On May the 4th, it’s hard not to reflect on the power of alignment, resilience, and shared purpose. In moments of change across the national landscape, success doesn’t come from acting alone—it comes from moving forward together, united in direction and confident in mission.
This past week across The Big West felt a bit like a championship saga unfolding—titles claimed, teams advancing to the national stage, and institutions standing shoulder-to-shoulder to reaffirm the strength of our collective future. From Maui to the mainland, and from the sand to the courts, Big West student-athletes delivered performances worthy of the biggest stage.
And while the galaxy of college athletics continues to shift around us, one truth remains clear: unity is our strength.
Song of the day is “Binary Sunset” from the Star Wars – A New Hope soundtrack by the great John Williams.
Let’s get to The Bold Type, and may the Force be with you as you work through the content.
TARGET: NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SUCCESS
STATUS: LOCKED IN
The powerhouse Big West has flexed its muscles once again, guaranteed at least one team in the national championship for the eighth straight contested National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship! The league made up one quarter in the first year of an expanded 12-team bracket making history as a #ThreeBigBigWest.
After this weekend, we have three of the final four teams standing after UC Irvine defeated Penn State and then upset No. 1 seed and championship finals host UCLA in dramatic five-setters. Big West regional hosts No. 2 seed Hawai’i and No. 3 seed Long Beach State advanced with home victories and will meet up in the semifinal round on Saturday. The home game at Hawai’i was a first for the Rainbow Warriors and against a record sellout crowd of 10,300.
Now, The Big West has a chance to go for a sixth title since sports sponsorship in 2018, an 11th overall and back-to-back trophy seasons after LBSU took the crown in 2025. Cheer on the conference on Saturday and Monday in Westwood if you are in the LA area or watch the semifinals on Saturday on ESPN+and championship match on Monday on ESPN2!
NCAA MEN’S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Semifinals | Saturday, May 9 on ESPN+:
Championship | Monday, May 11 on ESPN2:
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
- And good luck to the 10 men’s golf teams already competing at the 2026 Men’s Golf Championship in La Quinta, Calif. After the first round, defending champion Long Beach State has an 14-stroke lead as they look for the rare four-peat. Championship Central >>>
- To the six teams set to compete at the 2026 Big West Softball Championship this week in Fullerton, Calif. The host Titans earned the No. 1 seed in the bracket, with play beginning this Wednesday from Anderson Family Field. Read more >>>
- To Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton women’s golf teams, as well as Madison Le of Long Beach State, who were selected for the Stanford regional May 11-13, 2026! Read more >>>
- To the All-Big West women’s golf team and award winners! Read more >>>
- To Cal Poly and Long Beach State beach volleyball on their successful seasons and trips to the national collegiate championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. The Mustangs advanced to the second round before narrowly falling to eventual runner-up UCLA. Day 1 recap | Day 2 recap
- To the All-Big West beach volleyball teams and award winners! Read more >>>
- To the EIGHT standout Big West student-athletes who earned AVCA Collegiate Beach All-America distinction! Read more >>>
- To UC Santa Barbara men’s tennis who played a hard-fought first-round battle at No. 15 seed San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Championship. Read more >>>
- To the 2026 All-Big West men’s tennis team and award winners! Read more >>>
- To UC Santa Barbara women’s tennis who represented The Big West in the first round of the NCAA Championship at No. 11 seed Pepperdine. Read more >>>
- To the 2026 All-Big West women’s tennis team and award winners! Read more >>>
- To our SIX men’s volleyball teams rankedin the AVCA national poll!
- No. 2 Long Beach State
- No. 3 Hawai'i
- No. 6 UC Irvine
- No. 10 UC Santa Barbara
No. 11 UC San Diego
- No. 18 CSUN
- To the men’s volleyball major Big West postseason award winners! Read more >>>
- To former UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl Edwards what was named to the NACDA Hall of Fame! Read more >>>
- And to our amazing Players of the Week!
- Baseball
- Field Player - Elijah Pelayo, Cal State Bakersfield
- Pitcher - Ethan Minaker, Cal State Bakersfield
- Softball
- Field Player - Colby McClinton, Cal State Fullerton
- Pitcher - Trisha McCleskey, Cal State Fullerton
- Freshman - Maryn Macneil, Hawai‘i
- Track & Field
- Men’s Track - Matthew Staples, UC Santa Barbara
- Men’s Field - Aiden Pastorian, Cal Poly
- Women’s Track - Maddie Conte, UC Santa Barbara
- Women’s Field - Chelsea Aninyei, UC Riverside
THE BIG WEST SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT - CAL STATE FULLERTON
Cal State Fullerton was established in 1957 as Orange County State College, the 12th state college in California to be authorized by the state legislature as a degree-granting institution. The school moved to its permanent campus in 1960, a site famously transformed from orange groves in northeast Fullerton. Because of its growth from a local college to a major university, the school was renamed Orange State College in 1962, California State College at Fullerton in 1964, and finally California State University, Fullerton in 1972.
