18 months after cutting all sports, Sonoma State brings most of them back

It’s been 18 months since Sonoma State first revealed plans to cut its athletics programs. But after just one school year without any sports on campus, the North Bay university announced it is reversing that decision.

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In a news release on Monday, the school announced it is bringing athletics back, with 10 sports teams set to compete starting in the 2027-28 school year. Sonoma State will be rejoining the California Collegiate Athletic Association in Division II after not participating for two years — this past collegiate school year and the upcoming one.

“(Athletics) are an exciting way to engage our communities, help generate school spirit, enhance the student experience, and increase recruiting efforts,” Sonoma State President Michael E. Spagna said in the news release. 

Seawolves athletics appeared to be ending for good back on Jan. 22, 2025, when the school announced sports was among many campuswide cuts forced by a larger-than-expected budget deficit. In addition to losing athletics, the campus went into a hiring freeze, eliminated 62 total campus positions and closed six academic departments. Even when the school got a one-time cash infusion of $45 million to help with the budget issues in June of last year, the administration said it would merely explore bringing athletics back, not actually bring them back.

But the news release says Spagna has led a “reimagining” of Sonoma State on the whole. That included folding six of the closed departments into other programs, expanding enrollment paths and programs and, now, bringing athletics back.

Of the 11 sports Sonoma State was sponsoring when the school cut athletics after 2025, the school will return to action in nine of them: women’s basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball and volleyball, and men’s basketball, golf and soccer. The Seawolves will also be adding men’s cross country, a sport they hadn’t had in more than a decade, to reach the minimum 10 sports needed to compete in the NCAA.

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The two sports the school is not bringing back are women’s track and field and baseball. In along with the announcement, the school explained specifically why it didn’t keep baseball.

“The 10 sports chosen represent a mix that satisfies Title IX and Division II Athletics Conference compliance requirements; reflect campus demographics; and are best suited to be fiscally sustainable to restart SSU athletics given available resources for the overall athletics program,” the FAQ reads. “Additional programs may be considered as overall financial resources allow additional sports to be supported sustainably.”

The school said a little more than $2.8 million in 2026-27 to restart athletics, money that will come out of $8 million set aside from the state in what the school called the SSU Commitment fund. Once sports begin the next year, the school expects the athletic department to be funded through a combination of student fees, fundraising and sponsorships, fees for sports camps and facility usage, and “additional institutional support.” The school said it is hiring a development office specifically to fundraise for athletics and has “several” sponsors identified and in conversation with the school. 

Sonoma State expects to have 186 athletes and said ex-coaches are “welcome to apply” for their old jobs, though it did not guarantee they would get them.