348 Comments

I agree, to a point. Our Academics are top in the nation (at least top five). Hard to have a football team of hoops team that can match that. If you want that level of commitment, you need to go way beyond the AD or Chancellor, that's a cultural thing that does not exist in Berkeley.

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Oh, but once upon a time it did exist: Andy Smith's football teams, Pappy Waldorf's football teams, Pete Newell's basketball teams, Ky Ebright's crews. Do some research, you'll be surprised. Time to bring back those "thrilling days of yesteryear." Hail to California hasn't sounded in so long the band can't play it and the alums have forgotten the words. Victory is no longer a word in the Oski Dictionary. Cal athletics are in a pathetic state (started with Mike Williams, wasn't that a diversity backfire?) and it's time to get out of that rut. Now is the time, a new birth starting with ACC membership is an opportunity. But, it can't happen without strong, effective leadership.

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I agree with much of what you say, but I think there is a bigger piece of the puzzle that is missing. The social culture in California has evolved since the days of Pappy Waldorf and not in a way that is as supportive of our sports teams as it was in yesteryear. It's sad but it is what it is. I'm not sure any kind of Universtiy leadership, whether its at the Presidential level, Chancellor level or AD level, os going to change that culture to a point where it results in a following like Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, Bama, Georgia.....

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It can happen, for ex., in the 1990,s when Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien was in office he was a very visible, ardent, supporter of cal athletics and his support gave athletics great boost. If Cal doesn't take advantage of this new opportunity provided by the switch to the ACC, and hire a strong leader with a vision focused on winning, then drop Oski and adopt a bottom fish as a mascot. How does this sound, the "University of California Golden Lingcod"? Though "Golden Grunts" is better alliteration, but Grunts are a tropical fish.

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I hope Stanford’s band only travels to UNC, FSU, and Clemson

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If Jim Knowlton is so seemingly inept and always missing, how does he keep his job? What does he do all day everyday? Who is protecting him and why? What will it take to get rid of the bastard?

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I keep asking this question and no one answers. I sure as hell don't know the answer, but someone out there must. What is the mystery about all of this? And, if no one knows what he does these days, why is he still around? Is he like those countless techies get paid a lot of money to iterate all day long with interruptions only for for fuss ball, air hockey or ping pong? Where is his office? Does he go in to his office? He seems to be "the man who isn't there."

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I just checked out Cal Sports Report and Jack Curtis and Jeff Furado don't know much about Knowlton either. Seems the Teri McKeever matter has caused lids to be tamped down on most news. If he isn't doing much of anything, the put him on unpaid leave, can him, do something. His matter seems to have athletic dept communications at a standstill or at the most minimal utterances. All of this is inexcusable at a time like this. What the hell gives. Shall we change his nickname to the Detested Clam?

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Is Knowlton's office in the same building as the rest of the athletics offices or is he in the same spot as Carol Clueless-Useless? I believe HG Wells wrote a book (later became a movie) entitled "The Invisible Man" and that certainly describes Knowlton. How about "The Empty Suit in the Empty Office." Forget "Where's Waldo", it's now "Where's Jimmy?" There has to be someone who knows what the hell is going on.

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Read with care, this is vomit inducing: per Knowlton's bio on the Cal athletic's website, "he has established himself as a dynamic leader and an accomplished administrator." - high praise for someone who has let his department deteriorate significantly and gone totally invisible

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Who is going to represent Cal as the ACC deal is finalized / activated?

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Summarized a lot more of the details of today's news more concisely here: https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/california-golden-bears-acc-schedule-details

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Hey, Avi, that's some real journalism.

One knows one is important when someone bothers to troll you.

Keep up the good work and thank you for keeping up the conversation about this crazy conference ordeal.

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So disgusted. Cal bails on OSU and WSU (who have better programs than Cal's sorry lot) who were willing to rebuild the Pac over time with west region teams. Cal and Stanford etc could have been leaders in that effort. Instead they sell out to the ATLANTIC coast conference on a reduced share where Cal is all but guaranteed to get their ass whooped against P5 schools as a subservient reduced share member clear across the country. Wow. This just shows how sad sack Cal has been and still is. No vision or leadership whatsoever.

