FIrst, it has been nice not posting for a while. I got to do a bit of Christmas shopping, meet my kids, get some work done. The weekly pools that I participate in have all dried up. Kids are in finals. The only thing going on is the coaching carnage, which I never believed would impact Cal in the least, at least as far as Tedford goes.
It looks like Cal is starting to get some depth at wide receiver in the recruiting class. I think every Cal fan right now should be praying for Nyan Boeting's final exam grades. But it is nice to see us get some guys over 6 feet tall coming in.
As far as the coaching carnage, there was no way JT was going to go to any of the jobs that opened up. Think about it: He has already moved Cal up to the level of Michigan, or Ohio State. Cal was ranked #9 to #12 pre-season, after losing our three best players to the NFL. That is just like an Ohio State, or a Michigan. We were ranked #2 in the country, and after losing dropped to number 8. That is just like a Michigan or Ohio State. There is a lot of respect out there already for Tedford, the Cal program, and all of that stuff. Yes, we do not have the long tradition of winning, but we do have a long tradition of football, and we do have arguable 5 national championships. We can build what we need over the next 15 or twenty years, and we will also be one of the perennial powerhouses. At least, that is a vision that JT can see, and I think that is a vision that a lot of Cal fans and supporters can see.
Cal is first and foremost an academic institution. But I think everyone realizes the benefits of a strong athletic department. It raises the sense of school pride, it generates income to the school, and it generates a legacy of giving. And, as the state moves away from state funding, the University is going to have to come after the private donor to support the school. This is going to be done in a lot of ways, but I think that the University knows that athletic success is a huge way to involve the community in supporting the school.
There was a pretty good article in the Wall Street Journal last week by Faye Vincent about the endowments at Harvard, Yale and some other big time academic colleges. The general premise is that because of the dominant level of their endowments, they will be able to offer to students free tuition. Right now, if your parents make under $60,000, Harvard is free. Now, they are going to a place where if you make under $200,000, you only have to pay 10% of your income to school tuition. In other words, a 50% discount. Soon, it will come to a point where the school itself will be free.
Cal and other top public schools, on the other hand, are going in the opposite direction. They are starting to charge top dollar for the professional gradutate schools. Law, business, medical and other graduate schools are around $45,000 in just tuition now. The difference is that we were too late in the game. Harvard has a $35 billion dollar endowment. That would fund the entire University of California each year - not just Cal, but UCLA, Irvine, etc.
For Cal to reach the level of academic success to compete against the Harvards and the Yales, and even Stanford, the school needs to reach out to the community to fund it's success. Athletics is a big part of that process. And we need, more than anything, a successful football program to do that. And I think JT knows that. And certainly so does Sandy and the administration. It is nice to get half a billion from BP for energy study. But Cal is not going to sell itself entirely to the highest bidder. We need to have the funds to succeed from the people in our community.
GO Bears!!
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2 comments:
Mostly agree with this excellent post, but I would argue the point that Cal has reached the level of Michigan or Ohio State. Yes, Cal does get plenty of recognition and some benefit of the doubt that it wouldn't have before, but much of that is directed at Tedford instead of at Cal. Michigan without a football coach is still a powerful recruiting draw, at least in the midwest. Cal without Tedford? You're looking at great academics, crappy facilities, and who knows what else?
Could Cal reach the level of Michigan in 20 years or so? It's certainly possible. However, that would require building facilities, building a fanbase, and building a reputation as a winner. Cal is currently seen as 'losers temporarily winning.' Conversely, Notre Dame is seen as 'winners temporarily losing.'
Hmm, I may steal this for a post of my own some time...
I do not think we have reached the level of Michigan or Ohio State. I do think that we get the respect that they get for on field performance on a given day. But clearly they have a much better national reputation than we do.
I do think that naturally, we should be the second best team in the Pac 10, after USC. We should be the best program north of LA. We have the best recruiting base outside of LA, the best campus, the best school. Stanford is too small, Washington would be a second, but our recruiting ground should be better than theirs overall year in and year out. So we should over time have a better program.
UCLA plays second fiddle to USC in California. However, they are tough competitors. But we should be the dominant program here, the second best market on the west coast. And that being said, we should get BCS berths over time on a regular basis.
We do need to do the things to make it happen. That means, new facilities, keep the coach, etc. We will not be there unless we have a coach like Tedford stick around for 15 to 20 year periods. But I think the University understands that and is willing, if need be, to pony up the cash to keep JT no matter the cost. I can certainly see us getting into the 3 million range to keep JT if we needed to do so.
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