Quote:

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Years ago on our first trip to Hawaii, my wife says, "You know, I haven't seen a license plate from another state."
I told her the bridge was out.

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What about the tunnel?

Bobodeluxe said:

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LudwigsFountain said:

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calumnus said:

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smh said:

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calumnus said:

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> The flight to Honolulu takes less time than it used to take me to drive home to LA for Thanksgiving.

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we haven't flown anywhere for maany years, but the parking and terminal experience was always a downer
(fwiw / nada) # fair thee well

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Driving between LA and the Bay Area has a lot of advantages over flying, but when you live on an island…. At least there is no immigration line when flying between Hawaii and California.

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Years ago on our first trip to Hawaii, my wife says, "You know, I haven't seen a license plate from another state."
I told her the bridge was out.

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Did she kick you in the nuts?

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I made sure I was out of range

Oakland to Oahu is a very easy flight and Ewa Beach is about 15 - 20 minutes from the airport. IN 5 hours he is home. Short nap, a movie and they land. So easy to get there.

I go to Hawaii maybe three or four times a year to work there at the beach for a week or two - great to just be on the island while on conference calls and crap going on at home. People generally are done here by 5 so you are off at 2 and can relax, get in the water and enjoy. About as easy as going to Tahoe.

HKBear97! said:

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Sebastabear said:

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HKBear97! said:

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SoFlaBear said:

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Stupid question. Why is JKS in Hawaii? Has Fall Semester ended? All classes are virtual now?

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Honestly, with NIL and the transfer portal, do these kids even bother with classes anymore? The system has basically killed the concept of "student athlete".

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JKS is very focused on school and classes. One of the very biggest draws for his family to Cal was the value of the Berkeley degree. They talk about his life plan all the time.

Last week was reading week. No classes. And if you have plenty of money (he now does) why wouldn't you go home? Particularly if it meant you could check out your old high school in the championship game?

Sometimes cynicism is warranted. More often than not though it's just snark for snark's sake. Suggesting that JKS spent reading week in Hawaii because "NIL killed the concept of student athletes" is the latter.

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Great, took advantage of a study week - good for him and glad to hear he cares. But let's not pretend things haven't changed with this new landscape. Players transferring year after year has to impact academic progress. The new conferences and travel schedules also have to impact academic progress. During last year's men's basketball season the team was on the road for over 12 days straight at one point. I'd say that's less than ideal. Although, perhaps classes are easier now than in the past?

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table. I have no problem with the new system compared to that one.

And if QB1 can now afford to go home for reading week and the Jim Knowlton's of the world have to cut out one round of golf at the club then yeah that sounds pretty good too.

Sebastabear said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Sebastabear said:

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HKBear97! said:

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SoFlaBear said:

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Stupid question. Why is JKS in Hawaii? Has Fall Semester ended? All classes are virtual now?

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Honestly, with NIL and the transfer portal, do these kids even bother with classes anymore? The system has basically killed the concept of "student athlete".

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JKS is very focused on school and classes. One of the very biggest draws for his family to Cal was the value of the Berkeley degree. They talk about his life plan all the time.

Last week was reading week. No classes. And if you have plenty of money (he now does) why wouldn't you go home? Particularly if it meant you could check out your old high school in the championship game?

Sometimes cynicism is warranted. More often than not though it's just snark for snark's sake. Suggesting that JKS spent reading week in Hawaii because "NIL killed the concept of student athletes" is the latter.

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Great, took advantage of a study week - good for him and glad to hear he cares. But let's not pretend things haven't changed with this new landscape. Players transferring year after year has to impact academic progress. The new conferences and travel schedules also have to impact academic progress. During last year's men's basketball season the team was on the road for over 12 days straight at one point. I'd say that's less than ideal. Although, perhaps classes are easier now than in the past?

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table. I have no problem with the new system compared to that one.

And if QB1 can now afford to go home for reading week and the Jim Knowlton's of the world have to cut out one round of golf at the club then yeah that sounds pretty good too.

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100%
Sebasta, I know the California Legends Collective was dissolved but I hope you are still deeply involved in Cal football and basketball. We really need super smart, financially savvy, good hearted, progressive minded Cal alums like you to help guide us into the future.

calumnus said:

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Sebastabear said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Sebastabear said:

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HKBear97! said:

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SoFlaBear said:

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Stupid question. Why is JKS in Hawaii? Has Fall Semester ended? All classes are virtual now?

