It has been a busy few days of meetings and presentations for me at the NCAA Men’s Final Four in San Antonio, but there is much to share.
The song of the day is “One Shining Moment” from Luther Vandross. The Big West has had many great moments this past year, and added to the list last week.
Let’s get to The Bold Type!
IT'S TIME FOR A WINTER CUPDATE!
Following the completion of the winter championship season, UC Irvine has made a significant climb to the top of the 2024-25 Dennis Farrell Big West Commissioner’s Cup standings, jumping from fourth place in the fall to first with a current average of 157.5 points. The Anteaters rode strong second-place regular-season finishes in both men’s and women’s basketball to vault into the lead as the race for the Cup intensifies heading into the spring. Read more >>>
CONGRATULATIONS!
- To UC Irvine men’s basketball for making it to the NIT Championship game last Thursday night! An outstanding season for the Anteaters who took the game to overtime and finished the 2024-25 season as NIT runner-up. Read more >>>
- To UC San Diego men’s basketball student-athletes Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and Tyler McGhie who participated in the postseason festivities in San Antonio! Tait-Jones competed in the NABC-Reese's All-Star Game and McGhie won the E*Trade Men’s 3-Point Championship!
- To UC Irvine baseball who is currently ranked 11th by NCBWA, 12th by D1Baseball, 12th by Perfect Game, 13th by USA Today Coaches, 13th by Baseball America!
- To Cal Poly baseball who is receiving votes by USA Today, NCBWA and Perfect Game!
- To UC Santa Barbara baseball who is receiving votes by NCBWA, USA Today Coaches!
- To Hawai‘i baseball who is receiving votes by NCBWA, USA Today Coaches!
- To our three beach volleyball programs who are ranked in the AVCA National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll!
- No. 6 Cal Poly
- No. 11 Long Beach State
- No. 17 Hawai‘i
- To our two men’s tennis teams ranked in the ITA Men's Team Rankings!
- No. 3 UC Santa Barbara
- No. 45 UC Irvine
- To our four men’s tennis singles players ranked in the ITA Men's Singles Rankings!
- No. 59 Noah Zamora (UCI)
- No. 65 Gianluca Brunkow (UCSB)
- No. 108 Diogo Morais (UCSB)
- No. 109 Azuma Visaya (UH)
- To our men’s tennis doubles pairs ranked in the ITA Men's Doubles Rankings!
- No. 45 Gianluca Brunkow & Dominique Rolland (UCSB)
- To our three women’s tennis teams ranked in the ITA Women's Team Rankings!
- No. 44 UC Santa Barbara
- No. 50 Cal Poly
- No. 67 Long Beach State (LINK)
- To our two women’s tennis singles players ranked in the ITA Women's Singles Rankings!
- No. 10 Amelia Honer (UCSB)
- No. 73 Julia Haynes (UCSD)
- To our doubles pair ranked in the ITA Women's Doubles Rankings!
- No. 15 Amelia Honer & Marie Weissheim (UCSB)
- To all six men’s volleyball teams ranked in the AVCA National Collegiate Poll!
- No. 1 Long Beach State
- No. 4 UC Irvine
- No. 5 Hawai‘i
- No. 9 CSUN
- No. 10 UC San Diego
- No. 16 UC Santa Barbara
- To our seven teams ranked in the CWPA National Poll!
- No. 3 Hawai‘i
- No. 6 Long Beach State
- No. 7 UC Irvine
- No. 12 UC San Diego
- No. 17 UC Davis
- No. 18 UC Santa Barbara
- No. 22 CSUN
- To this weekend’s Big Winners – Cal Poly beach volleyball and UC Irvine baseball!
- And to each student-athlete that was named a Player of the Week/Month this week! Congratulations to each of you on this accomplishment!
- Baseball - Josh Volmerding, Cal Poly (pitcher); Kamana Nahaku, Hawai‘i (field player)
- Softball - Kate Barnett, Long Beach State (pitcher); Ava Arce, Cal State Fullerton (field player); Lina Apodaca, Long Beach State (freshman)
- Men's Volleyball - Louis Sakanoko, Hawai‘i (offensive); Josh Aruya, UC Santa Barbara (defensive); Tread Rosenthal, Hawai‘i (setter); Riggs Guy, UC Santa Barbara (freshman)
- Track & Field - Ian Dossman, Cal State Fullerton (men’s tracke); R - Ryan Gregory, Long Beach State (men’s field); Maddie Kackley, UC Davis (women’s track); Reyna Johnson, UC Irvine (women’s field)
- Beach Volleyball - Megan Widener & Demi Wagdy, Long Beach State
- Men's Tennis - Carson Lee, UC San Diego
- Women's Tennis - Ana Vilcek, Hawai‘i
- Women's Water Polo - Annie Kuester, UC Santa Barbara
- Men's Golf - Tegan Andrews, Cal State Fullerton
- Women's Golf - Jasmine Leovao, Long Beach State
CONGRATULATIONS TO BIG WEST BASKETBALL!
