blungld said:
This just breaks my heart. With each year my belief in the mission and value and ethics of college football diminished. L
blungld said:
This just breaks my heart. With each year my belief in the mission and value and ethics of college football diminished. Then along came Mendoza. He seemed like everything that I liked about Cal Football. A "real" Cal guy that I rooted for and tuned in for and brought me back to my hey days of rooting for Cal. To see him abandon the team and just be another self-interested pawn (no matter how valid his decision) just shows how terrible the system is. What are we supposed to root for anymore? Is the Cal Football experience trying to learn the name and story of good players in a few games before they transfer, get injured, quit...? How is that anything like watching a kid for 4-5 years and cheering for him representing your school and watching him develop and the shared sense of community and values? This is even less real than rooting for laundry: we're rooting for mercenaries wearing the laundry week to week.
The basic proposition of college football now is that the same top 25 teams just reorder themselves each year and develop for the NFL and the corrupt (now legal) dollars and media and bro culture flows with them. And everyone else spends their limited pools to try and be one of the big boys but are actually just developing their talent and coaches for the top 25 teams to take. Is there any part of America not totally corrupted by money, influence, and rule-bending for the entrenched power? Him leaving just makes me all the more cynical and disinterested.
In the past I planned my wedding and other important events around Cal football, was identified by my love for the Bears, spent years of my life making a TV show about the specialness of Cal Fandom...and now the whole thing just sickens me. I can't believe we all let this happen out of greed and letting the "win at all cost/if you're not cheating you're not trying" meatheads win.
He holds on to the ball too long so he will continue to take hitsGoCal80 said:
A guy can only take so many hits. Hopefully he finds a place with a good offensive line. Looks like Cal is going to face a rebuilding period for the next couple of years.
blungld said:
This just breaks my heart. With each year my belief in the mission and value and ethics of college football diminished. Then along came Mendoza. He seemed like everything that I liked about Cal Football. A "real" Cal guy that I rooted for and tuned in for and brought me back to my hey days of rooting for Cal. To see him abandon the team and just be another self-interested pawn (no matter how valid his decision) just shows how terrible the system is. What are we supposed to root for anymore? Is the Cal Football experience trying to learn the name and story of good players in a few games before they transfer, get injured, quit...? How is that anything like watching a kid for 4-5 years and cheering for him representing your school and watching him develop and the shared sense of community and values? This is even less real than rooting for laundry: we're rooting for mercenaries wearing the laundry week to week.
The basic proposition of college football now is that the same top 25 teams just reorder themselves each year and develop for the NFL and the corrupt (now legal) dollars and media and bro culture flows with them. And everyone else spends their limited pools to try and be one of the big boys but are actually just developing their talent and coaches for the top 25 teams to take. Is there any part of America not totally corrupted by money, influence, and rule-bending for the entrenched power? Him leaving just makes me all the more cynical and disinterested.
In the past I planned my wedding and other important events around Cal football, was identified by my love for the Bears, spent years of my life making a TV show about the specialness of Cal Fandom...and now the whole thing just sickens me. I can't believe we all let this happen out of greed and letting the "win at all cost/if you're not cheating you're not trying" meatheads win.
Sources on any of this? I read some similar stuff on X, but curious how accurate this is and whether it can be confirmed.AmadorBear said:
Many behind the scenes events here.
Disgruntled over the aggressive recruitment of the 5 Start QB from Hawaii? Didn't get awarded Big Game Hero?
I guess that's what happens when you bring on the CAA sports agency to the new transactional business of college football.
Maybe making demands on coaching staff changes?
Can't blame him but certainly not surprising. He likely "shopped" whatever NIL offering was made.
Finally….what a joke that he didn't play against SMU. He was cleared by the medical staff to play and he let his teammates down on an important conference game in my opinion.
If its true he was cleared to play and didn't, then that's an indictment on the coaching staff. I would assume (key word assume) that he told the coaches he didn't want to play because he was transferring and they foolishly agreed to cover for it.AmadorBear said:
Many behind the scenes events here.
Disgruntled over the aggressive recruitment of the 5 Start QB from Hawaii? Didn't get awarded Big Game Hero?
I guess that's what happens when you bring on the CAA sports agency to the new transactional business of college football.
Maybe making demands on coaching staff changes?
Can't blame him but certainly not surprising. He likely "shopped" whatever NIL offering was made.
Finally….what a joke that he didn't play against SMU. He was cleared by the medical staff to play and he let his teammates down on an important conference game in my opinion.
