I'm going to write something I never thought I would write. With the NIL ruling college football these days, and the exacerbated nature of the haves and have nots, where the big get bigger and the lesser schools get worse, it's an altogether disheartening landscape to even be a college football fan, not to mention a Cal fan. My wife is r…
I'm going to write something I never thought I would write. With the NIL ruling college football these days, and the exacerbated nature of the haves and have nots, where the big get bigger and the lesser schools get worse, it's an altogether disheartening landscape to even be a college football fan, not to mention a Cal fan. My wife is right when she says how sorry she is for me. It's a big chunk of the small part of my life I allocate to sports to be a Cal fan.
What purpose or hope is there to line up against Oregon? UW? Their greatness this year is exceptional but will continue in kind with their NIL prowess. The double whammy of the dissolution of the Pac12 combined with the hopeless feeling of playing an unfair deck, is just too much. Even truly stellar coaches like Wittingham and Smith at OSU, cannot outcoach the talent differential on a consistent basis. And when it's not up to the skill and charisma of the coach to attract top players, like has always been the hope of a new hot coach, and it's only about NIL money, then what is the point of the exercise? I have absolutely no interest in seeing Cal play teams that have like 20 million dollar rosters when we have 1/120th of that. I don't need to watch Cal play the 49ers.
It's not that we couldn't on occasion play well enough with our guys to scare someone like $C, but we all know that the law of averages will play out. I don't see a place of hope for my Bears. I don't need to get excited about beating patsy states. Yet, I don't want Cal to become a football factory with heaps of NIL money pouring in and the players being mercenaries. I may be in the minority in how I cheer for the team in some good part because I know the players are Cal students. I cheer for them being scholar athletes. Not hired guns merely. I don't fault the players in any way, but it's a broken and horrible system.
Where does my fandom go, besides away? I'm wearing a 2003 Insight Bowl shirt as type this. I've been die hard since my freshman year in 1987. I travel all over to see my Bears. But now, I just don't know or see how I can place hope in a team, no matter how valiant and true blue, when they are simply not of the size or speed or talent to compete. And I'll finish by saying I can fault Wilcox for various things, but I truly don't believe it is all on him. No coach will get this team to beat Oregon or WA on a consistent basis in the days of NIL.
College football has been the NFL minor league for decades.
Now, these players, taking those same risks, (wit Javian Thomas), can get some compensation. I don't like the NIL for where college football is going, but, honestly, it's just getting ongoing and past practices out in the open, so ethical programs can compete. We should do better than we are in raising money for our NIL I am okay with being a football factory, after all, we are already a nerd factory, so let's get some balance, so our nerds can be successful in the "real world," not just online.
You are so right. My freshman year at Cal was 1956. Ive seen the Bears when they were truly as good as SC or better and were much better than Washington and Oregon. Now with the NIL and portal, we can never get the same talent aboard. But I'll still go to games and root with all my heart.
That’s about the only positive thing coming from realignment - ESPN and the ACC network! Now I can watch the bears lose instead of having to read about it every week!
I'm going to write something I never thought I would write. With the NIL ruling college football these days, and the exacerbated nature of the haves and have nots, where the big get bigger and the lesser schools get worse, it's an altogether disheartening landscape to even be a college football fan, not to mention a Cal fan. My wife is right when she says how sorry she is for me. It's a big chunk of the small part of my life I allocate to sports to be a Cal fan.
What purpose or hope is there to line up against Oregon? UW? Their greatness this year is exceptional but will continue in kind with their NIL prowess. The double whammy of the dissolution of the Pac12 combined with the hopeless feeling of playing an unfair deck, is just too much. Even truly stellar coaches like Wittingham and Smith at OSU, cannot outcoach the talent differential on a consistent basis. And when it's not up to the skill and charisma of the coach to attract top players, like has always been the hope of a new hot coach, and it's only about NIL money, then what is the point of the exercise? I have absolutely no interest in seeing Cal play teams that have like 20 million dollar rosters when we have 1/120th of that. I don't need to watch Cal play the 49ers.
It's not that we couldn't on occasion play well enough with our guys to scare someone like $C, but we all know that the law of averages will play out. I don't see a place of hope for my Bears. I don't need to get excited about beating patsy states. Yet, I don't want Cal to become a football factory with heaps of NIL money pouring in and the players being mercenaries. I may be in the minority in how I cheer for the team in some good part because I know the players are Cal students. I cheer for them being scholar athletes. Not hired guns merely. I don't fault the players in any way, but it's a broken and horrible system.
Where does my fandom go, besides away? I'm wearing a 2003 Insight Bowl shirt as type this. I've been die hard since my freshman year in 1987. I travel all over to see my Bears. But now, I just don't know or see how I can place hope in a team, no matter how valiant and true blue, when they are simply not of the size or speed or talent to compete. And I'll finish by saying I can fault Wilcox for various things, but I truly don't believe it is all on him. No coach will get this team to beat Oregon or WA on a consistent basis in the days of NIL.
Welp.
It's been a long time coming.
College football has been the NFL minor league for decades.
Now, these players, taking those same risks, (wit Javian Thomas), can get some compensation. I don't like the NIL for where college football is going, but, honestly, it's just getting ongoing and past practices out in the open, so ethical programs can compete. We should do better than we are in raising money for our NIL I am okay with being a football factory, after all, we are already a nerd factory, so let's get some balance, so our nerds can be successful in the "real world," not just online.
You are so right. My freshman year at Cal was 1956. Ive seen the Bears when they were truly as good as SC or better and were much better than Washington and Oregon. Now with the NIL and portal, we can never get the same talent aboard. But I'll still go to games and root with all my heart.
Cool you can stop watching then
That’s about the only positive thing coming from realignment - ESPN and the ACC network! Now I can watch the bears lose instead of having to read about it every week!
Amen. …or close ones with SC with the proclivities of the officiating to insure our loss or others like us every freaking time.