Normally by this time of the year I’d be looking forward to the Triton Invitational Water Polo tournament at UC San Diego.  Four years ago 14 teams participated.  Three years ago the tournament was down to a field of eight teams.  At one point there were five UC teams participating from what were then nine campuses.  Even with Cal  (Berkeley) itself never making the journey, it was always great as an alum and most-of-my-life Californian to be able to see water polo teams from five of the nine campuses competing against each other in some quality match-ups.

Just finally saw this year’s schedule this morning:this year’s tournament is down to five teams, with the host being the only UC present.  No brackets, just each team playing every other team once.  I’m sure there will be some quality games, but the trends are difficult to ignore.  Hard to not see it as just another step on the UC’s ongoing Drive to Mediocrity.