Preach brother. This was one of the dumbest decisions of all time. Not just the reporting itself, but the petty and vindictive way it was prosecuted against some of the people at Cal who are the very lifeblood of the program and without whom we’d be cooked. An absolutely horrendous series of events.
It’s an absolute joke that the spineless/ego driven NCAA would still have the “power” to impose these sanctions on a school that came forward on its own to report minuscule so-called violations……meanwhile the entire sports landscape is on fire with NIL bribes and collusion/poaching. Pathetic.
I understand that this seems like the ethical thing to do. But what are the actual ethics? Some minor violations of a now nearly-irrelevant entity in a system that has changed a ton since 2022. Like, our conference collapsed since then!
It's slap on the wrist stuff but I'd imagine the probation can tie our hands in ways that will make the punishment worse than intended. Unless we're hiding something bigger, what is even the point?
About the only thing that makes sense to me is documentation/ammo a la the Troy Taylor situation ... Ron R laying out more items that happened under AD JK tenure, with additional cause for potential future steps
The investigation was kicked off in 2022, 2 years prior to Rivera becoming fully involved with the program. This is entirely an issue owned by the athletic dept.
The infractions happened in 2022 and publicly in 2025 now self-reporting ... and yes, an issue owned by the athletic department under JK is part of my point (this wasn't under Ron or Lyons)
Ah I think we are only reporting now because the probationary period begins on May 2, which I believe you have to do if an NCAA violation is actually registered. The notice to Cal came much earlier which is why most of the individual punishments have already been served.
I don’t think Ron has any control over this being public but it is definitely something he can use to indicate that department modernization is needed.
Yet another example of Cal football shooting itself in the foot……something this sport has consistently done even since Tedford was run off by the then AD. It’s uncanny the level of self destruction……which negatively influences the images of all other successful programs. Good news is that RR will bring some intelligence and practical experience to the table.
Tedford was not "run off" by anyone. The team was a mess, he'd loss the locker room, academically we'd fallen near the bottom of the conference. He had to go.
I don’t pretend to know the inside story about Tedford. But he was a great coach, and if his methods were not up to par he should have been given the chance to change. He “lost the locker room”? To me that means that certain players wanted him fired, and the administration reacted for other reasons. Anyway, water under the bridge.
Jeff Tedford was fired because he went 15-22 his final 3 years. Any discussion of academics driving the result is revisionist history. They just weren’t very good.
Maybe the one year probation helps explain some of the shocking departures by marquee Cal football players. No chance at an ACC Championship + no chance for Bowl games = good players move on to a better football program. Cal should start playing their rugby games at CMS, as football will draw less fans now than the championship rugby team. This is just so sad...
There is no bowl ban for this probation. The probation refers to the punishments mentioned in this article (restricted recruiting period and staff restrictions re: recruiting). Cal is still eligible for a bowl in 2025.
I guess ethically it was the right thing to do. But, again this took almost 3 years to investigate an infraction that Cal already admitted to. Why doesn't the NCAA take that as a sign of good faith and issue any potential punishment at that time. We are now in a midst of trying to recruit players for the upcoming season and now We are on probation and not eligible for any post season games. It is not to say that We would have a winning season but by chance We do now We cannot go. How does Cal instill confidence in the fan base to come to these games this year ? I feel sorry for the team . We will continue to lose any potential star player's in the future and to the next opening in the transfer portal.
Is someone deliberately trying to submarine Cal’s football program? Who was the AD when the investigation took place and who reported the infractions to the NCAA?
Given that it happened now, I would guess that Rivera or someone else who is new to the program and in a position of influence decided that a fresh start is the best medicine, and wanted to put everything out into the open.
Preach brother. This was one of the dumbest decisions of all time. Not just the reporting itself, but the petty and vindictive way it was prosecuted against some of the people at Cal who are the very lifeblood of the program and without whom we’d be cooked. An absolutely horrendous series of events.
It’s an absolute joke that the spineless/ego driven NCAA would still have the “power” to impose these sanctions on a school that came forward on its own to report minuscule so-called violations……meanwhile the entire sports landscape is on fire with NIL bribes and collusion/poaching. Pathetic.
Big "hey ref I think I fouled him" energy.
As always, Fire Jim Knowlton (into the sun)
I understand that this seems like the ethical thing to do. But what are the actual ethics? Some minor violations of a now nearly-irrelevant entity in a system that has changed a ton since 2022. Like, our conference collapsed since then!
It's slap on the wrist stuff but I'd imagine the probation can tie our hands in ways that will make the punishment worse than intended. Unless we're hiding something bigger, what is even the point?
