Cal decided modern college football had become too complicated for one head coach to run alone, so it put Ron Rivera above the coaching operation.
Tosh Lupoi coaches the Golden Bears, while Rivera runs the operations around him. The former NFL head coach and Cal alumnus oversees personnel, the operating budget, revenue sharing, and NIL strategy, while reporting directly to Chancellor Rich Lyons.
Cal’s setup would be prominent anywhere. At Berkeley, it also has to make some sort of financial sense. The athletic department reported a deficit of over $24 million in 2024-25, so paying Rivera $800,000 a year can resemble another heavy expense at first. But his role stretches from retaining players to helping raise the money required to support the roster. In that context, Cal is paying someone to manage a part of the program that has grown into a business of its own.
Ron Rivera Now Sits Above the Coaching Operation
Cal hired Rivera as its first football general manager in March 2025, when Justin Wilcox still reported to athletic director Jim Knowlton, and Rivera reported separately to Lyons. Two California Legends Collective board members soon told SFGATE they were withholding personal donations until Rivera received autonomous authority. Collective president Kevin Kennedy expressed the frustration plainly. “You don’t hire Mario Andretti and ask him to sit in the passenger seat, right?”
The donor dispute showed how uncertain Rivera’s authority looked outside the department. Cal’s structure became clearer after Knowlton retired that summer. New co-athletic directors Jay Larson and Jenny Simon-O’Neil said Rivera would directly oversee football personnel and the operating budget. Rivera later announced Wilcox’s dismissal on Nov. 23 and hired Lupoi 11 days later. Cal added athletic director of football to Rivera’s title in July 2026 and now describes his authority as complete oversight of the program.
Cal Is Paying for an Executive Layer
Rivera’s contract puts a price on the responsibility. The three-year deal guarantees him $800,000 annually, split between a $250,000 base salary and a $550,000 talent fee. Wins can add another $800,000, with the maximum available at 10 or more victories. A 10-win season could therefore lift Rivera’s compensation to $1.6 million even though Lupoi runs the team on game day. Cal has separated executive management from coaching while tying Rivera’s pay to the same results Lupoi is hired to produce.
The two jobs still meet on Saturdays. After Cal beat Syracuse 21-18 on Sept. 12 for Lupoi’s first career victory, Rivera presented the coach with a game ball. Lupoi redirected the moment toward his players and staff. Rivera represented the operation around the team, while Lupoi owned the coaching result.
Rivera Also Has to Price the Roster
Most of Rivera’s work happens long before a game is handed out. Cal distributed the full $20.5 million allowed under the House settlement in 2025-26, and the pool rises 4% annually. The San Francisco Standard reported that about 75% of Cal’s allocation goes to football. Rivera’s contract places him over revenue sharing and the program’s NIL strategy, two separate sources of player compensation that now shape roster construction.
If you want to see what roster management means now, start with the quarterback. Lupoi flew to Hawaii after his introductory visit to the new conference to persuade Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele to remain at Cal after a freshman season of nearly 3,500 passing yards. Rivals projected his 2026 compensation around $3 million from Cal and its NIL collectives, although Sagapolutele told The Standard he did not know whether that figure was accurate.
Rivera’s part of the retention effort sounded closer to fundraising than recruiting. “We had to figure out how we were going to raise money, put money in the pot so we could retain Jaron,” he told The Standard in August. Third-party NIL can supplement Cal’s revenue-sharing pool, giving the football operation another way to compete for an expensive player without using the same institutional dollars.
Rivera does not execute every piece himself. Cal made senior associate athletic director and chief growth officer Adam Brooks football’s sport administrator in July, working with Rivera and Lupoi while developing NIL and revenue-sharing strategy. The structure increasingly resembles an executive office with specialists underneath it.
Cal Needs Rivera to Help Create the Money Too
Managing the roster answers only half of Rivera’s problem because Cal still has to generate the money. The Chronicle reported about $153 million in athletic revenue for 2024-25 against more than $165 million in operating expenses. The deficit exceeded $24 million after nearly $12 million in payments tied to Memorial Stadium renovations and other capital projects. Cal also counted almost $43 million in direct institutional support as revenue.
Conference realignment added pressure to the same budget. Cal entered the ACC on a reduced media-rights share, while payments from UCLA and the University of California system supplied $25 million of its 2024-25 revenue. When co-athletic director Jay Larson discussed the next expense created by the House settlement in February, he made the problem plain. “It adds a $20.5 million expense line. We need to generate the revenue.”
Donors have supplied much of the response so far. Cal reported a record $88.5 million in gifts and pledges during 2025-26, while the Fight for California initiative grew from $6.8 million to $30.6 million. Football also received anonymous gifts of $10.5 million and $6.5 million. Rivera and Lupoi traveled to New York, Los Angeles, and San Diego this summer to meet alumni and sponsors. If you want to see how far the modern football job has moved beyond practice, those trips are part of the answer.
Across the Bay, Stanford reached a similar conclusion when it installed Andrew Luck above its head coach as football general manager. At Stanford’s 2025 SIEPR Economic Summit, Luck said former coach Troy Taylor welcomed the help because the modern job had become too much for one person. “He was relieved,” Luck said. “It’s too much.” Cal and Stanford arrived at comparable structures as player compensation, fundraising and roster movement kept expanding the operation around the coach.
Cal’s model is only beginning its first full season. The department still lists a sustainable financial model as a central goal, and The Standard reported that Sagapolutele could require another retention pitch next summer. By then, the revenue-sharing pool will have risen again. Rivera may find himself back in front of the same donors before Lupoi opens another training camp.