The 2024-25 Big West basketball season showcased unprecedented success and growth, solidifying the conference as a rising force on the national stage. The year was one for the record books, as both the men’s and women’s sides reached new competitive heights with new faces making waves. From unprecedented win totals to national rankings and postseason success, The Big West showcased the improved competitive depth of the conference and established itself in the national college basketball landscape.
Welcome to the National Stage, UC San Diego!
Men’s Basketball: A Banner Year for the Conference
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The Big West was home to two 30-win teams, UC San Diego and UC Irvine, marking an unprecedented feat in conference history. Nationally, only the SEC also had two programs reach the 30-win mark this season.
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The conference closed the year ranked a collective 12th in the NET, its highest standing since 2000, and cracked the Top 10 in NET rankings during the season. The Big West also ranked 12th in KenPom—a significant leap from 24th in 2019-20 in both listings to highlight the growing competitive depth across the membership.
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A record five teams finished in the NET top 150: UC San Diego (#35), UC Irvine (#62), CSUN (#104), UC Santa Barbara (#140), and UC Riverside (#142) all finished in the top 150, the most in Big West history.
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Most NIT appearances in Big West history with three teams – UC Irvine, CSUN, and UC Riverside – earning postseason bids. UC Irvine reached the NIT championship game, falling by just one point, and serving as the league's first postseason tournament finalist since Fresno State won the event back in 1983.
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Major non-conference road wins in the last two seasons include victories over Colorado State, Northern Iowa, Grand Canyon, Stanford, Utah State, USC, UCLA, and Michigan.
Women’s Basketball: Rising National Profile
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Hawai‘i claimed the Big West regular-season title, for the sixth time in program history and the third time in the last four seasons (1993, ’94, ’15, ’22, ’24, ’25). The Rainbow Wahine played in the WBIT brackets for a second-straight postseason, falling at UNLV in their first round game.
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UC San Diego secured their first-ever Division I postseason bid, after a trio of wins at Lee's Family Forum coming against Cal Poly, Hawai'i and UC Davis. With Heidi VanDerveer at the helm of the squad and joining recently-retired sister Tara in distinction, a VanDerveer has coached in the NCAA Tournament for the last 28 seasons, dating back to 1996-97. Tara and Heidi have combined for 39 appearances at three institutions.
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The league's defense was on lockdown in 2024-25, with Hawai'i, Cal Poly and UC Davis occupying the top three spots in three-point percentage defense in all of NCAA Division I. Another national leader with UC Santa Barbara's 80.8 percent free throw percentage to top the country.
Big West Basketball Championships See Unprecedented Growth
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The 2025 Big West Basketball Championships presented by Credit Union 1 in the Las Vegas Valley experienced a 31% increase in overall attendance, with the championship game seeing a 62% increase in fan turnout. The Championship continues to grow as a marquee event, solidifying The Big West’s footprint in the national college basketball landscape.