This post hits the soul.blungld said:
In the past I planned my wedding and other important events around Cal football, was identified by my love for the Bears, spent years of my life making a TV show about the specialness of Cal Fandom...and now the whole thing just sickens me. I can't believe we all let this happen out of greed and letting the "win at all cost/if you're not cheating you're not trying" meatheads win.
blungld said:
This just breaks my heart. With each year my belief in the mission and value and ethics of college football diminished. Then along came Mendoza. He seemed like everything that I liked about Cal Football. A "real" Cal guy that I rooted for and tuned in for and brought me back to my hey days of rooting for Cal. To see him abandon the team and just be another self-interested pawn (no matter how valid his decision) just shows how terrible the system is. What are we supposed to root for anymore? Is the Cal Football experience trying to learn the name and story of good players in a few games before they transfer, get injured, quit...? How is that anything like watching a kid for 4-5 years and cheering for him representing your school and watching him develop and the shared sense of community and values? This is even less real than rooting for laundry: we're rooting for mercenaries wearing the laundry week to week.
The basic proposition of college football now is that the same top 25 teams just reorder themselves each year and develop for the NFL and the corrupt (now legal) dollars and media and bro culture flows with them. And everyone else spends their limited pools to try and be one of the big boys but are actually just developing their talent and coaches for the top 25 teams to take. Is there any part of America not totally corrupted by money, influence, and rule-bending for the entrenched power? Him leaving just makes me all the more cynical and disinterested.
In the past I planned my wedding and other important events around Cal football, was identified by my love for the Bears, spent years of my life making a TV show about the specialness of Cal Fandom...and now the whole thing just sickens me. I can't believe we all let this happen out of greed and letting the "win at all cost/if you're not cheating you're not trying" meatheads win.
Bearly Clad said:
I get the inclination to blame NIL or the portal but tbh they're just fringe reasons why this happened. Of course they're a factor because instead of the default being guys sticking around you need to prove your program to a guy and why they should stay. As fans can we be that upset? The program, as constructed, isn't proving itself as desirable and fans and donors see it; until there are some major changes major money won't start following in through donations and NIL. We can bemoan the Nuke and Elison money at other programs but they've proven that they have ROI on that engagement, the best we can do is keep our heads above water and, even then, just barely.
There are lots of deep pockets who are willing to give but staying away until they have excitement or are given a reason to invest in this . I mean think of it like a stock, this isn't like SMU who I would compare to GameStop a few years back with major elasticity and all it was requiring was enough people believing and investing in it. We, on the other hand, have so much inertia that it takes fundamental changes before any level of money flowing in (outside of massive, massive influxes) will excise the rot or paper over the blemishes. Either the administration decides to go all-in from the top down to be winners or we're losers and left out. It doesn't have to be this way but it's the reality of where we find ourselves in a mess if our own making
pingpong2 said:
Here's a fun thought exercise: if the transfer portal had been available when Goff played, do y'all think he would have stayed around after that disasterous 2013 season? How about after 2014? Yeah, everything worked out for him since he ended up the #1 pick, and he is local, but I do wonder how many of our beloved "Cal guys" we would have lost to the transfer portal.
Yeah, Goff got to work with Tony Franklin, who meshed with Goff very well. Bloesch is no Tony Franklin.Cal88 said:pingpong2 said:
Here's a fun thought exercise: if the transfer portal had been available when Goff played, do y'all think he would have stayed around after that disasterous 2013 season? How about after 2014? Yeah, everything worked out for him since he ended up the #1 pick, and he is local, but I do wonder how many of our beloved "Cal guys" we would have lost to the transfer portal.
Goff was a second generation Cal Bear and his offenses were producing and performing relatively well. Dykes' terrible Ds did result in mediocre W/L records, but they did feature offenses that posted great numbers and were good enough to push JG into the top draft position.
Maybe a similar comparison to JG's situation with the current team could be some of our top veteran DBs, playing at Cal under Wilcox did not hurt their NFL prospects.
I don't think we would've gone 1-11 if there was the transfer portal. We would've had an infusion of serviceable players to shore up the roster holes.pingpong2 said:
Here's a fun thought exercise: if the transfer portal had been available when Goff played, do y'all think he would have stayed around after that disasterous 2013 season? How about after 2014? Yeah, everything worked out for him since he ended up the #1 pick, and he is local, but I do wonder how many of our beloved "Cal guys" we would have lost to the transfer portal.
Cal88 said:Bearly Clad said:
I get the inclination to blame NIL or the portal but tbh they're just fringe reasons why this happened. Of course they're a factor because instead of the default being guys sticking around you need to prove your program to a guy and why they should stay. As fans can we be that upset? The program, as constructed, isn't proving itself as desirable and fans and donors see it; until there are some major changes major money won't start following in through donations and NIL. We can bemoan the Nuke and Elison money at other programs but they've proven that they have ROI on that engagement, the best we can do is keep our heads above water and, even then, just barely.
