Bobodeluxe said:

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Few people show up now, so little will change, other than fewer gates will be open.

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oskidunker said:

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Cal vs Oregon State probably wont be at night

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Boot said:

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I really think that with the TV market here
we end up in either the Big10 or we poach the Big12.
I personally think Cal and Stanford should move to the Ivy.
The pre and post game party's would be legendary.

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Cal84 said:

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Boot said:

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I really think that with the TV market here
we end up in either the Big10 or we poach the Big12.
I personally think Cal and Stanford should move to the Ivy.
The pre and post game party's would be legendary.

---

Cal/Furd will get a Big12 invite. not the other way around (P12 going after B12 teams). The B12 will reocgnize an opportunity to get an CA foothold and will take it. Geographically the AZ or Mtn (Utah, Col) schools make more sense, but adding them won't increase the per school TV payout for B12 schools, so they will be shunned. UW/Oregon will also get B12 invites, but will decline aiming for a move the B1G.

So then Cal/Furd will need to decide whether to eat humble pie and join a conference filled with religious and academic lightweight schools that they previously turned their noses up against. Or go Ivy. Choice A involves probably a tripling of travel expenses which means half the non-revenue sports would need to be killed off. Choice B involves a quadrupling of travel expenses and the complete elimination of TV revenues, which means basically all sports would need to be killed off.

From experience we know that Cal/Furd administration will waffle, bemoan their situation and pick Choice C: do nothing. The B12 will be flabbergasted and will get the AZ and Mtn schools just to get bigger and aim for a union with the ACC. A year later Cal/Furd, Oregon State and WSU will get invites to the Mountain West. Which they will be forced at accept in order to get any TV revenues. But even with this comeupance, Cal Athletics will have learned nothing and will continue to spend more on non-revenue sports than their MW bretheren. Consequently within 3 years Cal will simply be a mid-tier team in the MW and go through repeated cycles of "rebuilding".

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dimitrig said:

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heartofthebear said:

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hanky1 said:

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It's not fun anymore. It sucks. Last year was the first year as a fan that just wasn't enjoyable for me. This coming year...I have no intention of attending or watching any games. I'm done. The sport is broken and it's hard to cheer for anyone when there are no longer any more loyalties.

Even making fun of some of you on the OT board has lost its fun. Anyways, I'm not complaining. It's been fun posting on the various versions of this board for the past 20 years, especially when I still own so many of you. But you might as well go out on a high note...so this is goodbye.

---

I'll say this, the forces of college football--the sports media, the institutions of higher education, the coaches, the conferences, the boosters, the officials, the recruiters, the NCAA and now, unfortunately, the players and students --are the biggest unorganized consortium of self-serving and shortsighted individuals that exists in the world of sports. I'd include the fans, but the fans are self serving in any sports world, not just college football. None of these groups has ever acted like they've had a serious thought about the long term effect of their interests on the health of the sport.

In the 70s college football was a better product than the NFL. The NFL was based on running and defense. And it was low scoring. There were basically 6 dynasties that dominated the NFL (Steelers, Dolphins, Vikings, Cowboys and Raiders--the 49ers in the 80's). NCAA football games were more interesting because, quite frankly, amateurs make more mistakes than the pros. So the chaos created by mistakes made things exciting for fans. Anything could happen in a college football game. And it often did. Things like "the play" just didn't happen in the NFL. College had the 2 point conversion and the NFL did not. College football was accessible and affordable while the NFL was expensive and only on Sundays at 10 and 1.

Over the years, college football and the media cashed in on this value, but did it such a way so that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, tainting the game. Meanwhile the NFL addressed the lack of parity with the draft, realignments, expansion and finally the salary cap. And they expanded TV coverage to Monday night and other nights. In doing so, they made it so that almost every major city's population would flock to NFL games and everybody else could watch at home. The NCAA has made it harder to watch, requiring expensive TV packages while the NFL still broadcasts on major networks.

In essence, the NFL thought about the future and carefully laid out a plan to address problems and make improvements and they never lost sight of the fact that the fans are their end user and their number 1 target. The world of college football lost sight of that a long time ago, preferring to focus on short term profits. Heck even the new rules to better protect players is so unevenly enforced in college football that it has become a factor in the fall of the pac-12 as a conference. Everyone knows that the pac-12 officiating is a joke. And players choose to go elsewhere, although not always for that reason alone.

