2019 Schedule Announced: Six Home Dates, One on Friday Night

So once again, Cal students will not have a true Saturday road trip to LA (hard to argue thanksgiviing is a true weekend road trip)

I can't remember if I posted this on here, but before this year's game at USC, it had been over 1/2 decade since there was a Saturday game in LA. That means more than a generatyion of Cal students had not done that 1-5 raod trip. That's how traditions die.

Notice also, 2 bye weeks (is this the first time ever?)

Why is the conference making Cal play the other California schools 3 weeks in a row? They're not making the other schools do that and it really throws off the balance.

And attendance continues to decline across the board. Did you read Wilner's numbers about how only 50% of the P12 championship seats were filled, while it was 90%+ at other championships? There are many reasons, of course, but creating life long fans and a great fan experience definitely isn't a priority of Larry. He needs to go.

...including a Friday night contest against USC...

Fri., Sept. 27 Arizona State*

Sat., Nov. 16 USC*

The most traumatic...

Dramatic...

I blame Buh.

Throw in some evening starting times and it looks like a schedule designed to minimize attendance.

10-2

I remember the days when USC students would travel to Cal games by boat.

sandiegobears said:

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And attendance continues to decline across the board. Did you read Wilner's numbers about how only 50% of the P12 championship seats were filled, while it was 90%+ at other championships? There are many reasons, of course, but creating life long fans and a great fan experience definitely isn't a priority of Larry. He needs to go.

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I don't believe for a second turnstyle was 35K people. MOre like 20K i'd guess.

TheFiatLux said:

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So once again, Cal students will not have a true Saturday road trip to LA (hard to argue thanksgiviing is a true weekend road trip)

I can't remember if I posted this on here, but before this year's game at USC, it had been over 1/2 decade since there was a Saturday game in LA. That means more than a generatyion of Cal students had not done that 1-5 raod trip. That's how traditions die.

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While I appreciate your concern about Cal students not having a true Saturday road trip to LA, what about us faithful alums with a tradition of road trips for the LA game, who can't take a regular Thursday and Friday off, and can't be away from family over Thanksgiving weekend? Yes, complain about the impact on students, but don't forget there is a danger of traditions dying for us old people, too, even before we ourselves die.

It was sort of shocking to discover this year how much the children of our faithful Bear host in SoCal had grown since the last I-5 road trip to see the Bears. Even if we get a suitable Saturday (or maybe Friday) for the road trip in 2020, the oldest won't even be there, she'll be off to college.

I could handle missing once every three years or so, but five times out of the last six years?!? Damn.

TheFiatLux said:

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sandiegobears said:

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And attendance continues to decline across the board. Did you read Wilner's numbers about how only 50% of the P12 championship seats were filled, while it was 90%+ at other championships? There are many reasons, of course, but creating life long fans and a great fan experience definitely isn't a priority of Larry. He needs to go.

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I don't believe for a second turnstyle was 35K people. MOre like 20K i'd guess.

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20,000 was my estimate, also. Way more empty seats than filled ones in the lower decks, and the upper deck was completely tarped off.

Golden One said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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sandiegobears said:

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And attendance continues to decline across the board. Did you read Wilner's numbers about how only 50% of the P12 championship seats were filled, while it was 90%+ at other championships? There are many reasons, of course, but creating life long fans and a great fan experience definitely isn't a priority of Larry. He needs to go.

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I don't believe for a second turnstyle was 35K people. MOre like 20K i'd guess.

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20,000 was my estimate, also. Way more empty seats than filled ones in the lower decks, and the upper deck was completely tarped off.

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The quality of play only deserved 5,000 people in the stands.

Nobody cares about a conference championship game after the teams have mostly all played each other in the conference season. Throw in a neutral that is many, many miles away from both schools and this is what you get.

Throw out all the conference championship games and expand the final four to eight.

TheFiatLux said:

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sandiegobears said:

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And attendance continues to decline across the board. Did you read Wilner's numbers about how only 50% of the P12 championship seats were filled, while it was 90%+ at other championships? There are many reasons, of course, but creating life long fans and a great fan experience definitely isn't a priority of Larry. He needs to go.

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I don't believe for a second turnstyle was 35K people. MOre like 20K i'd guess.

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Everyone could be right with the caveat that 50% of the available non-tarped seats were occupied.

Friday is not a good night for a CCG announced only 6 days beforehand. A last minute flight is not cheap ($500+), and Utah and Seattle are both quite long drives from SJC (12 and 14 hours respectively).