There are lots of deep pockets who are willing to give but staying away until they have excitement or are given a reason to invest in this . I mean think of it like a stock, this isn't like SMU who I would compare to GameStop a few years back with major elasticity and all it was requiring was enough people believing and investing in it. We, on the other hand, have so much inertia that it takes fundamental changes before any level of money flowing in (outside of massive, massive influxes) will excise the rot or paper over the blemishes. Either the administration decides to go all-in from the top down to be winners or we're losers and left out. It doesn't have to be this way but it's the reality of where we find ourselves in a mess if our own making
I think the real solution has to come from the ADs and university presidents of the several dozen programs that are going to be left behind to restore some sanity into the current free for all system that is far less regulated than the NFL - salary caps, transfer rules, redistribution schemes. It will probably require some political action.
Of course most (at least the top) SEC schools are happy with the current scenario. What else do states like Mississippi and Alabama have to hang their hat on?calumnus said:Cal88 said:Bearly Clad said:
I get the inclination to blame NIL or the portal but tbh they're just fringe reasons why this happened. Of course they're a factor because instead of the default being guys sticking around you need to prove your program to a guy and why they should stay. As fans can we be that upset? The program, as constructed, isn't proving itself as desirable and fans and donors see it; until there are some major changes major money won't start following in through donations and NIL. We can bemoan the Nuke and Elison money at other programs but they've proven that they have ROI on that engagement, the best we can do is keep our heads above water and, even then, just barely.
There are lots of deep pockets who are willing to give but staying away until they have excitement or are given a reason to invest in this . I mean think of it like a stock, this isn't like SMU who I would compare to GameStop a few years back with major elasticity and all it was requiring was enough people believing and investing in it. We, on the other hand, have so much inertia that it takes fundamental changes before any level of money flowing in (outside of massive, massive influxes) will excise the rot or paper over the blemishes. Either the administration decides to go all-in from the top down to be winners or we're losers and left out. It doesn't have to be this way but it's the reality of where we find ourselves in a mess if our own making
I think the real solution has to come from the ADs and university presidents of the several dozen programs that are going to be left behind to restore some sanity into the current free for all system that is far less regulated than the NFL - salary caps, transfer rules, redistribution schemes. It will probably require some political action.
It would take an act of Congress because everything that is happening now is due to the Supreme Court ruling establishing that college football is a huge $multibillion business and free market principles apply all enforced by our antitrust laws.
There are too many actors involved for a player's union and collective bargaining. It has to be a law passed by Congress to give the NCAA or someone else antitrust immunity to control "the market." This is one issue that in normal times you might see a lot of bipartisan support in Congress to do something. These are not normal times. Both Houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans pledged loyal to Trump. The GOP footprint correlates highly with the SEC and B1G
The big question is whether the SEC and B1G and the big money that supports them (and the GOP) are happy with the direction of college football? If they are then expect no action by Congress. Only if they become unhappy (players in SEC making too much?) will we see Congress act, in my opinion.
HearstMining said:Of course most (at least the top) SEC schools are happy with the current scenario. What else do states like Mississippi and Alabama have to hang their hat on?calumnus said:Cal88 said:Bearly Clad said:
I get the inclination to blame NIL or the portal but tbh they're just fringe reasons why this happened. Of course they're a factor because instead of the default being guys sticking around you need to prove your program to a guy and why they should stay. As fans can we be that upset? The program, as constructed, isn't proving itself as desirable and fans and donors see it; until there are some major changes major money won't start following in through donations and NIL. We can bemoan the Nuke and Elison money at other programs but they've proven that they have ROI on that engagement, the best we can do is keep our heads above water and, even then, just barely.
There are lots of deep pockets who are willing to give but staying away until they have excitement or are given a reason to invest in this . I mean think of it like a stock, this isn't like SMU who I would compare to GameStop a few years back with major elasticity and all it was requiring was enough people believing and investing in it. We, on the other hand, have so much inertia that it takes fundamental changes before any level of money flowing in (outside of massive, massive influxes) will excise the rot or paper over the blemishes. Either the administration decides to go all-in from the top down to be winners or we're losers and left out. It doesn't have to be this way but it's the reality of where we find ourselves in a mess if our own making
I think the real solution has to come from the ADs and university presidents of the several dozen programs that are going to be left behind to restore some sanity into the current free for all system that is far less regulated than the NFL - salary caps, transfer rules, redistribution schemes. It will probably require some political action.
It would take an act of Congress because everything that is happening now is due to the Supreme Court ruling establishing that college football is a huge $multibillion business and free market principles apply all enforced by our antitrust laws.
