The 2012-13 year for Oregon athletics was something of a marvel. Many schools push their assets into one program — usually football or basketball — and allow the other programs to underperform. Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens has taken a different approach.

As each program reaches new heights, the bar is raised. Oregon’s meal ticket, football, attracts the most attention from fans but isn’t necessarily the top program at Oregon. With volleyball making the national championship game, basketball making the Sweet 16 and being knocked out by the eventual champion Louisville Cardinals, baseball getting a national seed for the second-straight season, both men’s and women’s track and field bringing their storied programs to new heights and softball being the number three team in the country headed into the postseason, Oregon is becoming a dynasty. It has even taken to introducing a new sport, acrobatics and tumbling, in which it dominates.

With the firing of soccer coach Tara Erickson, Mullens sent a message to all the programs: Mediocrity will not be tolerated. If the buy-out for women’s basketball coach Paul Westhead’s contract wasn’t over half a million dollars, he would likely have been fired as well.

This has created an interesting paradigm for students at the UO. Seniors have seen the football program vie for a national title and baseball reinstated. They have also seen basketball flounder at the bottom of the conference with national relevance seemingly nowhere in sight.

Probably most significant was the reign of Chip Kelly in its entirety. How he brought an average program up to competing with the nation’s top teams annually is truly something special.

Freshmen now have high expectations, but they will likely not be let down. Many of Oregon’s programs haven’t come close to plateauing.

After an unpredicted tournament run in 2013, the basketball program will continue to rise. Freshmen Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis are two of the best young players in the conference. When paired with a strong recruiting class, Oregon should easily be able to return to the postseason despite losing E.J. Singler and Arsalan Kazemi.

Oregon’s baseball program might have come up short of the College World Series the past two years, but it has also only been around for four seasons. Each year coach George Horton brings in some of the most decorated guys coming out of high school and instills a blue-collar work ethic in them that has translated positively on the field.

So, yes, Oregon’s success this year was unprecedented, but it likely won’t be unique. The seemingly limitless athletic budget will allow these programs to continue to rise, rather than peak and plummet. The constant addition of new facilities and the brand that Oregon has created will keep recruits rolling into Eugene. Even looming football sanctions will likely be unable to hinder the athletic powerhouse that Oregon has become.