Poor Cal fans are in full-on meltdown mode
TL;DR - Cal is in some serious trouble, and their fans are buying up torches and pitchforks. The B1G presidents (who are supposedly pushing for Cal and Stanford to be invited) might be their only hope.
I'm not posting this for schadenfreude because no one really wishes ill upon Cal. If anything, I'm guessing that most of us want to see Cal do well since UC-Berkeley is basically Michigan's West Coast twin (albeit the dirtier, poorer, and more disheveled twin).
https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/oregon-washington-big-ten
The comments give a window into how angry their fans are at the university leadership that has driven their AD completely into the ground over the past 10+ years. They've incurred a massive amount of debt that would have taken them the better part of the next century to pay off even if the Pac-?? were on solid financial footing. Now, with the Pac facing imminent collapse, they may not ever be able to pay it off.
As a Michigan alum in the Bay Area, I definitely want to see Cal get its act together and thrive. But if they can't manage to snag a B1G invite, their athletic department might literally be facing total disintegration. Given that it's Berkeley, there are influential nutjob factions within the university that hate college football and everything it represents. The impending collapse of the Pac could energize those factions and force a shutdown of the program altogether. It seems inconceivable that an FBS football program would go from Power 5 status to defunct seemingly overnight, but here we are.
Relatedly, I'm hearing that the B1G university presidents are pushing hard for Cal and Stanford to be invited, but that Fox Sports and the other media partners are pushing back (I can't find the link where I read that). For mostly selfish reasons, I'm hoping they can find a way to get a deal done.
August 4th, 2023 at 10:11 PM ^
We can schedule them then. But they don't make a lot of sense as a conference member.
August 4th, 2023 at 11:44 PM ^
Makes sense. I have a friend who lives near Cal and routinely heads over with a $15 ticket to pass the time on Saturdays.
Signed in to upvote this. Amen.
If we’ve learned nothing else from the internet, haven’t we learned that it can amplify voices for a like-minded audience?
Look, if you’re going to take people literally, sure. Cal’s team has parents too. But in a metaphorical sense, compared to the Midwest, no, Cal has no fans, and the voices you’re reading are not representative.
It’s something the Big Ten is about to learn for itself when it wonders why nobody in Seattle or Portland is buying BTN.
Take them both. Go to 20. 4 divisions of 5. Take two weeks for the division winners to play down to a conference champ. Let #2-5 in each division have crossovers to meet any schedule requirements.
There's just a slight problem with this scenario, though: taking both Cal and Stanford means 6 West Coast teams, so which one of them gets sent to a theoretical "Plains Pod" to join Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and probably Wisconsin?
Or does the B1G instead expand to 24 teams? I sure hope not.
I laid out this exact scenario in a separate thread. It would technically be a West Coast pod since there'd be more West Coast teams than Plains teams. IMO it's honestly the best we can hope for at this point, considering the alternatives.
We would have to raid the ACC to get to 24 and then create four divisions of six teams each.
August 4th, 2023 at 11:07 PM ^
I'd prefer 13 divisions of 5 and a half teams each.
It doesn't really matter though, college football is terminal patient and a soul-less nfl-lite is here to stay.
My theory when OU/UT was announced was that we will have 2 24-team conferences (SEC and B1G)
4 6-pod divisions
sort of like an enlarged AFC/NFC
and then you do playoffs and scheduling with the 2 winners facing each other in CFB Super Bowl
but perhaps I’m wrong
I think this makes sense, and I would rename the conferences Union and Confederacy.
Take Stanford but not Cal. We only need one team to get the San Fran market. Stanford has a very rich athletic tradition and great Olympic sports. Cal has...?
I’ll give it 72 hours until a prominent 55-year-old California male politician releases a statement and/or has a press conference, trying to force the Big Tens hand here.
That’s not “politics” - that’s a prediction. I fully expect others to get involved here - they already did with “Cal-imony”
Feel bad for their fans but as far as I'm concerned if Cal doesn't give a shit about their own athletics program why should anyone else? They've allowed a bunch of nutjobs to infiltrate their circles of influence and the bill came due.
They've allowed a bunch of nutjobs to infiltrate their circles of influence and the bill came due.
That's not the source of Cal's woes. Berkeley will always have anti-sports, anti-capitalism nutjobs. But with Cal's AD, it was quite the opposite, actually. They incurred massive, eye-popping amounts of debt to fund a lavish stadium expansion project (technically, the purpose of the project was to seismically retrofit the stadium to account for problems caused by the Hayward Fault that runs directly underneath it, but they went overboard and added a bunch of unnecessary amenities). They were banking on the idea that they could recoup the money from sales of luxury suites to their wealthy Silicon Valley alumni base. In fact, they used Michigan as their model. They didn't account for the fact that Cal doesn't have nearly the athletic brand strength that Michigan has and that the university's terrible alumni relations department never bothered to cultivate a culture of giving and support among their alumni base.
Less than zero interest in adding Cal personally. The B1G can get a school that is both strong academically and not a dumpster fire athletically. And one that produces less embarrassing alumni.
If we're assuming we take exactly two more, I'd go Stanford and Notre Dame. Stanford is bad in the big sports but very good in all the rest and bring as much or more to the table academically as Cal. Bring them in probably pushes Notre Dame over the edge; the B1G will have all of their traditional rivals except Navy at that point if I'm remembering them all. Yes yes, to hell with Notre Dame and all, but thinking purely business it makes sense and I think even they have to see the writing on the wall this time and they are going to want exactly zero to do with the SEC culturally.