Would guess most that attended were actually alumni that lived in the bay area, where other non interested locals who were comped tickets through some kind of business connection put tickets on stubhub for dirt cheap because they were not going to Santa Clara at 5pm on a workday themselves.

It was a 3 hour drive for Bama and 1 hour for Georgia to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

It's 3 hours from both Norman and Austin to AT&T Stadium for the Big 12 Championship Game.

It's 3 hours from Columbus and 4 hours from Evanston to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship Game.

It's 3 hours from Clemson and 7 hours from Pittsburgh to Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game.

As much as I would say put it in Vegas in 2020, I'm not sure that will help much. Bay Area has far more flight capacity with three airports for those who won't drive massive distances. Neutral site needs to be Saturday at 7pm PT. If it's a home game to the higher ranked, the Friday evening slot does work (and garners extra TV $$$), unless it's Furd.

Big C said:

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Nobody cares about a conference championship game after the teams have mostly all played each other in the conference season. Throw in a neutral that is many, many miles away from both schools and this is what you get.

Throw out all the conference championship games and expand the final four to eight.

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They certainly cared about the championship games in the B12 and SEC (and for good reason, they were great games). In addition, the SEC title game had the highest TV rating for a non playoff college game since 2011.

UrsaMajor said:

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Notice also, 2 bye weeks (is this the first time ever?)

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It happens where there are fourteen weeks between Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving weekend (a couple times every seven years).

Cal8285 said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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So once again, Cal students will not have a true Saturday road trip to LA (hard to argue thanksgiviing is a true weekend road trip)

I can't remember if I posted this on here, but before this year's game at USC, it had been over 1/2 decade since there was a Saturday game in LA. That means more than a generatyion of Cal students had not done that 1-5 raod trip. That's how traditions die.

---

While I appreciate your concern about Cal students not having a true Saturday road trip to LA, what about us faithful alums with a tradition of road trips for the LA game, who can't take a regular Thursday and Friday off, and can't be away from family over Thanksgiving weekend? Yes, complain about the impact on students, but don't forget there is a danger of traditions dying for us old people, too, even before we ourselves die.

It was sort of shocking to discover this year how much the children of our faithful Bear host in SoCal had grown since the last I-5 road trip to see the Bears. Even if we get a suitable Saturday (or maybe Friday) for the road trip in 2020, the oldest won't even be there, she'll be off to college.

I could handle missing once every three years or so, but five times out of the last six years?!? Damn.

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Fair point. It was just, I think, more impactful to talk in terms of a generation of students. I agree with you. The UCLA crowd at Memorial this year was SHOCKINGLY small. While ours was much bigger at The LA Coliseum it was still small in comparison to years passed.

TheFiatLux said:

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Cal8285 said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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So once again, Cal students will not have a true Saturday road trip to LA (hard to argue thanksgiviing is a true weekend road trip)

I can't remember if I posted this on here, but before this year's game at USC, it had been over 1/2 decade since there was a Saturday game in LA. That means more than a generatyion of Cal students had not done that 1-5 raod trip. That's how traditions die.

---

While I appreciate your concern about Cal students not having a true Saturday road trip to LA, what about us faithful alums with a tradition of road trips for the LA game, who can't take a regular Thursday and Friday off, and can't be away from family over Thanksgiving weekend? Yes, complain about the impact on students, but don't forget there is a danger of traditions dying for us old people, too, even before we ourselves die.

It was sort of shocking to discover this year how much the children of our faithful Bear host in SoCal had grown since the last I-5 road trip to see the Bears. Even if we get a suitable Saturday (or maybe Friday) for the road trip in 2020, the oldest won't even be there, she'll be off to college.

I could handle missing once every three years or so, but five times out of the last six years?!? Damn.

---

Fair point. It was just, I think, more impactful to talk in terms of a generation of students. I agree with you. The UCLA crowd at Memorial this year was SHOCKINGLY small. While ours was much bigger at The LA Coliseum it was still small in comparison to years passed.

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Solution to all of this:

8 team playoff starts the weekend after Thanksgiving (what is not CCG weekend).

Play CCG over Thanksgiving (if it has to be at a campus stadium, do it). Spread them out over Friday and Saturday.

BG is still on the weekend before Thanksgiving, and is the last regular season game of the year.

No orphaned Thanksgiving games for anyone.

CFB playoffs on same dates as currently played. Season does not spew into the spring semester.

