Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com
By Ray Hamill — Apparently the Jacks are in need of a new game plan, on and off the field of competition.
This year, Cal Poly Humboldt finished a disappointing 11th out of 12 schools in the California Collegiate Athletic Association in the race for the annual Robert J. Hiegert Commissioner’s Cup.
The Commissioner’s Cup, which is named in honor of former long-time Commissioner and CCAA Hall of Famer Robert J. Hiegert, goes to the conference school with the highest aggregate ranking in eight of the CCAA’s 13 championship sports.
To make matters worse for the struggling local university, when the Jacks dropped their football program after the 2018 season school officials claimed that would enable them to be more competitive in other sports, a claim that has clearly not materialized.
On the four occasions the Robert J. Hiegert Commissioner’s Cup has been awarded since the Jacks dropped football (2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024), Humboldt has placed either dead last or second to last in the cup standings.
The football program began play in 1924.
The Commissioner’s Cup went to Cal Poly Humboldt’s biggest conference rival, Chico State, a school that has thrived in sports in recent years.
The Wildcats scored 89.15 points to edge out Cal Poly Pomona (88.63) and Cal State San Marcos (88.13) for the prestigious annual award.
Chico State has now won seven of the last 12 Hiegert Commissioner’s Cups and trails only UC San Diego’s eight cup wins for most all time.
The Jacks scored just 46.53 points this year, barely half of Chico State’s total, and only Cal State Dominguez Hills (44.24) fared worse out of the conference’s 12 member schools.
Categories: Cal Poly Humboldt, Community, Football
Chico State has not had football for over twenty years so is the downtrend for Humboldt solely because of not having football or should we really be looking at the turnover of AD position with 5 different athletics directors over 7 years? I think culture at top defines a department rather than a single sport and stability in leading the Cal Poly athletics should be more of a factor in this opinion.
I agree with Vincent above. The high turnover of AD’s is a problem, and is perhaps an indicator that the management at CPH is suffering. I will also say that with football there seemed to be much more involvement with the community, and that trickled down to other sports on campus as well. So football had an impact more than just on the football field.
Lastly, what other campus in California has the venue that Redwood Bowl provides…..the answer, None.
Too bad that the administration can see those benefits.
Division II football is gone west of the Rockies . With maybe three schools participating . Travel and lack of relevant opposition made it awkward .
When the choice was nursing or football in the past ‘ HSU ‘ chose sport ;
fast forward and nursing is reborn with help from College of the Redwoods .
Sorry folks football at ‘ CPH ‘ is gone ; thank Drew for all his hard work in the weight room !