And one that produces less embarrassing alumni.
You do realize that between their alumni and their faculty, Berkeley has produced like a billion Nobel laureates, right?
I can’t really say what I want to say without violating board rules so I won’t say it. But that’s not the be all end all.
Hasn't Robert McNamara been criticized enough? Let the man rest in peace.
I get your point, but they have 16 Nobel laureates in physics alone. Politics and athletics woes aside, Berkeley is an academic powerhouse.
I'm curious who you think is embarrassing Cal alumni. I really have no clue.
Aaron Rodgers, for one
August 4th, 2023 at 10:06 PM ^
Haha, I was going to suggest that but thought I'd get pummeled for one reason or another.
August 4th, 2023 at 11:31 PM ^
Best post of the day right here.
Nicely done Puti!
Dude hates Counting Crows, I guess
And fucking Chris Pine. That Star Trek reboot sucks. He's no Shatner...
I would rather have Cal vs. Notre Dame. I don't care what ND brings to the table football-wise.
To hell with Notre Dame.
Cal brings nothing to the table at all. Hard pass.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:37 PM ^
Cal is a powerhouse in rugby, swimming/diving, and has produced numerous PGA tour players
but football and basketball are a joke
Good thing we apparently only care about the rich ones.
I hope they find a way to get to the B1G, especially with UCLA coming. I hope Stanford comes too. Feel bad for Oregon State and Washington State though. They got lost in the shuffle...
Cal fans can blame their arrogant University leadership. Demanding "Calimony" when UCLA joined is emblematic of the Cal BoT worldview.
Yep - the smart move, especially given the possible implosion of the PAC-12 was fairly possible - would have been being nice to UCLA. Nope, they instead demanded a bunch of their $$$.
But as you said, that’s Cal. It’s not everybody up there - but a number of them not only look down on UCLA (a top 5 research school in the country!), they would close the school and burn down Westwood if they could.
That's exactly who they're blaming. They're a mostly sensible bunch. Cal is a rare instance of a school where the students who like football are more sensible and rational than the students who don't.
i hate super conferences, but if we're going to be a superconference i'd rather make as many fans happy as possible.
also...do we need to take potshots at poor people displaced by the housing crisis in a CFB thread? I was annoyed when everybody was dumping on Detroit a decade or so back. This post was informative but that line was crass and unnecessary.
August 4th, 2023 at 10:28 PM ^
What line are you referring to? I didn't take any potshots at anyone.
August 4th, 2023 at 11:08 PM ^
albeit the dirtier, poorer, and more disheveled twin
Guessing you didn't mean harm but that line didn't sit well with me. I thought you were ragging on Berkeley/the Bay Areas homeless pooulation
August 4th, 2023 at 11:13 PM ^
Your sarcasm meter needs batteries.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:09 AM ^
I imagine he meant Berkeley's students/alumni vs Michigan students/alumni. And like Michigan's alumni, Berkeley's are doing just fine in life and don't need defending from a friendly jab in a blog post.
August 5th, 2023 at 10:25 AM ^
I was ragging on hippies, not the homeless.
All of this is dumb. The PAC 10 and Big 12 should’ve just combined.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:26 AM ^
B1G didn't want the dregs and the runts. They wanted the pick of the litter and basically got it.
Is this a plausible scenario? All the current ACC programs vote to dissolve the ACC. Bye bye grant of rights. Then they form a new "Coastal Conference", formed of all the current ACC programs, plus Cal, Stanford, Wazzou, and Oregon State. Academic powerhouse. Solid football and basketball Conference. And the size of the other power conferences. Negotiate a new media rights deal.
Is that legally possible?
Why not just add those 4 schools if that's what they want to do. No need to take drastic measures just to change their name. Dissolving the conference would almost guarantee some schools bolt.
Simply to get out of the ACC media deal and negotiate a new one. Their media deal runs for another 13 years and it is pretty dismal compared to the Big Ten and SEC. And there's no way out of that deal that I've heard. Hence why a few programs desperately want out. I would think if given the chance, they could negotiate a far better deal.
August 4th, 2023 at 10:00 PM ^
I'm not sure adding four Pac-12 teams with small fanbases is going to do a lot for their media deal, and now they'd be splitting it 16 ways instead of 12.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:13 AM ^
There's no way they get a better media deal after dissolving the conference. As Mr. Miggle says, the best schools (FSU, Miami, Clemson) will bolt, and as they go, the chance at a better media deal goes too.
August 4th, 2023 at 10:23 PM ^
The ACC TV deal isn't good, but even if they could break it and renegotiate, they'd never get close to what Big Ten/SEC teams are getting. Their fundamental issue is that they just don't have that many fans.
August 4th, 2023 at 11:20 PM ^
OK lets go over how that's going to go down. What position is this new "Coastal Conference" going to be in by adding 4 bottom feeders from the Pac 12, and losing Clemson, Florida State and possibly Miami? They would be in the same position the Pac 12 was in when they lost USC and UCLA. Sports broadcasting companies DO NOT care about academics.
What do Cal and Stanford offer aside from academic prestige?
They bring nothing to the table, if what you’re looking for is more eyeballs and a bigger slice of pie. They are rats on a sinking ship begging not to drown.
They are elite academic institutions. That’s it. As athletic programs, they may be well rounded, but they are dead weight, from a revenue and eyeballs perspective. I’d honestly rather hold out for ND or even wait another 5-10 years for Clemson/FSU. They don’t hold the same academic weight, but they bring more to the table.