Cal's sports programs continue to do terrific work in the classroom. At today's Intercollegiate Athletics staff meeting, athletic director Sandy Barbour announced the top three men's and women's programs during the fall semester in terms of grade point average, and it included a record-setting performance.

The women's golf team compiled a cumulative GPA of 3.466, which is the highest ever for any athletic team during one semester at Cal. The women's volleyball team had the second-best among women's programs at 3.297 while the women's tennis team was third at 3.212.

The men's tennis team had the best team GPA among all of Cal's men's programs with a 3.310. Men's golf was second at 3.163 and the men's water polo program was third with a mark of 3.116.

"The work that is put into it, you better take pride in it," Barbour said. "You've not only put in an incredible amount of work and effort and skill, but you've achieved it."

There is an internal competition among Cal's sports teams when it comes to academic performance. Since different programs can't compete against each other in the playing arena, they use the classroom setting to compare themselves against their peers on campus.

"We're incredibly competitive about what we do from an athletic results standpoint," Barbour said. "But we're actually more competitive in the classroom because it's apples to apples. They're sitting in the same classrooms. There's really a wonderful competitive drive and competition over performance in the classroom. Given the skills and the aspirations of the young people we recruit and the kind of coaches that are naturally attracted here, I think it's certainly something we are proud of and something we honor and celebrate."