File Photo UA head baseball coach Andy Lopez (7), in his fourth year with the Wildcats, will be continuing on for a fifth year, dispelling rumors of his early departure.

Despite rumored interest from Big 12 programs Oklahoma, the 1994 NCAA National Champion, and Texas A&M, UA baseball head coach Andy Lopez is standing pat as a Wildcat.

The fourth-year UA skipper, who led the Wildcats back to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. last season for the first time since the UA baseball heyday of the 1970s and 80s, gave his pledge last week to UA athletics director Jim Livengood that he intends to stay in Tucson and honor his contract.

"Contrary to published reports and rumors about my imminent departure from Arizona, I would like to firmly state my commitment to the university and to its baseball program," Lopez said in a statement last week.

"Jim Livengood and the administration at Arizona have made a commitment to me and my coaching staff, and in turn I have made one to them," he said. "I feel in the four years since I arrived at Arizona, the players and coaches have made significant strides in re-establishing the program as a nationally respected group."

Since his arrival prior to the 2002 season, Lopez has taken a mediocre UA squad to the brink of greatness. His 2004 team was Arizona's first to finish among the final eight teams in Omaha since Jerry Kindall's 1986 National Championship unit.

Seven members of Lopez's first true recruiting class, including National Player of the Year candidate Trevor Crowe, standout catcher Nick Hundley and 2005 Pacific 10 Conference RBI king Jordan Brown were selected on the first day of the Major League Baseball amateur draft last week, just a day after the Wildcats were bounced from this year's NCAA tournament by defending National Champion Cal State Fullerton.

Lopez, with one National Championship to his credit – 1992, with Pepperdine – is one of only three coaches in NCAA history to lead three different teams to the CWS – UA, Pepperdine, Florida – but his base salary is only about $87,000 per year.

Lopez said that money isn't the reason he'd be drawn to one school or another.

"Over the 28 years that I have been a coach, I have learned that you can't measure things by numbers," he said.

"My wife and four children love living here and making Tucson our home, and to me that is more important than any other factor that could be considered," he said.

This year's potential courtship is not the first time Lopez's name has been mentioned for open positions.

After the 2003 season, his second at the UA, Lopez was suggested to be in line to take over the top spot at UCLA, his alma mater, following the retirement of long time Bruin coach Gary Adams.

To make the situation even more dicey, UCLA had only recently hired Dan Guerrero as its athletic director. Guerrero and Lopez were Bruin teammates during their collegiate playing days.

But Lopez rebuffed the claims, adding at the time he was excited for the possibilities of what coaching in Tucson might hold for him, and he does not intend to break the contract he signed.

"I've honored every contract I've ever signed, everywhere I've gone," Lopez told the Wildcat in November 2003, just after Livengood inked him to a multi-year deal that should keep Lopez in Tucson until at least 2008.

"I signed the contract here with that intention, and I plan to show good faith and prove it," he said.

Lopez's most recent season with the Wildcats, however, one that saw the Wildcats enter the final weekend of Pac-10 play with the No. 7 national ranking and a shot at the Pac-10 championship, was also filled with disappointment at times.

Lopez retracted the Wildcats' bid to host an NCAA regional at Sancet Stadium after an average of only 1,100 fans showed up per game.

Inversely, Arizona State, which hosted a regional at Packard Stadium in Tempe despite also being a No. 2 seed, averaged nearly 3,000 fans per game this year.