Cal’s 2025 Football Schedule Finalized

RaidersBear24 said:

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Wilcox vs Belichick under the lights!

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The college football tenure disparity bowl.

My guess is Cal gets the following games on national television (aka the non-conference networks)

Oregon state
Minnesota
North Carolina
Vtech
SMU

I'm least confident in sdsu as I dont know their tv contract well enough.

Cal88 said:

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golden sloth said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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So Cal is being difficult for the networks and the conference. That does not bode well in another few years.

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Sounds like the new GM of Cal Football has a job to do here.

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We don't have a GM of Cal football yet. Given the speed with which the Cal bureaucracy operates, it may be next year, if ever, that such a position is established. Lord knows, it is badly needed, especially if such a GM reports directly to the chancellor!

Doubt we'll get GameDay this year, unless the miracle happens and we get into the CFP

UNC game would be a good candidate for Gameday if we're at the very least 5-2, JKS is kicking @ss and Belichick is doing his part. In that case the AD turning down the Thursday night spot would turn out to be a blessing...

golden sloth said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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So Cal is being difficult for the networks and the conference. That does not bode well in another few years.

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Thursday night games are not practical for urban campuses (including issues regarding campus access and parking as classes are in session). The old Pac-12 recognized this and exempted Cal and Southern Branch from rotations for Thursday night games.

southseasbear said:

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golden sloth said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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So Cal is being difficult for the networks and the conference. That does not bode well in another few years.

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Thursday night games are not practical for urban campuses (including issues regarding campus access and parking as classes are in session). The old Pac-12 recognized this and exempted Cal and Southern Branch from rotations for Thursday night games.

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I'm sure they could figure it out if they wanted to, they just dont want to put in the effort, and that fact hurts Cal's chances of surviving the next round of relegation.

This is a pretty easy schedule...chance to Boise state this thing in 2025

golden sloth said:

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I'm least confident in sdsu as I dont know their tv contract well enough.

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The Mountain West has games on (approximately in order of priority) . . .

CBS/CBS Sports Network
Fox/FS1
TruTV (Turner Sports)

then anything not picked by those goes to local networks.

A game with a P4 opponent would never fall to local distribution, and probably not even to TruTV. There's an outside chance our game winds up on CBS or Fox proper, but most likely it would be on CBS Sports or FS1 (CBS Sports is not Nielsen rated, by the way).

I'll be going to the BC game for sure, reconnecting with old Cal friends who live there (one is a BC prof now) and to Louisville.

remb8888 said:

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This is a pretty easy schedule...chance to Boise state this thing in 2025

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Right, and when I told people that Syracuse had the best HC hiring of last off-season, and that Kyle McCord is a solid QB, all I heard was "yeah, Cal will still beat them easily."

If you went through the ACC teams and measured up their net gain in the Portal, okay, great-Cal still is better than their opponents?
And if you truly dislike Wilcox, how many games do you look at and see games that Cal loses simply by being outcoached ?

You aren't the first or last to keep on with the "Cal has an easy schedule narrative"...I think there is a long ways to go, starting with Cal and their spring ball. Cal finds an offense, I'm a little bit more inclined to believe this...

BearGreg said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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Do you have a link that surmises that ESPN wanted the Cal/UNC game on a Thursday night.

To my knowledge, no Power 4 teams play on Thursday nights after week zero. The NFL now has that night wrapped up and only the Group of 5 play college football then.

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The ACC had some Thursday games last season:

Week 8 - Boston College at Virginia Tech (Oct 17)
Week 9 - Syracuse at Pitt (Oct 24)
Week 13 - NC State at Georgia Tech (Nov 21)

sycasey said:

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BearGreg said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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Do you have a link that surmises that ESPN wanted the Cal/UNC game on a Thursday night.

To my knowledge, no Power 4 teams play on Thursday nights after week zero. The NFL now has that night wrapped up and only the Group of 5 play college football then.