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Honestly, with NIL and the transfer portal, do these kids even bother with classes anymore? The system has basically killed the concept of "student athlete".

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JKS is very focused on school and classes. One of the very biggest draws for his family to Cal was the value of the Berkeley degree. They talk about his life plan all the time.

Last week was reading week. No classes. And if you have plenty of money (he now does) why wouldn't you go home? Particularly if it meant you could check out your old high school in the championship game?

Sometimes cynicism is warranted. More often than not though it's just snark for snark's sake. Suggesting that JKS spent reading week in Hawaii because "NIL killed the concept of student athletes" is the latter.

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Great, took advantage of a study week - good for him and glad to hear he cares. But let's not pretend things haven't changed with this new landscape. Players transferring year after year has to impact academic progress. The new conferences and travel schedules also have to impact academic progress. During last year's men's basketball season the team was on the road for over 12 days straight at one point. I'd say that's less than ideal. Although, perhaps classes are easier now than in the past?

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table. I have no problem with the new system compared to that one.

And if QB1 can now afford to go home for reading week and the Jim Knowlton's of the world have to cut out one round of golf at the club then yeah that sounds pretty good too.

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100%
Sebasta, I know the California Legends Collective was dissolved but I hope you are still deeply involved in Cal football and basketball. We really need super smart, financially savvy, good hearted, progressive minded Cal alums like you to help guide us into the future.

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Sebastabear is more than heavily involved. He's a good part of the reason we've had an incredible week of great football news.

Sebastabear said:

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table.

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And do you really believe that all of that is no longer the case? What's different about the degrees players are currently getting? Many (if not most) of them are still not worth the paper they're printed on. Schools and coaches and administrators are still getting rich. In fact, coaching salaries are skyrocketing. And I have to believe that the bluebloods still cheat and pay players under the table, because they have no reason to believe they will be caught and penalized. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The only change is that players now have the opportunity to be financially compensated and major roster changes occur every year due to the portal. I'm not convinced that's an improvement.

HKBear97! said:

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Sebastabear said:

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HKBear97! said:

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SoFlaBear said:

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Stupid question. Why is JKS in Hawaii? Has Fall Semester ended? All classes are virtual now?

---

Honestly, with NIL and the transfer portal, do these kids even bother with classes anymore? The system has basically killed the concept of "student athlete".

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JKS is very focused on school and classes. One of the very biggest draws for his family to Cal was the value of the Berkeley degree. They talk about his life plan all the time.

Last week was reading week. No classes. And if you have plenty of money (he now does) why wouldn't you go home? Particularly if it meant you could check out your old high school in the championship game?

Sometimes cynicism is warranted. More often than not though it's just snark for snark's sake. Suggesting that JKS spent reading week in Hawaii because "NIL killed the concept of student athletes" is the latter.

---

Great, took advantage of a study week - good for him and glad to hear he cares. But let's not pretend things haven't changed with this new landscape. Players transferring year after year has to impact academic progress. The new conferences and travel schedules also have to impact academic progress. During last year's men's basketball season the team was on the road for over 12 days straight at one point. I'd say that's less than ideal. Although, perhaps classes are easier now than in the past?

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I don't know how future seasons will shake out. But Cal played 9 games on the West Coast this year. And traveled east once in September, once in October and once in November. (When Justin Wilcox was fired, some peopel complained that he had to travel to the East Coast every other week. So I looked it up.)

Golden One said:

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Sebastabear said:

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table.

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And do you really believe that all of that is no longer the case? What's different about the degrees players are currently getting? Many (if not most) of them are still not worth the paper they're printed on. Schools and coaches and administrators are still getting rich. In fact, coaching salaries are skyrocketing. And I have to believe that the bluebloods still cheat and pay players under the table, because they have no reason to believe they will be caught and penalized. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The only change is that players now have the opportunity to be financially compensated and major roster changes occur every year due to the portal. I'm not convinced that's an improvement.

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Yes. I do. I really do not get the "woe is us" defeatism. Sometimes change is good and sometimes Cal's situation can in fact improve. Really.

Degrees from some schools are still worthless. Yeah? So what? Players now have the worthless degrees PLUS money. In what way is that worse than worthless degrees and no money? The point is that the new system is better than the old. That's what I said. So it doesn't track to say "nothing improves" when we keep the worth of the degree variable exactly the same and add some cash for the players.

