The College of Alameda announced on Wednesday that its athletics programs will be discontinued at the end of the Spring 2026 season.
[1]“Title IX requires equal access to sports for women and men. Over the past few years, we’ve been unable to maintain a women’s sports team at COA. Without women’s sports, we cannot continue to offer men’s sports,” Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for the Peralta Community College District said in a press release quoted by KTVU News [3]. “Opportunities for student-athletes remain available at our sister colleges in Oakland: Laney College and Merritt College.”
College of Alameda (COA) currently offers only two sports—men’s basketball and women’s volleyball—according to its Athletics [4] webpage and the California Community College Athletic Association [5] (3C2A) directory. The basketball team, coached by Hall of Famer Gary Payton, finished their 2025-2026 season at 11-15 (7-9 in conference play), closing it out with a seven-game losing streak that went through February 19, according to an SF Gate report [6]. The women’s volleyball team didn’t play at all for the past two seasons, according to 3C2A records [7].
Payton—a nine-time All Star, Defensive Player of the Year, and NBA Champion—came to COA for the 2024-2025 season filled with optimism, despite the team’s 7-21 record in the 2023-2024 season.
“We’re going to go around the community, go to different businesses, have meetings with them, and set up lunches,” the NBA legend said at a September 2024 press conference reported by the Alameda Post [8]. As the record shows, however, Payton’s optimism went unfulfilled.
In a post on social media [9], ESPN senior NBA reporter Marc Spears said that Payton will continue his coaching career in the Big3, the three-on-three basketball league founded by rapper Ice Cube. Meanwhile, Alameda players with eligibility are reportedly looking for new schools.