September: UC Santa Barbara
• October: Cal Poly

Cal Poly was founded in 1901 as the California Polytechnic School and began classes in 1903. The California State Board of Education took control of the school in 1924. The campus was renamed California State Polytechnic College in 1947 to reflect its higher education offerings, and eventually California Polytechnic State University in 1973.

Cal Poly is the oldest of three polytechnic universities within the California State University system. The university emphasizes a "learn by doing" philosophy, integrating hands-on, practical experiences into its curriculum.

Cal Poly competed in NCAA Division II and won 35 national championships at that level. In 1991 a student referendum was passed and elevated its athletics teams to Division I in 1994. Cal Poly has been a full member of The Big West since 1996. The Mustangs have won 83 Big West titles to date.

SCHOOL FACTS

Location:	San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Founded	1901
Nickname:	Mustangs
Enrollment:	22,279
Alumni:	200,000+
President:	Jeffrey Armstrong
Athletic Director:	Carter Henderson
Big West Member Since:	1996
Big West Championships:	83 (55 postseason, 28 regular season)

SPOTLIGHT: TATIANA CORNEJO

BOLD MOMENTS

2025: Cal Poly Wins Revived Big West Baseball Championship

Cal Poly won the revived Big West Baseball Championship in 2025, as the No. 2 seed. The Mustangs took care of host and third-seeded Cal State Fullerton, 7-2, in the opener. After suffering a run-rule loss, 15-3, in the second round to No. 1 UC Irvine, Cal Poly never looked back. The Mustangs defeated No. 4 seed Hawai’i 2-1 and then defeated UC Irvine 15-5 in eight innings to force a winner-take-all battle against the Anteaters. Cal Poly did not allow an earned run in the title game, defeating UC Irvine 6-4 for the Big West Championship title and earning the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Championship.

The Big West Championship made a revival after a 30-year hiatus. The event was contested four times in the 1990s and a twice in the PCAA days.

DISTANCE RUNNING DOMINANCE

Cal Poly has been a dominant force in the conference in cross country and the distance events in track & field.

Buoyed by the runners, the Mustangs have won 34 Big West titles: 20 men’s cross country, 10 women’s cross country, two men’s track & field and two women’s track & field.

NOTABLE MUSTANGS IN THE PROS

Brooks Lee

Stephanie Brown-Trafton

David Nwaba

ACADEMICS

Cal Poly was the best overall master’s-level university in the West for both public and private institutions for the third consecutive year in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Colleges guidebook.
The ranking, as indicated by its 2026 U.S. News Best Colleges, is the 2024-25 net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student who received the average level of need-based scholarship or grant aid. “The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal,” U.S. News said.
Overall, Cal Poly was 55th in the nation — up from 57th in 2024 and No. 83 in 2023 — among the 500 ranked public and private not-for-profit universities in the U.S.
The rankings, released Aug. 26, looked far beyond the Ivy League. Its top school was Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Boston. Also in the top five were Columbia University in New York; Princeton University of New Jersey; and the Golden State’s Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.
Among public and private institutions in California, Cal Poly was 12th overall for the second consecutive year and again seventh among public schools, behind University of California campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara and Davis (all doctorate-level institutions).
In Money magazine’s 2025-26 Best Colleges in America list, Cal Poly received a five-star ranking. The ranking is designed to help students and their parents choose a school in terms of value, showcasing the top 732 colleges and universities in the U.S. on graduation rates, cost of attendance, financial aid, alumni salaries and more.

FAMOUS ALUMNI & STORIES

Before he was a legendary coach and the namesake of a popular video game franchise, John Madden was a student-athlete at Cal Poly. Madden played both offense and defense on the football team, and earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1959 and then a master’s degree, also in education, in 1961.

After graduating from Cal Poly, Madden embarked on one of the greatest NFL coaching careers with an unmatched record, including a Super Bowl win, and the highest winning percentage for coaches with at least 100 games. Madden went into broadcasting after coaching and then lent his name to Electronic Arts for the video game franchise.

Madden’s name will live on through the John Madden Football Center (currently under construction as of October 2025). Former Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman and wife D.D. have made a quarter million dollar commitment toward the completion of the building.

Jamba Juice was founded at Cal Poly in 1990. Kirk Perron, a cycling enthusiast and student, created a healthy juice stand as a senior project. First named “Juice Club”, the name of the shop changed to Jamba Juice after some time.

From there, Jamba Juice grew immensely and currently holds over 800 locations nationwide. The original Jamba in downtown San Luis Obispo is still open to this day.

Alfred “Weird Al” Yankovic attended Cal Poly from 1976 to 1980, eventually graduating with a degree in architecture. As a sophomore, Yankovic became a disc jockey at KCPR, the university’s radio station.

The Downey, Calif. native adopted the name “Weird Al” while at the San Luis Obispo campus and has since created a library of hit parody songs and accompanying music videos. Most notably as a KCPR DJ, Yankovic recorded his eventual hit song “My Bologna” in a bathroom in the Graphic Arts building.