nwbear84 said:
CALiforniALUM said:
Econ141 said:
If PAC is dissolved
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/will-the-pac-12-break-up-where-each-team-would-go-if-league-disintegrates-over-media-rights-deal/
Hard to imagine the 6th largest media market being left out but hey, we have only ourselves to blame.
We place a lot of blame on the commissioner, the coach, the AD, and the chancellor for our problems, but when should we blame the fans?
If we had a rabid fanbase that demanded accountability none of this would even be a problem. The problem is that we don't have what it takes as a fanbase. Apathy has been part of Cal athletics since I graduated, and apparently with the exception for the few years I was on campus has also been the status quo since before my time back to the Pappy Waldorf's days.
I'm not holding my breath for anything to change with Cal Athletics. I've written too many letters to people who never respond. I don't give enough to warrant anything other than a cut and paste email response. I don't live close enough to Berkeley to spend on the product.
I think a streaming service will just point out what is obvious to the media companies is that we think we are worth more than we really are. You can't claim your wealthy alumni base as a valuable asset if nobody tunes in. Furd is even worse.
I think you have a point. I recall going to a game in 2009, I'm pretty sure, with several alum friends. We all graduated in the mid 80s. They all went to games as students, but I got the impression they didn't go to games much anymore. They lived in the Bay area and I lived out of state. I happened to mention something specific about a player or two before the game and they all looked at me funny and said "you don't follow Cal football do you?", like I was some sort of oddball. I suspect they reflect the majority of Cal alumni.
If I see someone wearing Cal gear here in SoCal I will sometimes (not always) shout a "Go Bears!" and usually will get a good response. However, that's if the person is wearing a Cal hat or sweatshirt and so sort of self-identifying as a sports fan.
When I was maybe 4-5 years out of college I took a job at a place that had a lot of grads from around the country (around the world, actually). People took pride in their school, especially during college football bowl season or March Madness. Of course the people from Texas, USC, and Michigan were vocal fans, but even alumni of schools like NC State, Purdue, Colorado, and Northwestern tended to show school pride.
I found out this one senior guy I was working with was a Cal grad. I had no idea, but he mentioned something about "when I was at Berkeley..." which is how I found out. BTW, "the guys at Berkeley" is a common phrase and is usually followed by something to be really proud of but not related to athletics as in "the guys at Berkeley came up with a way to..."
Anyway, so this guy was about 30 years older than me, but I thought we had some kinship having both gone to Berkeley so the next time I e-mailed him about something work-related I closed by stating that I had gone to Berkeley, too, and it was nice to meet a fellow Bear. I signed off with "Go Bears!"
What I received back was the rudest, most ugly response you can imagine. This guy said that he spent most of his time at Berkeley studying and never really got into athletics or sports or anything like that. I can't really remember what he said, but it was a big put down and just really upset me at the time because there weren't that many Berkeley alums working there and I thought we had something in common. I never mentioned it again and I was glad when he switched departments. Some alumni network, huh?
Now, I don't want one jackass to define all Cal alumni, but I have to say that this attitude is a lot closer to how most Berkeley alumni feel about sports based on my experience in a technical field and as a student. There is a sort of snobbery that Stanford alumni also have as well as most Ivy League and similar schools like Caltech/MIT/Johns Hopkins, etc which don't participate in big time college sports which is that the students are either too busy doing great things to bother with sports or else they find that sort of a "normie" thing to be interested in and would rather play paintball or engage in cosplay or something rather than drink beer and tailgate at a football game.
By the way, I have to say that one of my best friends in high school hated sports. Hated it to watch them. Hated to play them. He and his circle of friends would go up into the mountains to a cabin with no TV on Super Bowl weekend to play roleplaying games without fail. After undergrad at Mudd he went to USC for grad school for two degrees and while there he actually went to a football game, because he wanted to spend time with his dad. I almost choked on my lunch when I heard that. I think that it was the height of the Pete Carroll era probably helped. So I think that there is some truth that having a winning team does matter, but unless Cal returns to its glory years I don't think that's something to count on.