Coaching salaries are not skyrocketing. They are skyrocketing for the handful of coaches who get all the headlines. The Cignettis and Kiffins of the world. But looking at what is happening to them and extrapolating from that that all salaries are skyrocketing is the same false equivalency that pulled the five or six players who were making a fortune in NIL and arriving at the conclusion that all players were getting rich. Overall coaching salaries haven't budged and in many cases are even coming down. We are seeing that right now at Cal. And outside of the P4, these salaries are almost all coming down. Cash is not limitless. Paying players means that money has to come from somewhere and coach and administrator salaries is one of those places. And if LSU and Florida, etc. can still afford to pay a fortune for their coaching hires, that's just more illustrative of the fact that there is far too much money in the sport to not be paying a sliver of it to the people who are actually generating the revenue.

And as far as the "blue bloods will still cheat no matter what" argument . . . all I can say is . . . AAAAAAAAARGH!!! WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SAYING THIS? WHY DO THEY BELIEVE IT? The fact of the matter is there is no reason to cheat. All schools have their $20.5m revenue share. On top of that, any third-party can hire any athlete for any amount as long as it is approved by the Clearinghouse. And the Clearinghouse is waving these deals through like there is no tomorrow. ON TOP OF THAT any public company can hire any athlete for any amount WITHOUT even going through the Clearinghouse. This is not cheating. This is complying with the antitrust laws of the United States which the NCAA has been flouting for decades with its blatantly illegal rules against player compensation. And if everyone can do the exact same thing, who do you want to bank on? The school with a massive alumni base that has more venture backed companies and CEOs than any school on the planet or a school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama? Which of those actually has more opportunities to find these kinds of NIL deals for its players?

The fact of the matter is this corrupt, horrid system for the first time in forever has changed to allow people generating profits for their schools to share some of them. The old system sucked. And I don't get the nostalgia for how awesome it was. What was awesome exactly? Was it the 65 years we went without a conference championship? Was it the 18 year losing streak to UCLA in football? The fact of the matter is Cal needed a reset and these new rules have given us one. Obviously, we haven't won anything yet on the field. But we are so not ok with that that we just fired our coach and now, for the first time in forever, we actually have a chance to win. The only limitations on what we can achieve are those we impose upon ourselves. It's about damned time.

Bobodeluxe said:

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Sebastabear said:

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Golden One said:

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Sebastabear said:

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table.

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And do you really believe that all of that is no longer the case? What's different about the degrees players are currently getting? Many (if not most) of them are still not worth the paper they're printed on. Schools and coaches and administrators are still getting rich. In fact, coaching salaries are skyrocketing. And I have to believe that the bluebloods still cheat and pay players under the table, because they have no reason to believe they will be caught and penalized. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The only change is that players now have the opportunity to be financially compensated and major roster changes occur every year due to the portal. I'm not convinced that's an improvement.

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Yes. I do. I really do not get the "woe is us" defeatism. Sometimes change is good and sometimes Cal's situation can in fact improve. Really.

Degrees from some schools are still worthless. Yeah? So what? Players now have the worthless degrees PLUS money. In what way is that worse than worthless degrees and no money? The point is that the new system is better than the old. That's what I said. So it doesn't track to say "nothing improves" when we keep the worth of the degree variable exactly the same and add some cash for the players.

Coaching salaries are not skyrocketing. They are skyrocketing for the handful of coaches who get all the headlines. The Cignettis and Kiffins of the world. But looking at what is happening to them and extrapolating from that that all salaries are skyrocketing is the same false equivalency that pulled the five or six players who were making a fortune in NIL and arriving at the conclusion that all players were getting rich. Overall coaching salaries haven't budged and in many cases are even coming down. We are seeing that right now at Cal. And outside of the P4, these salaries are almost all coming down. Cash is not limitless. Paying players means that money has to come from somewhere and coach and administrator salaries is one of those places. And if LSU and Florida, etc. can still afford to pay a fortune for their coaching hires, that's just more illustrative of the fact that there is far too much money in the sport to not be paying a sliver of it to the people who are actually generating the revenue.

