UPDATE: Over 330 Cal donors have gotten us to the $250K goal, meaning half a million is going to Cal athletes from this weekend! Another $250K to go to raise $1 million.
Now that Cal knows its fate and the ACC is upon us in a year’s time, the first big step ahead will be to change the narrative around fan support of our athletic programs, particularly for revenue sports.
As all of us who have followed Cal Athletics closely know, there have been very significant shifts in donor engagement within the program. This includes Cal alumni starting the Legends Collective so Cal athletes are provided the proper support in a competitive athletics landscape.
Also specific NILs have been set up to support revenue sports, particularly football with the Championship Caliber Initiative, and men’s basketball with the Excellence Fund.
The NIL efforts have been influential in ensuring Cal has produced a top 20 transfer portal class in both basketball and in football this past year. NIL efforts will be critical to future recruiting efforts so the Golden Bears can compete in all revenue sports.
Cal Embraces the Transfer Portal
Just a month ago, following Cal’s hire of Mark Madsen, I wrote the following: Potential huge con: Has Cal’s transfer deficit been a failure of Cal’s previous coaches, or a failure of Cal’s administration making admission either as an undergraduate transfer or as a grad student so cumbersome that Cal can only take the occasional academically minded/Ivy le…
With the reduced ACC deal the next several years heavily impacting Cal athletic revenue, donations to football, men’s basketball and all sports are critical to retaining and getting top players who want to achieve great things at Berkeley.
So there’s a call to action to donate a million this weekend to support Cal Athletics, from Cal Legends NIL president Kevin Kennedy:
“Cal for a long time has been a so-called sleeping giant,” Kennedy told On3 on Friday. “And we have a huge alumni base, a very wealthy alumni base. So the opportunity to use this as a catalyst to really challenge our fans, to show how committed they are to Cal Athletics, is a great moment for us. We’re excited to take the chance.”
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“Cal is the flagship university of the largest state of the union,” Kennedy said. “It would have been a completely unacceptable outcome for Cal to wind up anywhere other than, in a conference that really values, academics, and a conference that really is competing at the highest levels. So we’re thrilled to be joining the ACC. We’re thrilled for the opportunity and just can’t say enough, how grateful we are to be given a chance.”
And there’s a bonus to contributing this weekend: Cal legend and Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera and his wife and Cal Legends co-executive directorr Stephanie Rivera (along with Kennedy, his wife, and former Cal basketball sta Lance Cooper) have pledged a matching donation up to $500,000 to all donations to the Legends NIL through Labor Day weekend.
“I think we want to make sure that we’re still competitive,” Stephanie Rivera said. “With NIL, I think that’s going to ensure that we still get the top athletes because they want the academic experience. But they also know that there’s other opportunities within the NIL space at other colleges. I mean, we have to make sure that we’re at least on par with everybody else. So at a minimum, we know that we need to make sure that we fund our NIL well, so that we can secure some of the talented student-athletes out there.”
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“One other thing is we’ve been on the East Coast for so long,” Stephanie Rivera said. “I think this is awesome because it was always hard to see Cal play. There are a lot of alumni groups all up and down the East Coast. I think for those groups of people, they’re going to be excited to be able to go see Cal in all these ACC locations.”
Reportedly over 250 donations have been logged so far.
How much further can we go with the support of the Write For California community to a million in NIL money?
Cal fans, feel free to donate at Cal Legends NIL Collective and get the ball rolling for a new age in Cal Athletics! (I went ahead and put in a small donation to the football NIL, if football is the way you want to go.)
Leave a comment if you’ve donated to get the positive momentum flowing! You can pick your sport or let Cal Legends decide for you.
Also, if you can or can’t donate, please share this email with all your Cal friends who you think would be in a position to contribute.
Let’s get Bear Territory roaring with excitement about what we’re capable of!
UPDATE: Over 330 Cal donors have gotten us to the $250K goal, meaning half a million is going to Cal athletes from this weekend! Another $250K to go to raise $1 million.
I went without my avocado toast and Starbucks and sent money.