Humboldt Lumberjacks sports teams will be facing new and old rivals this upcoming sports season.
By Sadie Shields
Cal Poly Humboldt’s Lumberjacks will be facing new teams and saying goodbye to old rivals after last spring season. With the addition of University of California Merced this year and Fresno Pacific University entering the California Collegiate Athletic Associations (CCAA), new rivalries are bound to bloom.
The Lumberjacks will play UC Merced in this fall season. We still have to wait to see what Fresno Pacific University and the Sunbirds have for us until next year. According to the University of California Merced’s official website, the Lumberjacks will be facing nine of the 12 teams their university has to offer.
“This has been a goal for our program since its inception,” UC Merced Executive Director of Recreation and Athletic David Dunham said to sources last year. “We look forward to new rivalries to be formed within the CCAA and competing in one of the top Division II conferences in the nation.”
While it’s great to welcome two new divisions, we also have to say goodbye to one of our former rivals, the Sonoma State University Seawolves. Sonoma State discontinued its athletics program at the end of June 2025, which it has had since 1998.
“I don’t know how long it will take for a sports program to come back, or frankly, if intercollegiate NCAA sports will ever come back,” Sonoma State Interim President Dr. Emily Carter said. “They may, they may not. I, as Interim President, will probably not make that decision.”
According to CCAA’s Official Website, Fresno Pacific University will be coming to the CCAA league in fall 2026.
“Fresno Pacific University checks all of the boxes and is a wonderful fit with the other universities that constitute the CCAA,” CCAA Board Chair and California State University Dominguez Hills President Dr. Thomas A. Parham said.
Fresno Pacific will also be the only private university in the CCAA and the first non-public, non-state member institution in the conference since Grand Canyon university which left the league in 2004.
While the CCAA prepares to welcome Fresno Pacific, they also may have to prepare to lose another program. This year San Francisco State University got rid of Men’s Baseball, Men’s Soccer and Women’s Track and Field except for distance, according to the Golden Gate Express Newspaper.
San Francisco State is now at the minimum number of teams required to have an athletic program, so the next step would be cutting it in its entirety if funding isn’t met.
According to the newspaper, “The athletics department has proposed an increase to the existing Instructionally Related Activities-Atheltics fee, which would total $100 starting this fall semester and have a $25 increase implemented each year for the next three years.”
With the increase in funding, they are hoping to hold onto the sports they still have. Cal Poly Humboldt can expect to see a significant change in the teams they compete against over the next few years.