There are too many actors involved for a player's union and collective bargaining. It has to be a law passed by Congress to give the NCAA or someone else antitrust immunity to control "the market." This is one issue that in normal times you might see a lot of bipartisan support in Congress to do something. These are not normal times. Both Houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans pledged loyal to Trump. The GOP footprint correlates highly with the SEC and B1G
The big question is whether the SEC and B1G and the big money that supports them (and the GOP) are happy with the direction of college football? If they are then expect no action by Congress. Only if they become unhappy (players in SEC making too much?) will we see Congress act, in my opinion.
calumnus said:Cal88 said:Bearly Clad said:
I get the inclination to blame NIL or the portal but tbh they're just fringe reasons why this happened. Of course they're a factor because instead of the default being guys sticking around you need to prove your program to a guy and why they should stay. As fans can we be that upset? The program, as constructed, isn't proving itself as desirable and fans and donors see it; until there are some major changes major money won't start following in through donations and NIL. We can bemoan the Nuke and Elison money at other programs but they've proven that they have ROI on that engagement, the best we can do is keep our heads above water and, even then, just barely.
There are lots of deep pockets who are willing to give but staying away until they have excitement or are given a reason to invest in this . I mean think of it like a stock, this isn't like SMU who I would compare to GameStop a few years back with major elasticity and all it was requiring was enough people believing and investing in it. We, on the other hand, have so much inertia that it takes fundamental changes before any level of money flowing in (outside of massive, massive influxes) will excise the rot or paper over the blemishes. Either the administration decides to go all-in from the top down to be winners or we're losers and left out. It doesn't have to be this way but it's the reality of where we find ourselves in a mess if our own making
I think the real solution has to come from the ADs and university presidents of the several dozen programs that are going to be left behind to restore some sanity into the current free for all system that is far less regulated than the NFL - salary caps, transfer rules, redistribution schemes. It will probably require some political action.
It would take an act of Congress because everything that is happening now is due to the Supreme Court ruling establishing that college football is a huge $multibillion business and free market principles apply all enforced by our antitrust laws.
There are too many actors involved for a player's union and collective bargaining. It has to be a law passed by Congress to give the NCAA or someone else antitrust immunity to control "the market." This is one issue that in normal times you might see a lot of bipartisan support in Congress to do something. These are not normal times. Both Houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans pledged loyal to Trump. The GOP footprint correlates highly with the SEC and B1G
The big question is whether the SEC and B1G and the big money that supports them (and the GOP) are happy with the direction of college football? If they are then expect no action by Congress. Only if they become unhappy (players in SEC making too much?) will we see Congress act, in my opinion.
I doubt that will happen calumnus. Beyond any geographic or political footprint, the only thing that will stop this is the inevitable collapse of some football programs that only comes in the form of debt/bankruptcy. There will always be 20-25 football programs that will have the ability to shell out the money. It is the next 20 that will decide where this will go and whether it is even feasible to try and break into the "Champions League".calumnus said:Cal88 said:Bearly Clad said:
I get the inclination to blame NIL or the portal but tbh they're just fringe reasons why this happened. Of course they're a factor because instead of the default being guys sticking around you need to prove your program to a guy and why they should stay. As fans can we be that upset? The program, as constructed, isn't proving itself as desirable and fans and donors see it; until there are some major changes major money won't start following in through donations and NIL. We can bemoan the Nuke and Elison money at other programs but they've proven that they have ROI on that engagement, the best we can do is keep our heads above water and, even then, just barely.
There are lots of deep pockets who are willing to give but staying away until they have excitement or are given a reason to invest in this . I mean think of it like a stock, this isn't like SMU who I would compare to GameStop a few years back with major elasticity and all it was requiring was enough people believing and investing in it. We, on the other hand, have so much inertia that it takes fundamental changes before any level of money flowing in (outside of massive, massive influxes) will excise the rot or paper over the blemishes. Either the administration decides to go all-in from the top down to be winners or we're losers and left out. It doesn't have to be this way but it's the reality of where we find ourselves in a mess if our own making
I think the real solution has to come from the ADs and university presidents of the several dozen programs that are going to be left behind to restore some sanity into the current free for all system that is far less regulated than the NFL - salary caps, transfer rules, redistribution schemes. It will probably require some political action.
It would take an act of Congress because everything that is happening now is due to the Supreme Court ruling establishing that college football is a huge $multibillion business and free market principles apply all enforced by our antitrust laws.
There are too many actors involved for a player's union and collective bargaining. It has to be a law passed by Congress to give the NCAA or someone else antitrust immunity to control "the market." This is one issue that in normal times you might see a lot of bipartisan support in Congress to do something. These are not normal times. Both Houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans pledged loyal to Trump. The GOP footprint correlates highly with the SEC and B1G
The big question is whether the SEC and B1G and the big money that supports them (and the GOP) are happy with the direction of college football? If they are then expect no action by Congress. Only if they become unhappy (players in SEC making too much?) will we see Congress act, in my opinion.
