55 Comments

Ironman33, you must be a math major, good work

Expand full comment

We should set this money in a fund to hire a new basketball coach. 10 million a year should buy a pretty program, right?

Expand full comment

Ancient Golden Bear. Probably one of a handful of Cal fans left that has seen Cal play in two Rose Bowls. - Don't know about you, but if Cal makes Dust Bowl in Melba, Oklahoma against Oral Roberts, I won't be going. I'll stay home and watch it on the Home Shopping Network.

Expand full comment

From your comments, I'm pretty sure you're doing that right now anyway...Cal or not...

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Expand full comment

close

Expand full comment

We can afford a real basketball coach now, right?

Expand full comment

Pay up, bitches! Cash only; no credit cards accepted; your checks are no good here.

Expand full comment

You mean gold or precious metals, right? Fiat dollars are a joke.

Expand full comment

And definitely no crypto.

Expand full comment

You get our water; we get your money.

Expand full comment

In all fairness, Chico State has a better claim to the water than any of the UC campuses...

Expand full comment
Dec 15, 2022·edited Dec 15, 2022

This is the outcome I'd expected and the number range is decent if it's annual. The question still remains whether the B1G takes us. That would still net us more money and get UCLA off the hook. Like they said, the payments won't make us whole but moving to B1G would. So much still depends on both conference media deals.

All in all the Regents protected the UC system (which is their job) and not the Pac (which isn't their job). And maybe Cal won't leave the Pac if the payments functionally offset the various expenses and challenges of B1G membership.

Expand full comment

You're not likely to see any more teams move to the B1G until the next media rights deal cycle. Still Christ and Knowlton would need to start getting our house in order if that's ever gonna happen.

Expand full comment

Yup. We'll be under the Pac media deal. I do wonder if the Pac deal will include any penalty for a team leaving (like the ACC grant of rights).

Expand full comment

I'm sure the conference wants to include that, but I don't see Oregon or Washington signing up for that. So I suspect they'll split the difference on a shorter 3-4 year deal. The landscape is changing so quickly that every program is prioritizing flexibility over all else.

Expand full comment

Can the Regents force Knowlton to fire Fox too?

Expand full comment

One of the risks is more money in the kitty for the Athletic Department. Knowlton will probably be angling for a raise as a top notch fund raiser ("toss out the records, winning is something, but pales in comparison with the development of young men")

Expand full comment

Is it a bad idea to build into this deal with UCLoL the alimony checks can end only when Cal is in the same conference with them again? An incentive to bring us over to the Big10 should the Pac also fall apart?

Expand full comment

Actually pretty clever on their part. UCLA was basically at their mercy so it made sense to load them with as many poison pills as necessary.

Regents protect the UC system, not the Pac. Also the taxes could force B1G to give UCLA a bigger revenue slice since there's talk of a tiered revenue sharing system.

Expand full comment

I disagree that this was a strange and unexpected outcome. I always felt that this was the most likely outcome. UCLA gets to move to the Big10 but has to pay Cal an annual stipend was the “win-win” scenario for the Regents.

Expand full comment

We're the new Bobby Bonilla! Come up with that cash, Bruins! I love it!

Expand full comment

We’re a welfare school now

Expand full comment

Reparations for stealing our fight song.

Expand full comment

And mascot... and school colors...

Expand full comment

Some of y’all need a history lesson about colors and mascots. Cal students voted to give Ucla the bruin mascot bc Cal was using both Bears and Bruins at that time. And all UCs have some iteration of blue and gold.

Expand full comment

Yep. You concede a little something to help your little brother and they repay you by stabbing you in the back while you sleep before they try to run away into the dark, like a thief in the night.

But yeah, use of the same colors by all the University of California campuses would infer it's one big University of California system... which would justify the Calimony. Pay up, bitches! Cash only; no credit cards accepted; no crypto; your checks are no good here.

Expand full comment

the point about colors is correct: blue and gold are the State's official colors, first added to state documents in 1913, and adopted by the Legislature in 1951.

https://library.ca.gov/california-history/state-symbols/

Expand full comment
Dec 15, 2022·edited Dec 15, 2022

Most successful companies and businesses are on some form of government welfare so I think this is the first step in Cal fielding a successful football and basketball program.

Expand full comment

A very delicious $10 million dollar welfare school!

Expand full comment

Time to shop for Cadillacs.

Expand full comment

It's not like UCLOL doesn't have experience with payouts--the rapey vibe from their doctors alone are costing them $700 million.

No wonder they're forced to pimp out their football team. And it's not like their fan base is unified behind this move either:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/sports/ncaafootball/ucla-big-ten-uc-regents.html

Expand full comment

I can hear the UCLA rooting section now, "be good little Golden Bear cubs or you won't get your allowance!" or "Dependents! Dependents! Rah Rah Rah!" or "UCLA Major League, Cal Minor League! "- Empty Suit Jim, after reading the news in the SF Chronicle, will give himself a raise. Clueless Carol will probably try to divert the funds to the English Department Cal's new in-conference rival, Sacramento State College should be easier to beat now that Troy Taylor is gone ---- Cal better damn well get invited to join the big 10 or drop all athletics, drop the Ax off at St. Vincent DePaul to be sold as a doorstop.

Expand full comment

Hey man, just enjoy being irrelevant in three time zones and keep it moving. Thanks for the money though!

Expand full comment
Dec 15, 2022·edited Dec 15, 2022

We won’t be playing ucla much or at all after next season so who cares what they say.

It is going to be great to collect and cash an annual check from UCLA while watching them struggle to 5-7 records in the Big 10 while losing a cross country game against Rutgers or Maryland’s

Expand full comment

I'm thinking blue and gold parkas would make a thoughtful parting gift.

Expand full comment

You'll be playing in a junior league with prestige on a par with the Mountain West Conference and more than likely all of your opponents names will end in "State" and i don't mean Penn State or Michigan State. If you make a bowl game it'll be played on a Tuesday in very early December in some place like Spokane or Omaha

Expand full comment

Oh, are you going be chanting "BIG TEN!" because you don't have any success of your own, similar to what Texas fans will be doing in the SEC?

Expand full comment

“You’ll” and not “we”? Are you a ucla fan or a Cal fan?

Expand full comment

We'll just settle for Ohio State.

Expand full comment

More likely to be Chico State unless The Ohio State University needs a "C" category opponent

Expand full comment
author

Millions of dollars in annual revenue while avoiding regular cross-country trips to New Brunswick, NJ, State College, PA, and Urbana-Champaign, IL? Seems like a reasonable consolation prize.

Expand full comment

This was the outcome I expected, although I assumed $10 mil./year would be around the baseline. I can only guess it will be an annual payment. May not offset the loss in media rights losses I don't think.

Expand full comment

Annual makes sense and what I'd assumed. The Regents knew they could force UCLA to do what they want so waiting on the media deals to decide is the key here.

Expand full comment
Dec 15, 2022·edited Dec 15, 2022

I also thought this was the most likely outcome and was hoping it would be in the range of $10-18 million. As long as it is close to $10 million, I’ll be happy.

The real question is how soon can we get that first check so we can use it to get rid of Fox and pay that buyout? Perhaps we can get a payday advance loan until the check comes?!?! LOL

Expand full comment