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The ACC had some Thursday games last season:

Week 8 - Boston College at Virginia Tech (Oct 17)
Week 9 - Syracuse at Pitt (Oct 24)
Week 13 - NC State at Georgia Tech (Nov 21)

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On top of that, ESPN has NBA games on Fridays in October. They haven't had two ACC games on the same Friday night before. They'll either have to put both ACC games on ESPN2 (maybe 4 pm PT for the Miami game and 7:30 or later for the Cal game?) or one will be on ESPN2 and the other on ACC Network.

BearSD said:

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sycasey said:

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BearGreg said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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Do you have a link that surmises that ESPN wanted the Cal/UNC game on a Thursday night.

To my knowledge, no Power 4 teams play on Thursday nights after week zero. The NFL now has that night wrapped up and only the Group of 5 play college football then.

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The ACC had some Thursday games last season:

Week 8 - Boston College at Virginia Tech (Oct 17)
Week 9 - Syracuse at Pitt (Oct 24)
Week 13 - NC State at Georgia Tech (Nov 21)

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On top of that, ESPN has NBA games on Fridays in October. They haven't had two ACC games on the same Friday night before. They'll either have to put both ACC games on ESPN2 (maybe 4 pm PT for the Miami game and 7:30 or later for the Cal game?) or one will be on ESPN2 and the other on ACC Network.

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My guess is that our game gets shunted to ACC Network. They won't push Miami there. Unless they do something like the above and stagger the times to put both on ESPN2.

sycasey said:

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BearSD said:

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sycasey said:

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BearGreg said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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Do you have a link that surmises that ESPN wanted the Cal/UNC game on a Thursday night.

To my knowledge, no Power 4 teams play on Thursday nights after week zero. The NFL now has that night wrapped up and only the Group of 5 play college football then.

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The ACC had some Thursday games last season:

Week 8 - Boston College at Virginia Tech (Oct 17)
Week 9 - Syracuse at Pitt (Oct 24)
Week 13 - NC State at Georgia Tech (Nov 21)

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On top of that, ESPN has NBA games on Fridays in October. They haven't had two ACC games on the same Friday night before. They'll either have to put both ACC games on ESPN2 (maybe 4 pm PT for the Miami game and 7:30 or later for the Cal game?) or one will be on ESPN2 and the other on ACC Network.

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My guess is that our game gets shunted to ACC Network. They won't push Miami there. Unless they do something like the above and stagger the times to put both on ESPN2.

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Last years Friday games:

8/30 - Duke @ Elon - 7:30pm local time - ACC Network
8/30 - TCU @ Stanford - 7:30pm local time - ESPN
9/6 - SMU @ BYU - 5:00pm local time - ESPN2
9/20 - Stanford @ Syracuse - 7:30pm local time - ESPN
9/27 - Virginia Tech @ Miami - 7:30pm local time - ESPN
10/18 - Florida State @ Duke - 7:00pm local time - ESPN2
10/25 - Louisville @ Boston College - 7:30pm local time - ESPN2
11/8 - Cal @ Wake Forest - 8:00pm local time - ACC Network

It looks like virtually all games started at 7-7:30pm local time, meaning there would be no conflict to putting the Miami game at 7pm eastern and the Cal game at 7:30pm Pacific and having both games on ESPN2. The only outliers to the 7/7:30 local start time were SMU @ BYU which started at 7:00pm Eastern but 5:00pm local, and Cal @ Wake Forest which was pushed all the way to 8pm.

As long as both Cal and UNC have semi competitive records I would guess we are the second half of a double header on ESPN2. If one or both are bad then yea, it could slip to the ACC network, though I don't think there is much competition on ESPN2 for a 7:30pm pacific time game, and I don't think we're starting earlier unless they are trying to get us on a major network.

MrGPAC said:

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sycasey said:

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BearSD said:

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sycasey said:

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BearGreg said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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Do you have a link that surmises that ESPN wanted the Cal/UNC game on a Thursday night.

To my knowledge, no Power 4 teams play on Thursday nights after week zero. The NFL now has that night wrapped up and only the Group of 5 play college football then.

