bluehenbear said:

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I guess "SEC doesn't travel for OOC games" includes bball not just fball.

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calumnus said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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Well, Cal should set up an OOC game against a solid East Coast or Midwest team to draw eyes to Berkeley.

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We play a bunch of solid East Coast/Midwest teams:

Home & Away: Georgia Tech
Home: Clemson, Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SMU
Away: Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

I am fine with filling out our schedule with West Coast teams.

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BearlyCareAnymore said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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calumnus said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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Well, Cal should set up an OOC game against a solid East Coast or Midwest team to draw eyes to Berkeley.

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We play a bunch of solid East Coast/Midwest teams:

Home & Away: Georgia Tech
Home: Clemson, Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SMU
Away: Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

I am fine with filling out our schedule with West Coast teams.

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Your model of sticking to the West Coast was tried for decades - look where it got us. I don't see any Midwest teams on your list (SMU is conference, so not an OOC option.

I really don't want to see any more Oregon St or Wazzu games on the schedule. Those games have no benefit. Now, have us play in Texas, Wisconsin, or Michigan, we start to draw eyes in the right direction.

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I don't know what you really think this does for us. Cal plays Michigan. People back east tune in to watch Michigan. Michigan wins easily. 24 hours later people barely remember who Michigan played. Absolutely nobody back east is now going to watch another Cal game because they saw us play Michigan. Cal is not going to develop any kind of national audience by just scheduling teams from the East Coast and Midwest. They will develop a national audience by winning and making a run in the tourney.

And actually sticking to West Coast was not really tried for decades. In fact, for a long time Cal was avoiding local teams figuring that it helped their recruiting profile locally and potentially helped them compete with us. Instead, they were paying no name teams from the Midwest and East Coast to come out here and play games that absolutely no one was interested in.

Cal has a much bigger problem than not having a national audience. Cal has lost its local audience. That is what they need to build up. To do that, I would have a mix. Ideally, they would play a name team from out of region at home and one away every year so that you have a game that would draw people who maybe haven't come to Cal games in a long time. People who would maybe come to see Michigan, but would then maybe say - hey, the local team was fun to watch. I would also like to see Cal play northern california teams, preferably in a tournament format that drives local interest.

But I don't see that Cal is ready to be trying to attract national attention. Drawing eyes doesn't help if you just show them you are a punching bag.

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HearstMining said:

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BearlyCareAnymore said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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calumnus said:

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BearoutEast67 said:

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Well, Cal should set up an OOC game against a solid East Coast or Midwest team to draw eyes to Berkeley.

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We play a bunch of solid East Coast/Midwest teams:

Home & Away: Georgia Tech
Home: Clemson, Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SMU
Away: Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

I am fine with filling out our schedule with West Coast teams.

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Your model of sticking to the West Coast was tried for decades - look where it got us. I don't see any Midwest teams on your list (SMU is conference, so not an OOC option.

I really don't want to see any more Oregon St or Wazzu games on the schedule. Those games have no benefit. Now, have us play in Texas, Wisconsin, or Michigan, we start to draw eyes in the right direction.

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I don't know what you really think this does for us. Cal plays Michigan. People back east tune in to watch Michigan. Michigan wins easily. 24 hours later people barely remember who Michigan played. Absolutely nobody back east is now going to watch another Cal game because they saw us play Michigan. Cal is not going to develop any kind of national audience by just scheduling teams from the East Coast and Midwest. They will develop a national audience by winning and making a run in the tourney.

And actually sticking to West Coast was not really tried for decades. In fact, for a long time Cal was avoiding local teams figuring that it helped their recruiting profile locally and potentially helped them compete with us. Instead, they were paying no name teams from the Midwest and East Coast to come out here and play games that absolutely no one was interested in.

Cal has a much bigger problem than not having a national audience. Cal has lost its local audience. That is what they need to build up. To do that, I would have a mix. Ideally, they would play a name team from out of region at home and one away every year so that you have a game that would draw people who maybe haven't come to Cal games in a long time. People who would maybe come to see Michigan, but would then maybe say - hey, the local team was fun to watch. I would also like to see Cal play northern california teams, preferably in a tournament format that drives local interest.

But I don't see that Cal is ready to be trying to attract national attention. Drawing eyes doesn't help if you just show them you are a punching bag.

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You're describing the Cable Car Classic, eh? They'd invite a big name school from out of town, but the others were a rotation of Cal, Stanford, USF, Santa Clara, and maybe St Marys, right? I recall that drew good crowds back in the 1970s. I believe Santa Clara U actually owns the name, but didn't Cal have a Pete Newell Classic in the early 2000s? Lacob would charge through the nose to play at Chase, but I'll bet Oakland would give a good deal. Maybe have special $5.00 tickets for all high school basketball players in the Bay Area. How about four schools, but include both men's and women's teams?

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HearstMining said:

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It's always dangerous to fall in love with your own ideas, but I was thinking more about Cal initiating a basketball tournament (or maybe just a multi-day event) with 3-4 schools that includes both mens' and womens' teams. Each school plays two of the other schools and the games are paired so let's say Cal plays USF or Gonzaga; first the women play, then the men. Tickets are for the pair of games, so could encourage more men to watch the women's game, and vice versa. If you did run it as a tournament, there's a pretty good chance that, with both men's and women's teams involved, at least three of the schools would be in your second round, which could encourage attendance.

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HoopDreams said:

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That's a good idea but typically with these small 4 team tournaments there are multiple games played each day

If you doubled the number of teams to 8 the tournament would take twice the number of days

That might not be practical

But what could work is a double-header with a schools MBB and WBB playing back to back

I love the Cal double headers the last couple of years and the other school could travel both teams on same flight

I'm sure schedules would be different but it would be a fun and unique event

HearstMining said:

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It's always dangerous to fall in love with your own ideas, but I was thinking more about Cal initiating a basketball tournament (or maybe just a multi-day event) with 3-4 schools that includes both mens' and womens' teams. Each school plays two of the other schools and the games are paired so let's say Cal plays USF or Gonzaga; first the women play, then the men. Tickets are for the pair of games, so could encourage more men to watch the women's game, and vice versa. If you did run it as a tournament, there's a pretty good chance that, with both men's and women's teams involved, at least three of the schools would be in your second round, which could encourage attendance.

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