JIm Knowlton take a bow!! That guy can't be fired soon enough.
About the only thing that makes sense to me is documentation/ammo a la the Troy Taylor situation ... Ron R laying out more items that happened under AD JK tenure, with additional cause for potential future steps
The investigation was kicked off in 2022, 2 years prior to Rivera becoming fully involved with the program. This is entirely an issue owned by the athletic dept.
The infractions happened in 2022 and publicly in 2025 now self-reporting ... and yes, an issue owned by the athletic department under JK is part of my point (this wasn't under Ron or Lyons)
Ah I think we are only reporting now because the probationary period begins on May 2, which I believe you have to do if an NCAA violation is actually registered. The notice to Cal came much earlier which is why most of the individual punishments have already been served.
I don’t think Ron has any control over this being public but it is definitely something he can use to indicate that department modernization is needed.
Yet another example of Cal football shooting itself in the foot……something this sport has consistently done even since Tedford was run off by the then AD. It’s uncanny the level of self destruction……which negatively influences the images of all other successful programs. Good news is that RR will bring some intelligence and practical experience to the table.
Tedford was not "run off" by anyone. The team was a mess, he'd loss the locker room, academically we'd fallen near the bottom of the conference. He had to go.
I don’t pretend to know the inside story about Tedford. But he was a great coach, and if his methods were not up to par he should have been given the chance to change. He “lost the locker room”? To me that means that certain players wanted him fired, and the administration reacted for other reasons. Anyway, water under the bridge.
Yeah, unfortunately Tedford just burned out. Cal would have kept him if he'd maintained his success.
Jeff Tedford was fired because he went 15-22 his final 3 years. Any discussion of academics driving the result is revisionist history. They just weren’t very good.
This is sabotage via insider threat, it’s my only explanation
When will the nightmare end?
When we fire Knowlton.
Maybe the one year probation helps explain some of the shocking departures by marquee Cal football players. No chance at an ACC Championship + no chance for Bowl games = good players move on to a better football program. Cal should start playing their rugby games at CMS, as football will draw less fans now than the championship rugby team. This is just so sad...
There is no bowl ban for this probation. The probation refers to the punishments mentioned in this article (restricted recruiting period and staff restrictions re: recruiting). Cal is still eligible for a bowl in 2025.
My bad. The punitive measures are not too horrible then... thank goodness Cal is not on double super secret probation
Cal is still eligible for a bowl in 2025… whether or not they actually become bowl eligible is another thing… in Riverboat Ron we must trust!
Tough to get excited about a lower tier bowl over a week before Xmas that your milquetoast HC treats as a scrimmage.
Thank god we are still eligible for the ACC conference championship….
Cal doesn’t report terrorists and spies on campus but self-reports a Zoom call? Got it.
This his knowlton’s stink all over it. Way to help the program there JK!
I guess ethically it was the right thing to do. But, again this took almost 3 years to investigate an infraction that Cal already admitted to. Why doesn't the NCAA take that as a sign of good faith and issue any potential punishment at that time. We are now in a midst of trying to recruit players for the upcoming season and now We are on probation and not eligible for any post season games. It is not to say that We would have a winning season but by chance We do now We cannot go. How does Cal instill confidence in the fan base to come to these games this year ? I feel sorry for the team . We will continue to lose any potential star player's in the future and to the next opening in the transfer portal.
We are still bowl eligible. Probation applies only to the above recruiting restrictions listed in the article .
Thanks for clarifying
Okay. I seen the word "probation" and automatically thought of bowl eligibility. I hope u are right about that.
Yeah it's confusing. But bowl probation is very rare for NCAA probation, usually requires a much larger scale of violations.
My guess is that if you want to eventually clean house you can point to this as one of the reasons why it's necessary.
Is someone deliberately trying to submarine Cal’s football program? Who was the AD when the investigation took place and who reported the infractions to the NCAA?
Same AD we’ve been complaining about for nearly a decade.
Yeah, I should have used a /sarc tag. 🤷♀️
Given that it happened now, I would guess that Rivera or someone else who is new to the program and in a position of influence decided that a fresh start is the best medicine, and wanted to put everything out into the open.
This investigation kicked off in 2022, it just wrapped up in the last few months. This is all prior to Rivera’s arrival on staff.
Or alternatively, someone who was disgruntled implicitly or explicitly threatened to go to the NCAA and they wanted to get ahead of it.
It was self reported. It’s mentioned in the article that this was done to minimize the Levelling of the infractions.
thanks for the clarification.