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The ACC had some Thursday games last season:

Week 8 - Boston College at Virginia Tech (Oct 17)
Week 9 - Syracuse at Pitt (Oct 24)
Week 13 - NC State at Georgia Tech (Nov 21)

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On top of that, ESPN has NBA games on Fridays in October. They haven't had two ACC games on the same Friday night before. They'll either have to put both ACC games on ESPN2 (maybe 4 pm PT for the Miami game and 7:30 or later for the Cal game?) or one will be on ESPN2 and the other on ACC Network.

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My guess is that our game gets shunted to ACC Network. They won't push Miami there. Unless they do something like the above and stagger the times to put both on ESPN2.

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Last years Friday games:

8/30 - Duke @ Elon - 7:30pm local time - ACC Network
8/30 - TCU @ Stanford - 7:30pm local time - ESPN
9/6 - SMU @ BYU - 5:00pm local time - ESPN2
9/20 - Stanford @ Syracuse - 7:30pm local time - ESPN
9/27 - Virginia Tech @ Miami - 7:30pm local time - ESPN
10/18 - Florida State @ Duke - 7:00pm local time - ESPN2
10/25 - Louisville @ Boston College - 7:30pm local time - ESPN2
11/8 - Cal @ Wake Forest - 8:00pm local time - ACC Network

It looks like virtually all games started at 7-7:30pm local time, meaning there would be no conflict to putting the Miami game at 7pm eastern and the Cal game at 7:30pm Pacific and having both games on ESPN2. The only outliers to the 7/7:30 local start time were SMU @ BYU which started at 7:00pm Eastern but 5:00pm local, and Cal @ Wake Forest which was pushed all the way to 8pm.

As long as both Cal and UNC have semi competitive records I would guess we are the second half of a double header on ESPN2. If one or both are bad then yea, it could slip to the ACC network, though I don't think there is much competition on ESPN2 for a 7:30pm pacific time game, and I don't think we're starting earlier unless they are trying to get us on a major network.

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Wouldn't be logistically feasible for Cal to host a game at 5pm on a Friday anyway. So yeah, we probably do just get on ESPN2 or ESPN proper (depending on what else is on that night).

sycasey said:

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golden sloth said:

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I'm least confident in sdsu as I dont know their tv contract well enough.

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The Mountain West has games on (approximately in order of priority) . . .

CBS/CBS Sports Network
Fox/FS1
TruTV (Turner Sports)

then anything not picked by those goes to local networks.

A game with a P4 opponent would never fall to local distribution, and probably not even to TruTV. There's an outside chance our game winds up on CBS or Fox proper, but most likely it would be on CBS Sports or FS1 (CBS Sports is not Nielsen rated, by the way).

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Hmm, there's actually a decent-ish chance that the SDSU game just goes on CBS. The thing about the MWC contract is that CBS is required to put at least three games on the main network. The lion's share of these tend to go to the P4 teams that are being hosted by the MWC or Air Force hosting a service academy. For example, in 2024 the CBS picks were:

UCLA at Hawaii
Colorado at CSU
Navy at Air Force
Stanford at SJSU (on the Friday after Thanksgiving)

In 2023, CBS picked up:

Texas Tech at Wyoming
Oregon State at SJSU
UCLA at SDSU

The pickings are pretty slim in 2025 for P4 matchups hosted by the MWC. I can find the following in the composite schedule:

Stanford at Hawaii (Week 0)
UCLA at UNLV
Utah at Wyoming
Cal at SDSU
Army at Air Force

If I had to guess, I think CBS definitely picks up the UCLA-UNLV and Army-Air Force games. Then you could argue that Cal-SDSU will be more attractive than the others. CBS hasn't historically aired a game in Week 0, preferring to put those Hawaii games on CBS Sports Network. So that might leave it down to Cal-SDSU or Utah-Wyoming for the third slot. I'm guessing the California schools are better TV draws, so we could get chosen by CBS there. But worst-case, it's on CBS Sports Network.

sycasey said:

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sycasey said:

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golden sloth said:

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I'm least confident in sdsu as I dont know their tv contract well enough.

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The Mountain West has games on (approximately in order of priority) . . .

CBS/CBS Sports Network
Fox/FS1
TruTV (Turner Sports)

then anything not picked by those goes to local networks.