Cal State Fullerton has a rich athletics history, particularly in baseball and softball. The Titans boasts 31 national championships, covering 11 sports and dating back to its first in 1967; 12 team national titles and 19 individual championships. Cal State Fullerton became members of NCAA Division I prior to the 1974-75 academic year and have since produced 11 (6 team and 5 individual) national titles, four of them by the Titans' baseball team.
Read more >>>
Much like any great alliance, lasting strength is built on trust, clarity, and shared commitment. This week, The Big West Board of Directors precisely demonstrated that. Ten Institutions. One Direction. Shared Purpose.
BIG WEST BOARD OF DIRECTORS REAFFIRMS UNIFIED DIRECTION WITH STRATEGIC ACTIONS FOR LONG-TERM STABILITY AND COMPETITIVE EXCELLENCE
The Big West Board of Directors has approved a series of strategic actions that collectively reflect the league's confidence in its future and the unified commitment of its ten continuing member institutions to building a strong, stable, and competitive conference.
At the center of the Board's action was a clear and unambiguous reaffirmation of shared direction — ten fully aligned institutions committed to one another and to the long-term future of The Big West at a time of significant transformation across the national collegiate athletics landscape.
"This Board acted with clarity and conviction," said Erika D. Beck, President of California State University, Northridge, and Chair of The Big West Board of Directors. "Ten institutions, fully aligned, moving forward together — that is a position of genuine strength. The actions we took reflect our shared belief in what The Big West is building, and our commitment to ensuring this conference remains a destination of choice for student-athletes and programs for years to come."
As an expression of that commitment, the Board unanimously approved, effective immediately, an increase in The Big West withdrawal fee to $5 million, reinforcing the depth of institutional commitment to the league’s future and strengthening long-term membership stability. In a national landscape where conference realignment has created significant uncertainty, the league's ten continuing members have chosen clarity — and formalized that choice.
These actions reflect the continuing evolution of college athletics nationally, including western conference realignment, which has required leagues across the country to carefully evaluate long-term membership composition, sport sponsorship, and championship access. The Big West has approached that evaluation proactively and with a focus on the long-term interests of its student-athletes and member institutions.
As part of its broader review of sport sponsorship and future membership composition, the Board also approved the discontinuation of Big West sponsorship of men's and women's swimming and diving, effective July 1, 2026, following the conclusion of the 2025–26 academic year. This decision followed careful evaluation of NCAA Championship participation requirements and anticipated membership composition, which indicated The Big West would no longer meet the minimum institutional threshold required to maintain conference eligibility tied to NCAA Championship automatic qualification opportunities in the sport.
The Big West has actively supported impacted institutions in identifying new conference homes that provide continued access to conference-based NCAA Championship qualification opportunities, including coordination with partner leagues such as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Pac-12 Conference.
"While this was a difficult decision, it was also a responsible one," said Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly. "Our priority is ensuring that student-athletes and programs have clear, stable pathways to meaningful competitive opportunities. Acting now allows institutions to transition to leagues where they can maintain NCAA Championship automatic qualification access and continue to thrive."
The Board also reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening sport sponsorship across The Big West and authorized continued pursuit of affiliate memberships in targeted sports to maintain competitive depth and long-term NCAA Championship automatic qualification opportunities.
With ten fully aligned institutions, The Big West moves forward with clarity, stability, and shared purpose, and with a unified conviction that the best of this conference is still ahead.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE NCAA DIVISION I BOARD OF DIRECTORS APRIL 27, 2026, MEETING
After a robust discussion, the Division I Board of Directors on Monday directed the Division I Cabinet to advance an age-based eligibility concept that, if adopted in its current form, would permit student-athletes up to five years of eligibility beginning the regular academic year after they turn 19 or graduate from high school, whichever happens earlier. Under that model, Division I student-athletes would no longer be limited to only four seasons of competition within their five-year eligibility window.
"The time is now to reform the period of eligibility rules to provide Division I student-athletes and our schools clear and consistent standards that align with current college athletes' experiences," said Tim Sands, president at Virgina Tech and chair of the board. "The board fully supports student-athletes receiving the unprecedented financial benefits now available to them and emphasized these changes would protect opportunities for high school student-athletes to access the benefits only college sports can provide, while delivering predictable outcomes for student-athletes and our schools."