And as far as the "blue bloods will still cheat no matter what" argument . . . all I can say is . . . AAAAAAAAARGH!!! WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SAYING THIS? WHY DO THEY BELIEVE IT? The fact of the matter is there is no reason to cheat. All schools have their $20.5m revenue share. On top of that, any third-party can hire any athlete for any amount as long as it is approved by the Clearinghouse. And the Clearinghouse is waving these deals through like there is no tomorrow. ON TOP OF THAT any public company can hire any athlete for any amount WITHOUT even going through the Clearinghouse. This is not cheating. This is complying with the antitrust laws of the United States which the NCAA has been flouting for decades with its blatantly illegal rules against player compensation. And if everyone can do the exact same thing, who do you want to bank on? The school with a massive alumni base that has more venture backed companies and CEOs than any school on the planet or a school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama? Which of those actually has more opportunities to find these kinds of NIL deals for its players?

The fact of the matter is this corrupt, horrid system for the first time in forever has changed to allow people generating profits for their schools to share some of them. The old system sucked. And I don't get the nostalgia for how awesome it was. What was awesome exactly? Was it the 65 years we went without a conference championship? Was it the 18 year losing streak to UCLA in football? The fact of the matter is Cal needed a reset and these new rules have given us one. Obviously, we haven't won anything yet on the field. But we are so not ok with that that we just fired our coach and now, for the first time in forever, we actually have a chance to win. The only limitations on what we can achieve are those we impose upon ourselves. It's about damned time.

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All of this is true, but where it all end, and for what? This is now Professional Minor League Football, without any rule$, other than $. I get it. It will be fun next year because of renewed expectations, but where is the always tenuous connection to ANY university? I have never cared to attend any professional sporting event, and since I am renewing, I am unsure why that is.

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I am pretty far from saying the new system is perfect. There's a lot I dislike about it intensely. But all I can say is it is better. Setting aside the shift in fairness toward the players, we just beat two ranked teams in November for the first time in.. . . I actually don't know . . . forever?

New system is giving us a chance and that's more than I've felt like we've had in a while.

Sebastabear said:

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Bobodeluxe said:

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Sebastabear said:

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Golden One said:

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Sebastabear said:

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It's all good. I just have a problem with anyone romanticizing the old system where the people actually producing all that revenue were generally getting degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, and schools and coaches and administrators were getting rich. Oh, and a handful of schools were blatantly cheating, and paying players under the table.

---

And do you really believe that all of that is no longer the case? What's different about the degrees players are currently getting? Many (if not most) of them are still not worth the paper they're printed on. Schools and coaches and administrators are still getting rich. In fact, coaching salaries are skyrocketing. And I have to believe that the bluebloods still cheat and pay players under the table, because they have no reason to believe they will be caught and penalized. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The only change is that players now have the opportunity to be financially compensated and major roster changes occur every year due to the portal. I'm not convinced that's an improvement.

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Yes. I do. I really do not get the "woe is us" defeatism. Sometimes change is good and sometimes Cal's situation can in fact improve. Really.

Degrees from some schools are still worthless. Yeah? So what? Players now have the worthless degrees PLUS money. In what way is that worse than worthless degrees and no money? The point is that the new system is better than the old. That's what I said. So it doesn't track to say "nothing improves" when we keep the worth of the degree variable exactly the same and add some cash for the players.

Coaching salaries are not skyrocketing. They are skyrocketing for the handful of coaches who get all the headlines. The Cignettis and Kiffins of the world. But looking at what is happening to them and extrapolating from that that all salaries are skyrocketing is the same false equivalency that pulled the five or six players who were making a fortune in NIL and arriving at the conclusion that all players were getting rich. Overall coaching salaries haven't budged and in many cases are even coming down. We are seeing that right now at Cal. And outside of the P4, these salaries are almost all coming down. Cash is not limitless. Paying players means that money has to come from somewhere and coach and administrator salaries is one of those places. And if LSU and Florida, etc. can still afford to pay a fortune for their coaching hires, that's just more illustrative of the fact that there is far too much money in the sport to not be paying a sliver of it to the people who are actually generating the revenue.

