We still got it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/z5kvs3/name_a_power_5_program_you_just_kind_of_forget/

Lol - loved these responses:

"If you ask me to name the best public schools in the nation, UC Berkeley will be on my short short list. Even when you ask me about teams in the PAC-10, I would never make it to California."

"It took me longer than I care to admit when I realized UC Berkeley and Cal were the same school."

"I said the same thing to my wife last night during the UCLA - Cal game. I was an adult. Had no clue.'

We show up quite a bit in the responses. Boy we should have fixed the marketing aspect years ago and actually won something of consequence with all those NFL players we had.

There is only one way out of the confusion and that is to rebrand athletics as UC Berkeley. The academic side will never make a change to "cal" or even "California." Name recognition will hurt in the short run, but it will actually help recruiting in the short run, and that could make the switch worth it even sooner than some expect.

Ok, one compromise…"Berkeley" across the board could work.

not only does the branding suck, we are also boring.

we never go after any big names or interesting names. we fire coaches a season or two too late. At least Colorado tries, ASU tries. Deoin is a household name and they at least go after them to get into the news cycle.

we hire a bunch of no names and retreads off of a 2 page rolodex.

unless the admin and AD changed we will be on this list for a long time until we are in the mountain west

bearsandgiants said:

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There is only one way out of the confusion and that is to rebrand athletics as UC Berkeley. The academic side will never make a change to "cal" or even "California." Name recognition will hurt in the short run, but it will actually help recruiting in the short run, and that could make the switch worth it even sooner than some expect.

Ok, one compromise…"Berkeley" across the board could work.

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Note that the law school is "Berkeley Law" -- not "UC Berkeley Law"....so we're already part way there.

I agree that if it's a battle between "California" and "Berkeley", the odds are stacked against California. There's no way we would get special branding, different from the other UCs.

But I would have to grit my teeth every time I say the name of the city. Given the attitude of the City of Berkeley towards the University, I hate giving them any recognition.

The UC Berkeley Bears are trending!

I attended a concert held at Pomona College earlier today. I wore a t-shirt with "Golden Bears Football" emblazoned across the front. A lady asked me who the Golden Bears were, I explained that it was the team for THE University of California. When her look of confusion remained, I reluctantly added "Berkeley," which resulted in her nodding in understanding.

Arcadiabear said:

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not only does the branding suck, we are also boring.

we never go after any big names or interesting names. we fire coaches a season or two too late. At least Colorado tries, ASU tries. Deoin is a household name and they at least go after them to get into the news cycle.

we hire a bunch of no names and retreads off of a 2 page rolodex.

unless the admin and AD changed we will be on this list for a long time until we are in the mountain west

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Agree except regarding never hiring big names. Before these last couple awful ADs, we hired Monty, Cuonzo, and Dykes, all of whom were big names at the time.

Greatest branding idea I've heard on BI this year:

Keep calling ourselves "California" and "Cal" for athletics (thus appeasing the hippie-haters), but have "BERKELEY" in fairly-small-but-readable font above the numbers on the front of our football and basketball uniforms.

Voila.

Negabear3000 said:

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https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/z5kvs3/name_a_power_5_program_you_just_kind_of_forget/

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Skimmed through all the replies. The worst part for me is that the LARGE majority of responders who mentioned forgetting about Cal were fans of B1G teams (Michigan, OSU, Penn St, others), from the conference that has played the Pac champ in the RB almost every year officially for the last 75 years. Can't really fault them.

I look forward to the rebrand because the literal end of Cal Football will make it easier to walk away from the program permanently. They've already ruined the games by muzzling the band and flooding the air with promotions and piped-in music. Only inertia and pathetic hope keeps me going, the rebrand could be just the jolt I need to free myself from this depressing husk of an institution.

Econ141 said:

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Lol - loved these responses:

"If you ask me to name the best public schools in the nation, UC Berkeley will be on my short short list. Even when you ask me about teams in the PAC-10, I would never make it to California."

"It took me longer than I care to admit when I realized UC Berkeley and Cal were the same school."

"I said the same thing to my wife last night during the UCLA - Cal game. I was an adult. Had no clue.'

We show up quite a bit in the responses. Boy we should have fixed the marketing aspect years ago and actually won something of consequence with all those NFL players we had.

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Maybe the answer is to do a better job at marketing Cal?

My son's friend from Santa Cruz came to the game on Friday. He was wearing his California Santa Cruz sweatshirt.