fat_slice said:
berserkeley said:
fat_slice said:
berserkeley said:
fat_slice said:
maxer said:
fat_slice said:
Just want to set people's expectations. Like so many years of Cal football results, we always have high hopes that get burned.
Let me just end all the anxiety for everyone ... We will not have a viable football team after this year. Things are moving at lightening speeding and Cal has No, nada, whatever language you cab say no in, seat at the table in all the realignment talk. People are overestimating the value of the northern California media market where interest in college football (let alone NFL) is subpar. What's more, we don't even have a mediocre history of success and our AD and Chancellor have no clout. Anyone disagree?
Given the above - where do you think we belong? The chickens have finally come to roost and we are getting what our admin deserves ... The end of football and any future success of all other sports on campus.
You think it can't get worse? Of course it will - the best students ...those with both the brain and athletic skills will not choose Cal and longer term this will hit our academic reputation. We are already #2 public uni in the US.
Yes. I disagree. I think you don't know what you're talking about.
Could get Cal left out in the cold? Sure. I think it's unlikely though, for the many many reasons that I, and others have posted in many many other threads.
If assuming the absolute worst case scenario helps you manage your anxiety, that's cool, but if you invite comment you're going to get it.
I feel like I've read every article out there including the comments/perceptions plus everything on this board and what I have seen from cal football over the 30 years I've been following. I have not seen one post, let alone an actual news article that provides a viable/sensible ray of hope.
Can you summarize your thought on the most likely outcome and why? Any deal with Big 12 was just squashed, ACC loose partnership seems not financially viable (per ESPN article), B1G is going to take Oregon, UW, and Stanford if ND comes ... What makes you think we will land even in a semi-OK spot? The media market we are in? If that is what you're banking on my personal feeling is that it is not enough. In fact if that is all that matters than any conference that is doing the poaching will just take Stanford. You don't need Cal ...
I am just calling it as I see it - if you have any basis why it's unlikely we get left out, I'd love to hear it.
You clearly have not read every article out there as several initially mentioned Cal as a Big Ten possibility. Did you see that the former head of Fox Sports estimated Cal/Stanford to be worth $30 million more than Washington/Oregon? So your prediction that Cal has zero chance of making it isn't based on any general consensus.
And your prediction that this will be the last year of major college football at Cal seems way off. The general consensus seems to have settled on the Big Ten and SEC remaining at 16 until either ND decides to join a conference and/or someone figures out how to pierce the ACC grant of rights. And that as long as the Big Ten and SEC stay at 16, the Pac12-2 will remain together. The Pac-12-2 seems to believe that the Big XII-4+2-2+4 won't get a TV deal that would make any Pac-12-2 bolt.
Now, if you're saying that under the new TV contracts, the Pac-12-2 won't be major college football because of the financial disadvantage, then sure. But that applies to the Clemsons and Florida States of the world too.
And at this point, once teams figure out how to get out of the the ACC grant of rights, no one can predict what will happen next because what happens next largely depends on which TV network picks up which ACC teams.
I did read those articles that came out when all this broke. Everything I have read since then has almost never mentioned Cal. We've been grouped as with WSU, OSU into the MWC.
That aside, what I meant by this being the last season of major college football at Cal is that what is happening currently, while it doesn't formally take place 2+ years from now, the impact is immediate. All the recruits we are competing with UCLA, Wisconsin, Michigan etc - you think those 2023 recruits will come here now? Do you think our solid-to-star players are going to stick around after next year if we are not in B1G? Even if the PAC-12 saves itself, do you think they will stay given an offer from one of those schools? Do you think any of our promising coaches (if we have them) will stick around? Our football program goes bust after this year unless we have some clarity.
If this doesn't happen soon, we will be left out -- we have no leadership so if the B1G decides to take more teams 5 years from now... guess what? They are taking SDST because we've continued floundering for the past 5 years with below average recruits, coaches, and most of all, admin.
So you have in fact read more than one article that gives Cal a ray of hope then. After the initial round of Cal being a possibility, the consensus has moved to the Big Ten taking no one and the Pac12-2 staying together. Of course, that could change quickly if the Big XII minus Texas and Oklahoma gets a much better deal than the Pac-12 without USC and UCLA.
As for your doom and gloom over Cal recruiting and retention, that applies to every Pac-12, Big XII, ACC team. Every team not in the Big Ten and SEC are in the same exact boat. Yes, it's possible that by the time the ACC grant of rights is pierced, the Big Ten and SEC will have so greatly distanced themselves from the rest of the pack that neither conference decides to expand.
And, no, in 5 years, the Big Ten would not take SDSU over Cal.
If SDSU (or any other podunk U) joins the pac-12 and kicks our behinds for 5 years, I don't think it's a no brainer that they would jump us in the B1G sweepstakes.
The Oregon's, Washington's Clemson's, Florida Sts, Miami's have a lot less to worry about -- they get so much admin support they will find a why to stay competitive and worst come to worst, will join the B1G/SEC at their first opp. The doom and gloom is for all the other colleges and yes that is correct -- all these colleges are going to be royally screwed.
I'm not trying to disagree for you - I just honestly don't see a realistic way that we survive this. The only scenario I see that happening is if the ACC and pac-12 officially merge. We could then potentially be a close 3rd to SEC/B1G. The latter though actually happening seems to be a pipe dream. A loose alliance just sounds like a stop gap.
I also don't disagree that Cal ending up in the MWC (or worse, cuts football altogether) is all too likely. The only thing I disagree with is this has been universally accepted as the only possible outcome for Cal by the broader sports media.
Everyone thinks Oregon and Washington are shoo-ins for the Big Ten, but the former president of Fox Sports said that Cal and Stanford are worth more to TV networks. And his opinion is worth more than all other opinions combined. So it isn't obvious that Cal has no chance at the Big Ten.
It also isn't obvious that the Big Ten or SEC will expand within the next 14 years or even that they will even raid the ACC once they've waited those 14 years for the right to do so. And, if they don't, I do think that the best of the rest (Pac-12, Big XII, ACC) will form a national super conference that at least keeps them in the game even if at a distance third. Separately, the three aren't even in the game. So Pac-10 then new conference is also possible.
But as long as the Pac-10 sticks together, which looks likely at this point, Cal will be a major conference team. And I'm not sure that the Big Ten / SEC bottom feeders will have a recruiting advantage over the top halves of the Pac-12-2, Big XII, ACC type. But I get your point that Cal won't be a upper team in the Pac-12-2. I think NIL is the bigger threat to Cal football and recruiting.