And as far as the "blue bloods will still cheat no matter what" argument . . . all I can say is . . . AAAAAAAAARGH!!! WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SAYING THIS? WHY DO THEY BELIEVE IT? The fact of the matter is there is no reason to cheat. All schools have their $20.5m revenue share. On top of that, any third-party can hire any athlete for any amount as long as it is approved by the Clearinghouse. And the Clearinghouse is waving these deals through like there is no tomorrow. ON TOP OF THAT any public company can hire any athlete for any amount WITHOUT even going through the Clearinghouse. This is not cheating. This is complying with the antitrust laws of the United States which the NCAA has been flouting for decades with its blatantly illegal rules against player compensation. And if everyone can do the exact same thing, who do you want to bank on? The school with a massive alumni base that has more venture backed companies and CEOs than any school on the planet or a school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama? Which of those actually has more opportunities to find these kinds of NIL deals for its players?

The fact of the matter is this corrupt, horrid system for the first time in forever has changed to allow people generating profits for their schools to share some of them. The old system sucked. And I don't get the nostalgia for how awesome it was. What was awesome exactly? Was it the 65 years we went without a conference championship? Was it the 18 year losing streak to UCLA in football? The fact of the matter is Cal needed a reset and these new rules have given us one. Obviously, we haven't won anything yet on the field. But we are so not ok with that that we just fired our coach and now, for the first time in forever, we actually have a chance to win. The only limitations on what we can achieve are those we impose upon ourselves. It's about damned time.

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All of this is true, but where it all end, and for what? This is now Professional Minor League Football, without any rule$, other than $. I get it. It will be fun next year because of renewed expectations, but where is the always tenuous connection to ANY university? I have never cared to attend any professional sporting event, and since I am renewing, I am unsure why that is.

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I am pretty far from saying the new system is perfect. There's a lot I dislike about it intensely. But all I can say is it is better. Setting aside the shift in fairness toward the players, we just beat two ranked teams in November for the first time in.. . . I actually don't know . . . forever?

New system is giving us a chance and that's more than I've felt like we've had in a while.

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Even with a head coach who seemingly lacked "it", two good wins is impressive. My ambivalence is with the word, "us". These great athletes are getting paid to wear the laundry, and take classes at Berkeley for the year, and next year, what?

Boy, you sure look at the current world with rose-colored (or gold-colored) glasses. I wish I could share in your optimism. Since you seem knowledgeable, I would like to know which football program with a winning record over the past ten years has seen their head coaching salary go down as you indicate. I don't believe there have been any, except those cases where a very experienced coach has retired and been replaced by an inexperienced one. Frankly, I think the current system which you laud, absolutely sucks. Give me the old system where many of the best players didn't move from team to team every year and major college sports weren't filled by mercenaries.

JKS mentioned that he found out Cal HC Tosh Lupoi was coming during the Campbell State title game in HI

Lupoi stayed for two hours

“I’m just grateful that he even wanted to make the flight, travel from Berkeley to Hawaii just to spend a couple hours with me and my family.” pic.twitter.com/z1ApwAwLEH

— Thomas Dunn (@Thomasdunn24) December 9, 2025

Golden One said:

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Oski87 said:

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That is professional sports. College students always could transfer - every year. Now college athletes can. Kids can and do stay in school and graduate - Mendoza did at Cal. So did Ott. Are you pissed that they went off?

The idea that kids in college athletics are not students today frankly seems totally out of touch. Kids who get into D1 program are ones who generally bust their fannies in high school in both academics and athletics - because that is what coaches want. They do not want problems, and certainly will not pay for problems. If you want to be an attractive candidate to transfer - you need to make your grades, compete progress toward graduation, and come with the full package. If you are going to be paid a million dollars - you better be prepared to earn it.

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If you're saying that major college sports are now professional sports, I agree with you. I don't like that. I'm not talking about the Mendozas and Otts who graduate and leave via the portal. I'm talking about the vast majority of athletes who transfer from school to school prior to graduation. Loyalty to a school and program seems to be a dying attribute. Will fan loyalty follow a slow death?

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College sports was always about transitional athletes. It used to be freshmen weren't eligible and players had 3 years of eligibility. Most of your starters were juniors and seniors. Then the seniors graduate. Rinse and repeat. The starting lineup has always changed year to year.

Then freshmen could play varsity but players could opt out their senior year and go pro. In basketball it got even worse. Some of our best players: Kidd, Abdur-Rahim, Anderson, Brown…. were only at Cal one year.
Sure, there were occasional great 4 year starters in both sports, but that was rare. Anyone good enough to start as a freshman was probably good enough to go pro early.

