eastbayyoungbear said:
Jeff82 said:
Frankly, if the future is two 16-team mega-conferences of potentially illiterate semi-professional players wearing school-colored laundry, and everyone else going back to some system where you play a sport to get your higher education paid for, I wish they would just get on with it. I get that for optics, we can't voluntarily demote, in the same manner that someone who has a piece of property the government wants often forces them to use eminent domain, for the tax benefits, rather than just selling it to them. But the arms race if you're a fan is somewhat exhausting, even on what appears to be a good day like today for signings.
The problem is that we would need to burn down our athletic department in the process. I don't know if there's a soft landing here unless we slowly cut sports and downsize the athletic department over time.
I agree here and I think Cal's ACC affiliation can buy the time to downsize the IAD in a rational fashion, if they take advantage of it. Cal is "donating" so much of their payout back to the ACC that I doubt there is enough revenue to continue funding the number of teams that currently exist while still having a competitive football team. The problem is that Knowlton is not the guy to lead this change.
One way around that is the following:
- Cal hires a chancellor who believes that revenue sports can be a relevant (not dominant, the culture won't support that) part of Cal, but the IAD has to exist without financial bail-outs. He/She
- The chancellor tells Knowlton that, effective immediately: HE WORKS IN BERKELEY FULL-TIME, there will be no more financial bailouts from central funds, and that he has six months to assemble a 3-year road map that right-sizes IAD (administration and teams) to reflect anticipated revenue. Ideally, Knowlton quits when confronted with this ultimatum.
- OR the new chancellor convinces donors that Knowlton is not the man to lead this major change and they cough up the $$ for a negotiated buy-out. A new AD is hired with the same mandate as above.
If something like this can happen, in 4-5 years Cal should be in shape to be a strong competitor as a member of the anticipated not-so-super FBS tier. There will be lots of company: Stanford, the 'Zonas, 3/4 of the (former) B1G, virtually all the Big12, most of the ACC, Oregon St and Wash St and I'll bet UCLA. Games will still be on TV because they will still attract lots more viewers than bass fishing, axe-throwing, or professional corn- hole. Those alumni who can't tolerate this outcome will, I suppose, trade in their Cal gear for an Alabama or Michigan jersey. The rest of us will still enjoy glorious October days in CMS, with 35-55 thousand others, watching the sturdy Golden Bears.
OR
Cal, in it's typical dithering fashion, will kick the can down the road. They'll keep slapping little band-aids on a gaping wound as the patient gets progressively weaker. When the NCAA super-tier forms, the Cal administration uses that as an excuse to terminate football entirely. CMS will be used for field hockey and rugby in front of hundreds of friends and family. The rest of us will enjoy glorious October days, but not in CMS.