The board also expressed support for two key elements to be included in future changes:
"The new age-based model produced by the Cabinet and discussed by the board today is a great step forward in simplifying and stabilizing college sports, especially football. In addition to clearly defining an age range of college players, it allows student-athletes to compete over the entirety of their eligibility period," said Sam Edwards, a football student-athlete at Michigan State and member of the board.
"This makes a world of sense in football for coaches and players alike, especially in the context of roster limits, where coaches can now use their entire roster without worrying about 'saving' a subset of players for redshirts. In a sport where many young players come in ready to contribute to varying degrees and in different phases of the game, this new eligibility landscape will be good for the game," Edwards said.
The Cabinet is expected to meet next in May.
Transfers and tampering enforcement
At the request of the Big Ten Conference, the board unanimously adopted a narrow change to rules for the notification-of-transfer process, allowing schools to decline to enter a student-athlete into the Transfer Portal only if the student-athlete agreed to release the school from that requirement as part of a valid settlement-related benefits agreement with the school, for the period of that agreement.
The board also introduced a proposal that would direct the infractions process to presume violations occurred in cases of impermissible contact with transfer students (i.e., tampering). If the proposal is adopted by the Division I Cabinet in June, schools suspected of tampering with student-athletes prior to their entry into the Transfer Portal would need to demonstrate the violation did not occur to avoid penalties.
Student-Athlete Advocacy Committee
The board also received a report from the Division I Student-Athlete Advocacy Committee —formerly known as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee — about its ongoing work to develop a potential model for the committee's legislative authority. If ultimately supported by the Division I Cabinet, the model would enable SAAC to more actively propose rules that directly impact the student-athlete experience, including, for example, potential changes to Division I core guarantees.
Division I SAAC changed its name earlier this year to reflect the broader role student-athletes play in the restructured Division I governance model, which includes an increase in student-athlete representation on major committees by 128%.
MEDIA REPORTS ON BIG WEST, NCAA AND LEGAL MATTERS
- Before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins even holds a hearing on House plaintiffs’ attorneys Steve Berman and Jeffrey Kessler’s motion seeking to clarify the meaning of key House settlement terms, Sportico’s Michael McCann posits attorneys for the NCAA (and by extension the College Sports Commission) will likely file a reply brief seeking to rebut arguments that the CSC misunderstands the meaning of “associated entities” and “associated individuals” in wrongfully classifying multimedia rights companies such as Learfield, Playfly Sports and JMI Sports and third-party brand sponsors including banks, apparel companies, airlines and car dealerships. Here’s more from McCann…
- “Expect the NCAA to argue that Judge Cousins should stick to the wording of [House settlement Judge Claudia] Wilken’s order rather than try to surmise intent and motive. The wording inclusively refers to entities that are ‘closely affiliated with an NCAA member school for the purpose of promoting the school’s athletics program or its student-athlete.’”
- “Also key to the NCAA’s defense is that the plaintiffs agreed to this settlement framework, which contemplates challenges to the CSC through arbitration. Judge Cousins might reason that to the extent athletes, companies and schools are being unfairly treated by the CSC, they can arbitrate their grievances.”