So are we just rooting for laundry? Somewhat, but it is still less the case than the NFL and the NBA where fanbases are still rabid and loyal, even though teams can pack up and leave for a new city. Athletes at Cal still attend classes and walk campus with their fellow students. Not everyone is going to be in the NBA or NFL and the Cal degree is still valuable. And when we are recruiting well we get a player like Shareef who left after one year but still came back year after year in the offseason to earn his degree.

As Sebasta says, morn it if you want, but we were not successful in the old system for 60+ years. Even at Tedford's peak the best we got was a Holiday Bowl win.
What I morn is the loss of Cal traditions, the Band, our fight songs. Hopefully with Cal alums in charge we bring some of that back, but maybe with the band mic'd.

We have a reset. And for the first time in our history, smart Cal alums are in charge. We need guys like Sebasta who can accept and embrace the current reality, have a vision for the future and the energy and passion to act on that vision.

With the Raiders, A's and Warriors gone from the East Bay for the first time since 1959, when not too coincidentally we last won a conference championship in football and a National Championship in basketball, we have a chance to build a much larger fanbase and truly becoming the East Bay's home team, helping to lock down local talent as well.

Now in the ACC, we are ESPN's darling, with Stanford, their only West Coast property. Sure, it means a lot of night home games (which can actually be fun) but it also means we can be a national brand. College Gameday and the Calgorithm showed what is possible. Leveraging our reputation for academic excellence, "Left Coast" social activism, great weather, scenic location…The things that have brought top rated, smart athletes from all across the country in the past. But now we play regularly in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, plus New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky…. We are the nearest school to Hawaii and have developed a pipeline and we are located in California, compete as "California" the state that has produced more NFL talent than any other state. All with a head coach who is a proven great national recruiter.

Finally, the ACC is eminently winnable in football and in basketball only brings highly marketable opponents and prestige, with no restrictions on the number of teams that can make the NCAA Tournament.

So let's embrace this new opportunity! Go Bears!

Golden One said:

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Boy, you sure look at the current world with rose-colored (or gold-colored) glasses. I wish I could share in your optimism. Since you seem knowledgeable, I would like to know which football program with a winning record over the past ten years has seen their head coaching salary go down as you indicate. I don't believe there have been any, except those cases where a very experienced coach has retired and been replaced by an inexperienced one. Frankly, I think the current system which you laud, absolutely sucks. Give me the old system where many of the best players didn't move from team to team every year and major college sports weren't filled by mercenaries.

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Ha. Only at Cal would a post lamenting our 18 year losing streak to UCLA and pointing out our 65 years without a conference championship be viewed as seeing the world through "gold-colored glasses."

On your question on coaching salaries, let me clarify if what I said if it was unclear. I was talking about new coaches being hired. That's where we are seeing the downward pressure across the entire system on salaries/terms. We can't now shift the goal posts to talk about "football programs with winning records over the past ten years" (wowza) . . . Doing what exactly? . . . Cutting their existing coach's salary? Yeah, that's an absolute null set. I'd actually go even further. No one is cutting their existing coach's salary, with or without a winning record over the past 10 years. That's not how the world works. You don't cut the salaries of your existing employees in any profession. You either fire them or give them a cost of living adjustment. Virtually no one (outside sales people) see their annual incomes go up and down like that. It's up and to the right or get gone. Again, my point was on new hires.

And on new hires, the point I made was that while the Lane Kiffin's and the Franklin's of the world are grabbing headlines with their monster comp packages, the trend in coaching salaries across the system is trending down. I looked at a lot of these numbers while sitting on the search committee. Some of this stuff isn't yet public, but I'll give you one objective point that is and shows this trend. Even last year, it was ubiquitous for new football coaches to get seven year contracts. Almost all of them were seven years. This year? They are almost all five. So that's a 30% drop in guaranteed buy out payments. Even at the top of the sport. A lot of stuff like that is happening precisely because some of the money is getting siphoned off into NIL for the players. That was my point. And it think it's a good trend.