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Of course WSU & OSU were “willing” to rebuild. They almost literally have no other option.

It’s not for sure that the MWC will take them. Possible/probable, but not certain.

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They will land on their feet. I don't doubt that they will eventually get more $ than Cal's lame $8M/yr share at some point over the next 10 yrs Cal is locked into. That they both have better football programs than Cal and they will likely end up in the G5 reinforces what I've been saying, that Cal due to their priorities, administration, location, etc is not a competitive P5 school. The option they had was continue to be a bottom feeder in a P5 conference, or finally right size their program to its capabilities so they can be a competitive team (like winning their conference more than once every 70 years, imagine that!). Cals administration decided to continue to doormat itself likely never challenging for a conference title, and and travel 3000 miles instead of joining with teams with similar competitive profiles in the west region. They could have built it up over time with some vision and patience.

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Nothing but sympathy. Unfortunately, the rebuild wasn’t going to happen. I think even WSU and OSU knew that too. It’s a shame. Much would’ve preferred holding together, but it wasn’t gonna happen.

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I genuinely feel bad for OSU and WSU who are really the only truly sympathetic schools in this drama.

The Pac-12 is dead, trying to revive it with 4 teams wasn’t going to happen.

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What does Oski say to death, NOT TODAY!!

Thank you lil baby Oski, in your tiny golden baby diapers!!

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Sep 1, 2023·edited Sep 1, 2023

On a positive note (and thinking positively), there are only two football programs we cannot catch up to - Clemson and Florida St. - the other 14 we may be able to compete with - although I would not be surprised to see Miami and SMU also separating themselves over a longer term. Right now we are perennially looking up to four schools (Ore, WA, $C, Utah). MBB will be much, much tougher - especially with long road trips - although it would help if we could be rock solid at home. Let's sell Haas out and Rock the Haas!

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Even FSU has had a lot of struggles lately.

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Looks like Cal gets to join in the Notre Dame rotation:

https://www.si.com/college/cal/news/cal-travel-in-the-acc

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Yup, the whole ACC is in it.

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I find it odd that the article says that Stanford will be in the rotation and lose some games against Notre Dame. Their annual deal was pre-existing and should not have been impacted, especially since Notre Dame wanted this expansion so badly.

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New S&C work will center around sitting in a cramped space for 4 to 6 hours. Not sure how they simulate turbulence.

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HONEY I’M HOME

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Due to all this morning's chaff, I didn't see the actual vote results, were there 3 nos?

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I know that FSU and Clemson were "no" votes and NC State flipped. Not sure about UNC, although many of their trustees signed a statement opposing the move.

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Good article further down this thread - very embarrassing for Cal as their administration freeloaded thru the entire process. "What the hell!!!" The whole group is useless: Clueless Carol (maybe it should be Useless Carol), Empty Suit Jim, and The Coot. They should be taken to task for doing nothing. Amazing, the Cal side just watched the parade.

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thanks

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Rick, you keep ripping on Carol and Jim without having any idea if what you are saying is true. I had the chance to talk with Knowlton for a half hour, one on one, in July of 2022. I came away thoroughly impressed. Do you know how big of a deficit he inherited with CAL athletics? Do you know that he figured out how to keep all our athletic programs financially viable? I didn't think so. Perhaps instead of having knee jerk reactions from superficial observations you should actually go talk to some of these people and really understand the reasons behind their decision process. Knowlton is a West Point grad and always has ten sets of alternative fallback plans they way the military taught him. We may be unhappy with how the PAC folded, but I can tell you I am a fan of Jim Knowlton.

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Honestly, Rugbear, I have felt torn between honoring JK's service to our country and disliking his record at Cal. I believe there is groupthink wave of anger looking for a scapegoat. Some cite causes; others figure he's the guy in charge. IMHO, Cal should never have been reduced to being a beggar whatever led to that condition. Moreover, Cal should not be happy with middling results. Our athletics should match our academics, so, we should be the premier public university athletics in the USA and the feel from the cheap seats, here, is Cal leadership disdainfully tolerates athletics and will never let the Bears out.