The NFL surpassed MLB to become the most popular sport in America. I still like college football, despite all of this, because it is better than mowing the lawn or doing taxes on a beautiful fall Saturday. Memorial stadium is still beautiful even though it no longer has grass. But I now prefer NFL football much more than NCAA football. And baseball is equal to it.

Now that the pac-12 is falling apart, I suspect my interest in college football will continue to wane and I may actually prefer mowing the lawn.

---

"I'll say this, the forces of college football--the sports media, the institutions of higher education, the coaches, the conferences, the boosters, the officials, the recruiters, the NCAA and now, unfortunately, the players and students --are the biggest unorganized consortium of self-serving and shortsighted individuals that exists in the world of sports."

This.

College football is dying a slow death and the Big10 and SEC are helping it along. Basketball may have more hope but it, too, will be jeopardized by NIL money which is in turn required because of the media contracts and greed of the conferences who valued money more than the athletes or the student experience.

It is really hard to get into the idea of student-athletes making tens of millions of dollars to play a game while pretending to care about getting an education. Why should students care and if students and alumni stop caring then who is this all for? Advertisers trying to market products? Killing college sports is the best way to reach a market? Hardly.

I hate to say it, but maybe Stanford has its priorities correct by refusing to have a NIL collective. I am not at all surprised to see USC chasing dollars but I am a little sad/surprised that UCLA went along with them.

Part of me would like to see Cal joining them, but when I look at the future of collegiate sport maybe it is better to just fast forward to the end game and skip a decade of heartbreak pretending that we can compete in this new landscape. Many of us don't even WANT to compete in that environment if that is what it takes.

This development highlighted that what we sort of suspected is true is definitely true: amateur collegiate competition in the revenue sports is dead and has been for some time - at least at the highest levels. Cal can't and shouldn't be part of that.

---

Cal84 said:

---

Boot said:

---

I really think that with the TV market here
we end up in either the Big10 or we poach the Big12.
I personally think Cal and Stanford should move to the Ivy.
The pre and post game party's would be legendary.

---

Cal/Furd will get a Big12 invite. not the other way around (P12 going after B12 teams). The B12 will reocgnize an opportunity to get an CA foothold and will take it. Geographically the AZ or Mtn (Utah, Col) schools make more sense, but adding them won't increase the per school TV payout for B12 schools, so they will be shunned. UW/Oregon will also get B12 invites, but will decline aiming for a move the B1G.

So then Cal/Furd will need to decide whether to eat humble pie and join a conference filled with religious and academic lightweight schools that they previously turned their noses up against. Or go Ivy. Choice A involves probably a tripling of travel expenses which means half the non-revenue sports would need to be killed off. Choice B involves a quadrupling of travel expenses and the complete elimination of TV revenues, which means basically all sports would need to be killed off.

From experience we know that Cal/Furd administration will waffle, bemoan their situation and pick Choice C: do nothing. The B12 will be flabbergasted and will get the AZ and Mtn schools just to get bigger and aim for a union with the ACC. A year later Cal/Furd, Oregon State and WSU will get invites to the Mountain West. Which they will be forced at accept in order to get any TV revenues. But even with this comeupance, Cal Athletics will have learned nothing and will continue to spend more on non-revenue sports than their MW bretheren. Consequently within 3 years Cal will simply be a mid-tier team in the MW and go through repeated cycles of "rebuilding".

---

fat_slice said:

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Correct title for this thread is: "College Football sucks ... For us"

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philly1121 said:

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fat_slice said:

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Correct title for this thread is: "College Football sucks ... For us"

---

Exactly. Had we been winning we would be the ones saying "leave UCLA, USC, Colorado and Utah behind!" "they're not academically as good as us!"

It really just boils down to how good our football team is. We aren't good. Haven't been for a long time. There is very little admin support for us to be better long term. We just aren't that university.

Any likely scenarios for us do NOT include the B1G. They don't want us. We're shyte to them. We're shyte to the P12 too for that matter.

Option A: stay in the P12 and invite 4 teams from MW and/or B12.
Option B: join the B12 (This won't happen because we won't join a conference with TCU or Baylor.)

Ivy League is not an option for us. Its too far. They won't come out here. Only "natural" rival would be Yale.

I think the university admins are probably saying, "since we can't go bigger because we just don't want to....we should dial it back and just play with what we have. Landscape of college football is changing and will change again."

