California Polytechnic State University - Athletics

Athletics

Cal Poly fields 20 varsity sports. The school's mascot is Musty the Mustang. Sports teams participate in the NCAA's Division I. Cal Poly athletics generally compete in the Big West Conference, with football and wrestling being the exception. Cal Poly's wrestling team is a member of the Pacific-12 Conference. Prior to joining Division I in 1994, the school won 35 NCAA Division II national team championships. The Mustangs competed in the NCAA Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). The Mustang Maniacs are Cal Poly's spirit group. They support the team both away and at home.

The Mustang basketball team had its most successful year in 2007, when the team came within one win in the Big West basketball tournament of getting into the NCAA basketball tournament

One of the school's best programs, in recent years and in the 1980s, is the women's volleyball team. On November 19, 2007 the team captured its second straight Big West Title by posting a 15–1 conference record and a 23–8 record overall. The program made it to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 1985 before losing to Stanford in the Sweet 16. The team also went 23–6 in 2006.

The men's cross country team has finished in the top 25 in the nation four of the past five years. In 2009, Coach Mark Conover and his men's squad captured their seventh straight Big West Title. Their last national placing was in 2008, when they finished 23rd at the National Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, IN.