Shocky1 said:
^ no conflicts with berkeley final examinations, the full utilization of all 15 ncca allowed bowl game practices & a reasonably close drive/flights for cal's large contingent (and growing) bearents & families in texas
it's great!!!#
My order of priorities for which bowl game Cal should lobby for:
1) Utilize the full 15 NCAA allowable practices to maximize reps for our team, especially the younger players.
2) Fewer conflicts with final exams for our student athletes.
3) There is no #3, since the first 2 are the dominant priorities
4) Interesting bowl location for fans, factoring in ease of travel and recruiting visibility considerations
5) Opponent. Prefer beatable P5 school but don't really care that much. Prefer for our opponent not to have a significant home field advantage.
Really, I care a lot more about developing our players for next year than I do about which exact bowl game we play in this year. Hopefully this will be the least prestigious bowl we attend for a while as we enter a multi-year climb back to national prominence. This is my goal, not necessarily an expectation yet.
So I favor bowls NOT on Dec 16th so we can maximize the practice time allowed. First Responder Bowl would be fine, or any other bowl that is comfortably into December to maximize practice time and allow players to focus on academics during finals week 12/10 thru 12/15.
I'm psyched that I get to see this team play one more time, but I'm all business about developing our players and improving to a higher level.
Do others have a different perspective on this?