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As The Big West continues to elevate its profile, the 2024-25 season served as a milestone moment, reinforcing the league’s standing as one of the premier mid-major basketball conferences in the country.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST FOCUSED ON NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS
- Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval has approved a mandatory student fee increase that will generate around $11.4M per year and add $5M or more to the athletic department budget. Starting this fall, students will pay an additional $495 per year to fund academic and student support initiatives, as well as student life initiatives including the university’s athletics programs. Jiménez-Sandoval explained the university committed to maintaining a strong athletics program while reducing reliance on institutional support; “however, the financial landscape of college athletics continues to evolve, with rising costs driven by inflation, market demands, and evolving NCAA policies. University leadership will conduct annual evaluations of financial commitments, including direct institutional support, to ensure that athletics operates efficiently while aligning with broader institutional priorities. The focus remains on building a sustainable financial model that balances institutional investment with self-generated revenue to support the success of Fresno State student-athletes and the university as a whole.” (link)
- U.S. District Court Judge Karen E. Schreier has ruled that South Dakota’s lawsuit against the NCAA should proceed in state court after the association previously sought to have the case moved to federal jurisdiction, in which Sportico’s Daniel Libit notes it would be easier to dismiss. Libit adds that Schreier “remanded South Dakota’s case back to the state circuit court, where it had originally been filed. In turn, [South Dakota AG Marty] Jackley filed a motion Monday for a preliminary injunction in Brookings County, seeking to block the NCAA from withholding funds from the state’s two Division I schools to cover the settlement costs.” Jackley argued in the filing that “having profited handsomely from their student athletes for decades, the Power 4 schools can better afford their proportionate share of the damages than publicly funded state universities like the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and hundreds of other state schools.” Jackley in a statement: “We intend to stop the NCAA from forcing South Dakota’s Universities and students to be responsible for $8M in the NCAA’s mistake." (link, link, link)
- U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken has “staked her claim as the most influential single force in dismantling the NCAA’s foundational principle of amateurism, issuing a series of rulings addressing college athletes’ rights that were cautious and methodical in their approach but, ultimately, transformative in their impact,” according to Sportico’s Daniel Libit and Michael McCann, who note that Wilken’s first college-sports related case came in 2009, at which point she’d already spent 25 on the federal bench. (link)
- The U.S. District Court of Northern California has posted the list of individuals who will be arguing at the House settlement hearing, and Venable LLP Partner Philip Sheng provides a list of what topics each of the 13 attorneys will argue. Meanwhile, Judge Claudia Wilken has issued specific instructions about who can sit where in the courtroom. Notably, seating for the press will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Kennyhertz Perry attorney Mit Winter also provides a Zoom link for the hearing. (link, link)
- A brief filed by the Buchalter law firm in opposition to the House settlement makes the point that 95% of revenue sharing will go to just 22% of athletes while entire Olympic programs are being cut. The brief consequently asks: Viewed holistically, is the settlement fair to the entire class? Venable LLP Partner Philip Sheng notes: “Buchalter, a major national law firm, was NOT invited to argue on April 7, likely because its clients originally wished to remain anonymous. … I suspect had Buchalter then requested to argue, Wilken would have allowed it.” (link)
- The Big Sky has reportedly increased its buyout from $250K to $1M, per CollegeAD, which adds Sacramento State’s push for FBS membership played a role in the increase. (link)
- A crime ring is traveling around the nation and inviting student-athletes to parties where there's gambling with the goal of putting the student-athletes in debt and compromising them for future exploitation, according to Southland Commissioner Chris Grant, who tells ESPN: "What we found out is they're going into towns, throwing parties and having events, getting guys to come. And when they come to these parties, they get [players] to gamble on site and [then say], 'OK, well you owe me X amount of dollars on the back end.' … For us, it seems to point back to an organized crime ring that's not just localized in the Southland footprint. It is going on around the country." (link)
- NCAA lead counsel Rakesh Kilaru and House plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler join Tulane Sports Law Director Gabe Feldman to discuss the House settlement. Feldman asks how the settlement will prevent future lawsuits from student-athletes or collectives who argue the collectives should be allowed to pay athletes whatever they want and notes that in professional sports such lawsuits are forestalled by the non-statutory labor exemption via collective bargaining. Kilaru responds: “I think if you look at the revenues that are being shared, the opportunities for legitimate third-party NIL transactions, I think the hope is that we've created something that's not going to incentivize a bunch of folks to come in and say the system isn't working. I think we wanted to create a system that does work.” Full podcast. (link)
- With the higher ed enrollment cliff looming (2025 is expected to be the peak for high school graduates), the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) described a more gradual drop over the next 15 years than the cliff metaphor suggests, though it also projected a slightly larger decline overall than previously expected. VP of Policy Analysis and Research Patrick Lane: “The decline is coming. Whether it looks like a cliff or sort of a slowly sliding downward trend … that’s the really big question.” (link)
QUOTES OF THE DAY
“Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow.” — Credited to Mahatma Gandhi
“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” — Credited to Mark Twain
“When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return. You should give a good thought to the happiness that you can give out.” — Credited to Eleanor Roosevelt
Thank you for reading The Bold Type! The staff is actively preparing for the many Spring championships over the next few weeks, and are excited to see all our spring student-athletes compete for Big West championship trophies!
Have a great week, and be sure to thank the athletic trainers who take care of our Big West student-athletes!
Dan