The more apocalyptic question for Cal is: what happens in 5-7 years when consolidation happens again. That really could be the end since we have no money or institutional strength to compete.

---

dimitrig said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

hanky1 said:

---

It's not fun anymore. It sucks. Last year was the first year as a fan that just wasn't enjoyable for me. This coming year...I have no intention of attending or watching any games. I'm done. The sport is broken and it's hard to cheer for anyone when there are no longer any more loyalties.

Even making fun of some of you on the OT board has lost its fun. Anyways, I'm not complaining. It's been fun posting on the various versions of this board for the past 20 years, especially when I still own so many of you. But you might as well go out on a high note...so this is goodbye.

---

I'll say this, the forces of college football--the sports media, the institutions of higher education, the coaches, the conferences, the boosters, the officials, the recruiters, the NCAA and now, unfortunately, the players and students --are the biggest unorganized consortium of self-serving and shortsighted individuals that exists in the world of sports. I'd include the fans, but the fans are self serving in any sports world, not just college football. None of these groups has ever acted like they've had a serious thought about the long term effect of their interests on the health of the sport.

In the 70s college football was a better product than the NFL. The NFL was based on running and defense. And it was low scoring. There were basically 6 dynasties that dominated the NFL (Steelers, Dolphins, Vikings, Cowboys and Raiders--the 49ers in the 80's). NCAA football games were more interesting because, quite frankly, amateurs make more mistakes than the pros. So the chaos created by mistakes made things exciting for fans. Anything could happen in a college football game. And it often did. Things like "the play" just didn't happen in the NFL. College had the 2 point conversion and the NFL did not. College football was accessible and affordable while the NFL was expensive and only on Sundays at 10 and 1.

Over the years, college football and the media cashed in on this value, but did it such a way so that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, tainting the game. Meanwhile the NFL addressed the lack of parity with the draft, realignments, expansion and finally the salary cap. And they expanded TV coverage to Monday night and other nights. In doing so, they made it so that almost every major city's population would flock to NFL games and everybody else could watch at home. The NCAA has made it harder to watch, requiring expensive TV packages while the NFL still broadcasts on major networks.

In essence, the NFL thought about the future and carefully laid out a plan to address problems and make improvements and they never lost sight of the fact that the fans are their end user and their number 1 target. The world of college football lost sight of that a long time ago, preferring to focus on short term profits. Heck even the new rules to better protect players is so unevenly enforced in college football that it has become a factor in the fall of the pac-12 as a conference. Everyone knows that the pac-12 officiating is a joke. And players choose to go elsewhere, although not always for that reason alone.

The NFL surpassed MLB to become the most popular sport in America. I still like college football, despite all of this, because it is better than mowing the lawn or doing taxes on a beautiful fall Saturday. Memorial stadium is still beautiful even though it no longer has grass. But I now prefer NFL football much more than NCAA football. And baseball is equal to it.

Now that the pac-12 is falling apart, I suspect my interest in college football will continue to wane and I may actually prefer mowing the lawn.

---

"I'll say this, the forces of college football--the sports media, the institutions of higher education, the coaches, the conferences, the boosters, the officials, the recruiters, the NCAA and now, unfortunately, the players and students --are the biggest unorganized consortium of self-serving and shortsighted individuals that exists in the world of sports."

This.

College football is dying a slow death and the Big10 and SEC are helping it along. Basketball may have more hope but it, too, will be jeopardized by NIL money which is in turn required because of the media contracts and greed of the conferences who valued money more than the athletes or the student experience.

It is really hard to get into the idea of student-athletes making tens of millions of dollars to play a game while pretending to care about getting an education. Why should students care and if students and alumni stop caring then who is this all for? Advertisers trying to market products? Killing college sports is the best way to reach a market? Hardly.

I hate to say it, but maybe Stanford has its priorities correct by refusing to have a NIL collective. I am not at all surprised to see USC chasing dollars but I am a little sad/surprised that UCLA went along with them.

Part of me would like to see Cal joining them, but when I look at the future of collegiate sport maybe it is better to just fast forward to the end game and skip a decade of heartbreak pretending that we can compete in this new landscape. Many of us don't even WANT to compete in that environment if that is what it takes.

This development highlighted that what we sort of suspected is true is definitely true: amateur collegiate competition in the revenue sports is dead and has been for some time - at least at the highest levels. Cal can't and shouldn't be part of that.

---