A game with a P4 opponent would never fall to local distribution, and probably not even to TruTV. There's an outside chance our game winds up on CBS or Fox proper, but most likely it would be on CBS Sports or FS1 (CBS Sports is not Nielsen rated, by the way).

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Hmm, there's actually a decent-ish chance that the SDSU game just goes on CBS. The thing about the MWC contract is that CBS is required to put at least three games on the main network. The lion's share of these tend to go to the P4 teams that are being hosted by the MWC or Air Force hosting a service academy. For example, in 2024 the CBS picks were:

UCLA at Hawaii
Colorado at CSU
Navy at Air Force
Stanford at SJSU (on the Friday after Thanksgiving)

In 2023, CBS picked up:

Texas Tech at Wyoming
Oregon State at SJSU
UCLA at SDSU

The pickings are pretty slim in 2025 for P4 matchups hosted by the MWC. I can find the following in the composite schedule:

Stanford at Hawaii (Week 0)
UCLA at UNLV
Utah at Wyoming
Cal at SDSU
Army at Air Force

If I had to guess, I think CBS definitely picks up the UCLA-UNLV and Army-Air Force games. Then you could argue that Cal-SDSU will be more attractive than the others. CBS hasn't historically aired a game in Week 0, preferring to put those Hawaii games on CBS Sports Network. So that might leave it down to Cal-SDSU or Utah-Wyoming for the third slot. I'm guessing the California schools are better TV draws, so we could get chosen by CBS there. But worst-case, it's on CBS Sports Network.

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I agree with the bolded part, and I'll guess CBS' 3rd game is Boise State at Utah State, with that game being moved to Friday after Thanksgiving, a day CBS picked for one of its MWC games last year. So I'll guess Cal-SDSU gets a 7 pm or 7:30 pm game time on FS1.

BearSD said:

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sycasey said:

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sycasey said:

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golden sloth said:

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I'm least confident in sdsu as I dont know their tv contract well enough.

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The Mountain West has games on (approximately in order of priority) . . .

CBS/CBS Sports Network
Fox/FS1
TruTV (Turner Sports)

then anything not picked by those goes to local networks.

A game with a P4 opponent would never fall to local distribution, and probably not even to TruTV. There's an outside chance our game winds up on CBS or Fox proper, but most likely it would be on CBS Sports or FS1 (CBS Sports is not Nielsen rated, by the way).

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Hmm, there's actually a decent-ish chance that the SDSU game just goes on CBS. The thing about the MWC contract is that CBS is required to put at least three games on the main network. The lion's share of these tend to go to the P4 teams that are being hosted by the MWC or Air Force hosting a service academy. For example, in 2024 the CBS picks were:

UCLA at Hawaii
Colorado at CSU
Navy at Air Force
Stanford at SJSU (on the Friday after Thanksgiving)

In 2023, CBS picked up:

Texas Tech at Wyoming
Oregon State at SJSU
UCLA at SDSU

The pickings are pretty slim in 2025 for P4 matchups hosted by the MWC. I can find the following in the composite schedule:

Stanford at Hawaii (Week 0)
UCLA at UNLV
Utah at Wyoming
Cal at SDSU
Army at Air Force

If I had to guess, I think CBS definitely picks up the UCLA-UNLV and Army-Air Force games. Then you could argue that Cal-SDSU will be more attractive than the others. CBS hasn't historically aired a game in Week 0, preferring to put those Hawaii games on CBS Sports Network. So that might leave it down to Cal-SDSU or Utah-Wyoming for the third slot. I'm guessing the California schools are better TV draws, so we could get chosen by CBS there. But worst-case, it's on CBS Sports Network.

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I agree with the bolded part, and I'll guess CBS' 3rd game is Boise State at Utah State, with that game being moved to Friday after Thanksgiving, a day CBS picked for one of its MWC games last year. So I'll guess Cal-SDSU gets a 7 pm or 7:30 pm game time on FS1.

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I'd say the highest likelihood is that our game is a late FS1 or CBS Sports game. But given that CBS picked up four MWC games last season and FOX picked up two, not impossible that it goes on one of the main networks.

golden sloth said:

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southseasbear said:

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golden sloth said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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So Cal is being difficult for the networks and the conference. That does not bode well in another few years.

