“100% different vibe as last year — it feels depressing” said former Sonoma State baseball players Trey Trias and Brandon Marion as they reflected on returning to a place they once called home. Students are back in action as the fall 2025 semester begins. However, the elimination of athletics due to the university’s $24 million budget deficit has made campus life feel very different for the student-athletes who chose to stay, some of whom hoped NCAA sports might return.

“It didn’t feel like this one bit last year,” they said. “Now, everyone just goes straight to class. There aren’t the same groups hanging out before or after like there used to be.”

Both athletes were originally drawn to Sonoma State by the success of its sports community, the beauty of the Rohnert Park campus and the tradition of Seawolf athletics. But that sense of connection has been hard to regain this fall. Trias and Marion each have one year of NCAA eligibility remaining, and both have played baseball nearly their entire lives.

Trias, a 21-year-old senior, said he was “fully committed to transferring” after hearing the news about the program’s elimination. But a lower back surgery forced him to rethink this decision. “That surgery made me stay,” he said. “I really thought more student-athletes would have stayed too, but I guess they all found different homes.”

Marion, also a senior, age 22, had his own reasons to leave but one stronger reason to stay. “The only reason I chose to stay was because of my scholarship,” he said. “Otherwise, I would’ve gone somewhere else to play.”

Both athletes are now focused on finishing their degrees, but they are clear about one thing: the vibe is not the same, and the absence of sports is something that can’t be ignored. The energy, brotherhood, and traditions that once defined campus life feel distant.