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I hear you Bowlesman, but think in these terms (context is key): when knowlton arrived he had about a$50m shortfall in our athletic budget. By scrambling, raising money, restructuring our finances and more, he kept all of our sports programs intact. We don't have Stanfurd's endowment and we don't have overwhelming Administration, faculty, and even alumni support for our athletic department and sports programs. We operate at a deficit and yet we still have a top 20 overall athletic program. And, Knowlton did hire Mark Madsen. Finally, with respect to our football program, Wilcox had it on the rise before Covid. Covid killed us. That loss to AZ because the idiot Berkeley health official would not let a third of our team travel (including our #1 and #2 QB's). Remember and world renown epidemiologist at UCSF said at the time that anyone who had the vaccine would have traces of Covid that would be found it they were tested. The key was were the players symptomatic. The vast majority of our kids were asymptomatic. We lost to a shit team, and the local crazy politics that impact our program were exposed. Mettauer left CAL because of this. Other recruits went different directions. In any event, Wilcox had some off years as a result of Covid. This year he has a top ten portal class. We have 50 new players. Our top end talent is better and our depth has never been better. I expect Wilcox to start delivering better results this year. In the big picture, we look pretty good unless you expect us to be Alabama or Oregon. That is never going to happen. We don't live in a state where there is rabid support for our football team and where the UC system will spend what Alabama spends to win. And we don't have a Phil Knight...yet.

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I don't expect us to be Oregon or Alabama, yet, but if we were to match our academics, then we should be striving for that. A five year plan? And, yes, I think both the community and lackadaisical leadership support of athletics would hobble NCAA coach of the year. I think firing WIlcox would set us back even more and not solve the problem. Every Bear fan begins the season with hope, but this will and should be a watershed year where we fans step and make it clear that the program matters to us. If this is not the turning point, then during the next conference shuffle, we will not make it to a lifeboat.

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Gen Custer was also a West Point grad…

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Custer is a great example of how one can be remembered more for one's mistakes than one's successes. What's the formula in business? One angry customer bad-mouthing you cancels out 10 happy customers.

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So was Grant, Lee, Sherman, Pershing, McClellan, Eisenhower, McCarthur, Patton, Sheridan, Bradley, and Schwarzkopf. You can always find a loser as an outlier, but our military academies generally pump out solid officers.

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McClellan. Now I know you don’t know the military 😂

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Just heard that Clemson and FSU will play at Cal next season

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CANT WAIT!!

- Bart Scott

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Interesting timeline on how it all went down. And apparently the "Olympic sports meeting to play in Dallas" is a real thing:

https://sports.yahoo.com/it-is-insane--how-the-accs-contentious-back-and-forth-expansion-deal-ultimately-got-done-170122627.html

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Jayzus, Cal freeloaded their way through the entire process - Embarrassing, Can the Empty Suit, can Clueless and can the COOT. They didn't do a damn thing!

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Wow. Stanford made this happen.

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Notice that neither Christ nor Knowlton are ever mentioned in the article. In fact, the only time Cal is mentioned it is as a partner to Stanford or part of the trio that also includes SMU. Dellenger paints a picture of zero involvement from Cal. Stanford was the "bell cow" because they were putting in the effort to make an invitation happen.

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Yeah feels like we got away with one here. We cannot set ourselves up to do the same in the future though, as I am 99% sure all this realignment shit will happen again pretty soon

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Sep 1, 2023·edited Sep 1, 2023

So, so right... You are recruited to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan armada, um... SEC and the B1G. If anyone doesn't like being in the ACC then not to worry... it will only survive to the GOR expiration which will be too late get in good with the Dark Overlord conferences.

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Sep 1, 2023·edited Sep 1, 2023

Agreed. And the sooner Cal starts positioning itself to weather the next realignment storm, the better.