ColoradoBear said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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Cal8285 said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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So once again, Cal students will not have a true Saturday road trip to LA (hard to argue thanksgiviing is a true weekend road trip)

I can't remember if I posted this on here, but before this year's game at USC, it had been over 1/2 decade since there was a Saturday game in LA. That means more than a generatyion of Cal students had not done that 1-5 raod trip. That's how traditions die.

---

While I appreciate your concern about Cal students not having a true Saturday road trip to LA, what about us faithful alums with a tradition of road trips for the LA game, who can't take a regular Thursday and Friday off, and can't be away from family over Thanksgiving weekend? Yes, complain about the impact on students, but don't forget there is a danger of traditions dying for us old people, too, even before we ourselves die.

It was sort of shocking to discover this year how much the children of our faithful Bear host in SoCal had grown since the last I-5 road trip to see the Bears. Even if we get a suitable Saturday (or maybe Friday) for the road trip in 2020, the oldest won't even be there, she'll be off to college.

I could handle missing once every three years or so, but five times out of the last six years?!? Damn.

---

Fair point. It was just, I think, more impactful to talk in terms of a generation of students. I agree with you. The UCLA crowd at Memorial this year was SHOCKINGLY small. While ours was much bigger at The LA Coliseum it was still small in comparison to years passed.

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Solution to all of this:

8 team playoff starts the weekend after Thanksgiving (what is not CCG weekend).

Play CCG over Thanksgiving (if it has to be at a campus stadium, do it). Spread them out over Friday and Saturday.

BG is still on the weekend before Thanksgiving, and is the last regular season game of the year.

No orphaned Thanksgiving games for anyone.

CFB playoffs on same dates as currently played. Season does not spew into the spring semester.

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What happens when future Cal, Furd, UCLA, and/or USC home games are postponed due to smoke from wildfires?

You may not realize it, but climate change is both extending wildfire season and causing wildfires to became larger in California. It wouldn't be surprising to see future home games for the California teams be postponed due to poor air quality resulting from fires.

The wildfire problem, in itself, is bad enough; coupling that with scheduling a conference championship game immediately after the last game of the season without any possible makeup days could very well result in a team forfeiting its chance to play in the CCG. With Cal's luck, it will be the one year when the team is firing on all cylinders enough to reach (and win!) the Rose Bowl.

If anything, it would make more sense to start the football season earlier by a week or two. Then leave a weekend or two at the end of the season to play makeup games, if necessary. If not necessary, at least people can spend Thanksgiving with their families.

Also, as for the 8 team playoffs/championship, I know lots of people love the idea, but I don't. Not only will these games cut into study time for the student-athletes, but they may well run into finals weeks for them, as well. While in some parts of the country, the student part of the student-athlete is treated as a joke, I should hope that's not the case at Cal. The number one job of any Cal student-athlete should be obtaining an education. The athletic side may be a close second, but should never supercede education.

bluehenbear said:

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Stop playing the conference championship game on a Friday nite at a neutral site and you'll get better attendance (unless game is at furd )

Higher "seeded" team gets the home game or alternate between N and S champion each year

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This is how it started iirc. Then they built that terrible stadium and Larry was too happy to oblige them and pay to rent it every year.

TheFiatLux said:

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Cal8285 said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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So once again, Cal students will not have a true Saturday road trip to LA (hard to argue thanksgiviing is a true weekend road trip)

I can't remember if I posted this on here, but before this year's game at USC, it had been over 1/2 decade since there was a Saturday game in LA. That means more than a generatyion of Cal students had not done that 1-5 raod trip. That's how traditions die.

---

While I appreciate your concern about Cal students not having a true Saturday road trip to LA, what about us faithful alums with a tradition of road trips for the LA game, who can't take a regular Thursday and Friday off, and can't be away from family over Thanksgiving weekend? Yes, complain about the impact on students, but don't forget there is a danger of traditions dying for us old people, too, even before we ourselves die.

It was sort of shocking to discover this year how much the children of our faithful Bear host in SoCal had grown since the last I-5 road trip to see the Bears. Even if we get a suitable Saturday (or maybe Friday) for the road trip in 2020, the oldest won't even be there, she'll be off to college.

I could handle missing once every three years or so, but five times out of the last six years?!? Damn.

---

Fair point. It was just, I think, more impactful to talk in terms of a generation of students. I agree with you. The UCLA crowd at Memorial this year was SHOCKINGLY small. While ours was much bigger at The LA Coliseum it was still small in comparison to years passed.

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UCLA also had its worst start in over 70 years.

North Texas, UC Davis, and Oregon State account for half the home schedule. I'm excited already.

The "California" trophy will be won or lost in November!