After 14 years serving as Director of Athletics at Cal Poly, Don Oberhelman announced his retirement on Monday, according to a university-wide email.
He will stay on as Director of Athletics until the end of summer or when a new hire is made.
In his time, Oberhelman saw success in student-athlete graduation rate as well as on the playing field. Last year, the athletic department saw a 93% graduation rate, over a 20% improvement from 2011.
“We will certainly miss Don, but please join me in thanking Don for his years of outstanding service and in wishing him and his wife, D.D., a long, well-earned, and enjoyable retirement,” said President Jeffrey Armstrong in the email.
Oberhelman departs Cal Poly and college athletics during a time of dramatic overhaul in the NCAA, with players allowed to make money off their name, image, and likeness, as well as enjoy freedom of movement through the transfer portal, which enables them to move between institutions.
The athletic department will also face fiscal challenges, including the House v. NCAA settlement, which was approved on Friday, as well as Cal State University budget cuts. The financial hardships led the university to cut the swim and dive team at the end of the 2024-2025 season.
The team needs to reach $15 million by June 15 in order to be reinstated.
Oberhelman’s tenure
Oberhelman was named Cal Poly’s Director of Athletics on March 17, 2011, after arriving from San Diego State, where he served as Senior Associate Athletic Director.
In his early years at Cal Poly, men’s and women’s basketball made their first NCAA Tournament appearances, baseball earned a No. 1 national ranking and football won a Big Sky Conference Championship.
In recent seasons, Cal Poly has achieved success across its 20 sports programs. Beach Volleyball reached the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament two consecutive years. Cross country and track and field secured multiple Big West Championships in the fall and spring. Men’s soccer won the Big West regular season title in 2024. Men’s and women’s basketball have seen a resurgence after new coaching hires. Baseball won the Big West Championship and won two games in the NCAA Tournament this past spring.
Cal Poly earned its first Big West Commissioner’s Cup in 2024. The cup recognizes the program with the highest degree of success in all men’s and women’s sports during the academic year. The Mustangs set a record for most points in the race with 149.4.
Overall, Cal Poly has won 54 conference championships, including 51 in Cal Poly’s 16 Big West-sponsored sports — the most out of all Big West universities in that span.
During Oberhelman’s tenure, the athletic department completed numerous facility upgrades, including the Baggett Stadium clubhouse, Doerr Family Field, Comerford Pavilion and Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex. The John Madden Football Center is currently under construction but will be finished within the next year.
“Don has embraced the Cal Poly hallmark of continued improvement and leaves our Athletics program significantly enhanced from the day he arrived,” said Armstrong in the email.
Cal Poly also renovated eight locker rooms, Mott Athletic Center’s Hall of Fame, two weight rooms and the Miller-Capriotti Track Complex. Oberhelman also focused on improving Cal Poly’s production, with a state-of-the-art ESPN+ studio, an improved Hoffman Press Box and seven video boards.
Challenges in the NCAA
However, one challenge Oberhelman and the athletic department have dealt with is the numerous changes in college athletics and the NCAA. Oberhelman himself has been critical of the current state.
“I’m disappointed with where we are,” he told Mustang News in an interview during winter. “I’m disappointed in my colleagues. I’m disappointed in our leadership. We used to think about Division I as a collective product, like we’re all in this together. We make rules together. We know we need people to compete against. Somewhere along the way, we stop thinking about ourselves as a collective product and more as an individual product.”
Since the pandemic, the NCAA altered its rules and practices around the transfer portal, players earning money off their name, image and likeness and governance structure.
More change is on the way. On Friday, the long-awaited House v. NCAA settlement was approved by Judge Claudia Wilkins in Northern California.
The groundbreaking settlement will allow universities to directly pay student-athletes the revenue that they generate. It also removed scholarship limits on sports and instead set roster limits for every sport.
Cal Poly recently established its Players Trust, which will capitalize on the freedom universities now have to increase the number of scholarships and offer supplemental scholarship opportunities.
“It’s actually an opportunity for us to maybe even get better,” said Oberhelman in a recent interview with Mustang News. “It’s not just about keeping up, because I think that’s the way a lot of schools are looking at it. I think for us, it’s an opportunity to improve our standing because we do have those people in our community who want to see us get better.”
One point of contention in the settlement between the attorneys and the judge was the introduction of roster limits instead of scholarship limits. Previously, teams could carry as many student-athletes they desired, but had a limited amount of scholarships to distribute.
Wilkins threatened to shut down the settlement unless both sides addressed her concerns. In the end, Wilkins agreed to the “phase-in” of roster limits. Student-athletes who had their position cut due to the settlement will be eligible for reinstatement based on their schools’ discretion. It also allows athletes who leave their school to transfer and keep their phase-in status at a different institution.
However, there are major financial ramifications to the settlement. The class action lawsuit will pay $2.8 billion to student-athletes from 2016-2021 who were prevented from making money off their name, image and likeness due to NCAA rules.
Cal Poly estimates they will lose approximately $550,000 per year for the next 12 years in revenue from the NCAA.
The House settlement, along with budget cuts in the CSU system and the large number of athletic programs, led to Oberhelman’s decision to cut the Swim and Dive team.
“It’s painful,” said Oberhelman in a video on the Cal Poly Athletics YouTube discussing the winter sports season. “It causes anger and a lot of misdirected rage and things like that. It’s an awful situation to go through, but we didn’t go into it lightly.”
A national search will begin immediately to find Oberhelman’s replacement.