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Some drive the bus while others are just on for the ride. Apparently only bus drivers need apply for the B1G. I just hope that if it ever comes to UVA leaving for the B1G that we aren't asked to carry Virginia Tech and their zero national championships in any NCAA sport with us (bass fishing and cow tipping still don't count). Besides, Tech isn't an AAU school, anyway.

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beep beep. never in doubt. never worried. not for a second...

as I wipe the sweat off my head.

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Sep 1, 2023·edited Sep 1, 2023

Avi quoted in the SF Gate. https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/5-unanswered-questions-cal-stanford-join-acc-18341545.php

Yesterday, someone commented on how Avi and WFC are pretend journalists. It is one thing to say they lack journalistic integrity (acceptable) and quite another to say they are pretend journalists (unacceptable), amiright? ;) Anyhow, a little egg on the face of whoever it was that sought to diss Avi and the crew at WFC!

Eternally grateful to WFC for the work you all did to keep us updated with every bit of relevant news or rumor on this!

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That's SF Gate which is a pure "rag." Disregard everything except the food reviews (Soliel Ho excepted). Chunky Gabe's predecessor as sports editor Alex ?'s best column was about macaroni and cheese.

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But well-suited for SF, these days. Riches to rags city.

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the funniest part is not a single one of us says were a journalist. and yet people label as that! WE AGREE!! We're not journalists!

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And yet you all do such a better job of it... sigh.

You want to see real non-journalists at work? Stream Hawaii New Now.. and yet they somehow get paid to do it...

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In a world where hack, 1A auditors troll under the guise of being a journalist, ya'll are journalists in my book...even if WFC doesn't have some of the long-form posts that CGB once had. ;)

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YOU CAN'T LACK JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY YOU CAN ONLY LACK EDITORIAL INTEGRITY

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Sep 1, 2023Liked by Rob Hwang

W4C isn't necessarily in the business of breaking news. It's more about analysis, commentary, and building a community.

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Sep 1, 2023·edited Sep 1, 2023

Not challenging your assessment, but I do find it ironic given that the title of this post literally states, "Breaking."

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I take it as a post to discuss the "breaking news"

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I hereby demand Avi changes the title to read "Broken:..."

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Das good. LOL!

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More like chipped or dented news.

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Sep 1, 2023·edited Sep 1, 2023

News you can put in H.

Slogan: "Berkeley ebnom Zlotdik diev"

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I had a good time at that Emerald Bowl in SF 15 years ago in which Nate Longshore led Cal to a win against Miami.

Please tell me the ACC experience will always be like that.

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I was there, that was fun! Could swear it was more than 15 years ago, though. More please!

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Was a few years before that, but in ‘92 our Sturdy Golden Bears marched into the citrus bowl all full of Cal swagger and gave Clemson a proper pasting. Their southern fried football could’t hang. Was my first glimpse as a fan of really having nice things. Roll on…

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My dad played for Clemson a LONG time ago, but he was even rooting for CAL at the end.

Is it wrong that I want Clemson games to end more like Woody Hayes punching one of them? Violence is wrong... right?

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I enjoyed the North Carolina game and Maryland game at the Memorial Stadium too.

If all ACC games could be played in Berkeley or San Francisco...

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I don’t think Jahvid Best enjoyed the away game at Maryland.

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This is what the ACC is all about. Friends helping friends close down their old stadiums:

https://virginiasports.com/news/2007/11/10/virginia-blanks-miami-48-0-in-orange-bowl-finale/

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LOL.

Yes, despite all the esprit de corps we shared with Furd through this ordeal, their goal posts have been known to come down after a Cal win in the Big Game. It's what friends are for.

I read once that Miami has had more players in the NFL than any other college.

BTW- Virginia is certainly a top ten public university and, yet another example, that academics and sports success are not mutually exclusive.

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And Stanford's band has been known to take a lump or two during a Cal game-winning TD LOL

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"The douches are on the field!"

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Jahvid Best, Cam Jordan, Verran Tucker were some others stars from that game

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Nut Bowl was fantastic though that dancing can of nuts was Tree-like enough to make my punching muscles twitch.

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