I have to go back to my day job so I'm going to now dip out of this thread, but let me just leave with this observation I've made before. The game changes. We don't get to chose whether it changes. We only get to decide whether we individually still want to follow the team/sport. No one is forcing anyone to watch, much less post on BI. NIL is just the latest change. Some people didn't like the forward pass, or the end of leather helmets, or the proliferation of bowl games, or the televising of all games or the CFP, etc. etc. Those folks either adapted or they found a new hobby. But sitting on some obscure message board lamenting changes over and over and over again doesn't actually do anything. If this change isn't to your liking and you feel you are now rooting for "laundry" then by all means find another hobby. Hopefully it brings you more joy. But I can't for the life of me understand waxing nostalgic for the "good old days" in college football which looked a heck of a lot like a plantation system to me AND resulted in a 65 year championship drought for Cal. Oh and was riddled with rampant cheating. Good riddance to all that crap.

Onward!

Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was blunt about new HC Tosh Lupoi’s vision:

“He wants to win.”

— Joaquin Ruiz (@WalkingRuiz) December 9, 2025

Sebastabear said:

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Golden One said:

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Boy, you sure look at the current world with rose-colored (or gold-colored) glasses. I wish I could share in your optimism. Since you seem knowledgeable, I would like to know which football program with a winning record over the past ten years has seen their head coaching salary go down as you indicate. I don't believe there have been any, except those cases where a very experienced coach has retired and been replaced by an inexperienced one. Frankly, I think the current system which you laud, absolutely sucks. Give me the old system where many of the best players didn't move from team to team every year and major college sports weren't filled by mercenaries.

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Ha. Only at Cal would a post lamenting our 18 year losing streak to UCLA and pointing out our 65 years without a conference championship be viewed as seeing the world through "gold-colored glasses."

On your question on coaching salaries, let me clarify if what I said if it was unclear. I was talking about new coaches being hired. That's where we are seeing the downward pressure across the entire system on salaries/terms. We can't now shift the goal posts to talk about "football programs with winning records over the past ten years" (wowza) . . . Doing what exactly? . . . Cutting their existing coach's salary? Yeah, that's an absolute null set. I'd actually go even further. No one is cutting their existing coach's salary, with or without a winning record over the past 10 years. That's not how the world works. You don't cut the salaries of your existing employees in any profession. You either fire them or give them a cost of living adjustment. Virtually no one (outside sales people) see their annual incomes go up and down like that. It's up and to the right or get gone. Again, my point was on new hires.

And on new hires, the point I made was that while the Lane Kiffin's and the Franklin's of the world are grabbing headlines with their monster comp packages, the trend in coaching salaries across the system is trending down. I looked at a lot of these numbers while sitting on the search committee. Some of this stuff isn't yet public, but I'll give you one objective point that is and shows this trend. Even last year, it was ubiquitous for new football coaches to get seven year contracts. Almost all of them were seven years. This year? They are almost all five. So that's a 30% drop in guaranteed buy out payments. Even at the top of the sport. A lot of stuff like that is happening precisely because some of the money is getting siphoned off into NIL for the players. That was my point. And it think it's a good trend.

I have to go back to my day job so I'm going to now dip out of this thread, but let me just leave with this observation I've made before. The game changes. We don't get to chose whether it changes. We only get to decide whether we individually still want to follow the team/sport. No one is forcing anyone to watch, much less post on BI. NIL is just the latest change. Some people didn't like the forward pass, or the end of leather helmets, or the proliferation of bowl games, or the televising of all games or the CFP, etc. etc. Those folks either adapted or they found a new hobby. But sitting on some obscure message board lamenting changes over and over and over again doesn't actually do anything. If this change isn't to your liking and you feel you are now rooting for "laundry" then by all means find another hobby. Hopefully it brings you more joy. But I can't for the life of me understand waxing nostalgic for the "good old days" in college football which looked a heck of a lot like a plantation system to me AND resulted in a 65 year championship drought for Cal. Oh and was riddled with rampant cheating. Good riddance to all that crap.

Onward!

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Oh, brother, you can stop pontificating now. I just don't like the current NIL setup or the seemingly endless player movement through the portal. I don't believe I'm alone in that opinion. My distain for those changes has little to do with the overall evolution of the sport over time. And regarding salaries, since you're an insider, what is Lupoi's starting salary compared to Wilcox's starting salary adjusted for inflation. My bet is that Lupoi's is higher. Note the following:

https://rollingout.com/2024/12/15/college-football-coaching-salaries/

I'll be honest. I thought a full ride was enough payment, and don't like the changes, but it is what it is. Anyone know where I can donate? I don't have a lot of money as a sheet-metal worker, but there's a serious positive feeling about Cal football lately and I am ready! Link?