- “No doubt, Berman and Kessler would assert that a prolonged review and arbitration process can sometimes effectively end those NIL deals, as certain details are time sensitive. It can also be costly and time-consuming to negotiate with, and potentially arbitrate against, the CSC. But the NCAA might stress that is the system the parties negotiated and contractually accepted.” More. (link)
- The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments are set to expand to 76 teams this upcoming season, pending approval. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports the association and MBB tournament media partners met last week, but no contracts have been signed yet. “The NCAA also will need approval once the contracts are done from various committees that include the men's and women's basketball committees, the men's and women's basketball oversight committees, the Division I Cabinet and the DI Board of Governors. In order for the various NCAA committees to vote, the contracts will need to be signed for their approval. The expansion isn't expected to be a financial windfall, but sources stressed there will be a profit. The added finances will cover the additional logistics cost for both the men's and women's tournaments, the additional units that will come into play and still deliver ‘a modest financial upside.’” Structurally, the First Four will expand to 12 games across two sites, one of which will be Dayton and one west of the Eastern time zone, to accommodate the eight new at-large bids. (link)
- From the NCAA: "Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men's and women's basketball committees, and no final recommendation or decisions have been made at this time.” (link)
- On3’s Brett McMurphy reports that “Derek Stevens, owner/CEO of Circa Sports and VSiN, said Las Vegas ‘is already working on’ hosting the additional NCAA Tournament games.” (link)
- ESPN and The CW are partnering to have all CW Sports events stream exclusively on the ESPN App behind the ESPN Unlimited subscription. ESPN VP of ESPN DTC Business & Strategy Emily Horowitz tells SBJ’s Austin Karp: “Their college football would sit alongside our college football. And it will be branded in the environment that it’s CW Sports.” CW Sports President Mike Perman adds: “This strengthens us in the marketplace when we go out and are looking for new things. One of the things that we hear when we’re negotiating is, ‘what’s your digital business like?’ This takes that talking point out when we’re in negotiations now. We’re going to have a robust business with that.” The CW will continue to sell ads for its content, which will be a linear passthrough in year one, but the two entities will work together on dynamic ads in the future that the CW will also sell. (link, link)
- Disney will not spin off ESPN according to Business Insider’s Peter Kafka, who adds: “That means Disney will continue with efforts to offer ESPN to customers in multiple ways: as part of its traditional cable bundle, as part of a streaming bundle with Hulu and Disney+, and as a streaming service, And it may also look for other partners to take minority interests in the company, like it did when it sold a 10% stake in the company to the NFL last year.” (link)
- A Dallas County jury ordered the NCAA to pay $30M in compensatory damages to the family of former SMU football player J.T. Davis, concluding a six-year legal proceeding regarding the governing body's failure to warn athletes about the long-term risks of CTE. The verdict precedes an upcoming punitive damages phase scheduled to begin next Monday. (link)
- Boise State professor Sam Ehrlich reports that “a response has been filed to House settlement class counsel's motion to enforce the settlement (re: MMR deals) … by objectors to the settlement who have appealed the settlement's approval to the Ninth Circuit.” Specifically, the objectors argue that MMRs are associated entities and subject to review by the College Sports Commission because they are closely affiliated with a particular member institution's athletics department, exist to promote athletic programs and student-athletes, and create and identify NIL opportunities solely for a member institution's student-athletes. Kennyhertz Perry attorney Mit Winter notes of the objectors’ rationale: “Assume the thought is that if MMR companies are not associated entities more $ will flow to football [football] and [basketball] players.” (link)
- The NCAA has shared an outline of implementation scenarios for the five-year age-based eligibility proposal the division is pushing forward on for potential approval next month. Student-athletes who still have eligibility this fall will be subject to the eligibility model that is most beneficial for them. Of note, “Any waivers based on the current legislation must be submitted no later than July 31, 2026, and will not be available for competition or extenuating circumstances occurring beyond the 2025-26 academic year. Waivers to establish eligibility for the 2027-28 academic year and beyond will not be prioritized or actively reviewed by staff.” Also, student-athletes who graduated before this spring and compete in sports like tennis, skiing and men’s hockey who delay college enrollment will be subject to whichever rule grants the most eligibility. (link)
- The Power 4 participant agreement is still not signed nearly one year after it was introduced, with many SEC schools, all of which signed the original agreement (prior to amendments and modifications), believing “it’s just simply too late,” according to Ross Dellenger writing for On3. The ACC’s private schools are balking at waiving the right to sue without having a state attorney general behind them, while the Big Ten does not have consensus either. Only the Big 12 appears to be on the same page, with Kansas Chancellor/Big 12 Board Chair Doug Girod noting: “Our conference is fully behind getting the agreement done, and we may do it by ourselves if nobody else wants to, just because we have to demonstrate that we are willing to play by a set of rules. I think we need to demonstrate to Congress we’re willing to do that. Why would we expect Congress to do something for us if we’re not willing to do that?” (link)
Even in the midst of challenge, wisdom guides the path forward.
HOLOCRON WISDOM
“Great leaders inspire greatness in others.”
“Battles leave scars, some you can’t see.” — Kanan
“Sometimes we must let go of our pride and do what is requested of us.” — Anakin Skywalker
IN CLOSING
May the 4th serves as a reminder that even in times of uncertainty, progress belongs to those who stay aligned, focused, and committed to the mission ahead.
Across The Big West, our institutions continue to demonstrate that strength does not come from standing alone—it comes from standing together. From championship performances to decisive leadership, this conference continues to move forward with clarity, confidence, and shared purpose.
In every great story, success belongs to those who believe in something bigger than themselves. That belief is alive and well across The Big West.
And as we head into another championship-filled weekend…
May the Fourth Be with The Big West. May the Fourth Be with Us All.
Dan