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Thursday night games are not practical for urban campuses (including issues regarding campus access and parking as classes are in session). The old Pac-12 recognized this and exempted Cal and Southern Branch from rotations for Thursday night games.

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I'm sure they could figure it out if they wanted to, they just dont want to put in the effort, and that fact hurts Cal's chances of surviving the next round of relegation.

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They could absolutely play without fans. They just dont want to for some reason.

LunchTime said:

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golden sloth said:

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southseasbear said:

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golden sloth said:

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BearSD said:

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Looks like the conference and/or ESPN wanted the UNC game on Thursday but Cal's administration strongly objected to hosting a game on Thursday night and got their way?

The ACC schedule gives both Cal and UNC the week off prior to their game. That is usually done before a Thursday night game. Also, the ACC already scheduled another game for that Friday, October 17 (Louisville at Miami); it's unlikely that ESPN really wanted two games on that Friday night.

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So Cal is being difficult for the networks and the conference. That does not bode well in another few years.

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Thursday night games are not practical for urban campuses (including issues regarding campus access and parking as classes are in session). The old Pac-12 recognized this and exempted Cal and Southern Branch from rotations for Thursday night games.

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I'm sure they could figure it out if they wanted to, they just dont want to put in the effort, and that fact hurts Cal's chances of surviving the next round of relegation.

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They could absolutely play without fans. They just dont want to for some reason.

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BS, they could have fans and play on Thursdays. I'm tired of people acting like any challenge is an impossible task. These things could be achieved and accommodated, it just takes people doing their jobs.

Looking at the logos for the home slate for the first time and man, I really miss the pac12. These games all look boring and will likely be poorly attended no matter WHEN they're played unless we finally start winning, and winning big. Fingers crossed for that.

bearsandgiants said:

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Looking at the logos for the home slate for the first time and man, I really miss the pac12. These games all look boring and will likely be poorly attended no matter WHEN they're played unless we finally start winning, and winning big. Fingers crossed for that.

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Pac-12 home schedules were also unattractive in odd years, when the Big Game was on the farm, except for USC coming to Berkeley. The other three home conference games in odd years were Oregon State, Washington State, and one of the four "mountain" teams.

bearsandgiants said:

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Looking at the logos for the home slate for the first time and man, I really miss the pac12. These games all look boring and will likely be poorly attended no matter WHEN they're played unless we finally start winning, and winning big. Fingers crossed for that.

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There will be a attendance bump on the away side, because these will all be "first trips" for the ACC schools...obviously, some schools travel better than others-one would think there are no shortage of Duke alums in the Bay Area for example.

mbBear said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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Looking at the logos for the home slate for the first time and man, I really miss the pac12. These games all look boring and will likely be poorly attended no matter WHEN they're played unless we finally start winning, and winning big. Fingers crossed for that.

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There will be a attendance bump on the away side, because these will all be "first trips" for the ACC schools...obviously, some schools travel better than others-one would think there are no shortage of Duke alums in the Bay Area for example.

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Duke has fewer students and alums than Stanford. For that matter, only six ACC universities other than ours have at least 20,000 undergrads.

We're not going to see visitor attendance bumps in Berkeley anywhere near the size of the ones that Iowa and Minnesota provided in Pasadena last year.

BearSD said:

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mbBear said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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Looking at the logos for the home slate for the first time and man, I really miss the pac12. These games all look boring and will likely be poorly attended no matter WHEN they're played unless we finally start winning, and winning big. Fingers crossed for that.

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There will be a attendance bump on the away side, because these will all be "first trips" for the ACC schools...obviously, some schools travel better than others-one would think there are no shortage of Duke alums in the Bay Area for example.

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Duke has fewer students and alums than Stanford. For that matter, only six ACC universities other than ours have at least 20,000 undergrads.

We're not going to see visitor attendance bumps in Berkeley anywhere near the size of the ones that Iowa and Minnesota provided in Pasadena last year.

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That's good news about Minnesota right, lol? Your initial point was the right one, and everything else is fluff-winning brings people in...