Bears Winning Week

While I have not posted as much as I would have liked to over the past weeks, it seems clear to me that the Cal Bears athletic programs are at a point not seen in 50 years.

The Bears hoops team is on the rise, and if we can get though this weekend undefeated in conference play against beatable but tough Washington teams, the Bears will be in the top 25 in both polls, and probably the top 10 in the RPI (currently 14th).

The Football team will also finish in the top 25, I predict, after the final polls are taken, having gone 9-4 in a rebuilding year, with a bowl victory over a big name, Miami (even though Miami is down).

Football recruiting is cruising along, plugging in what seems like all of the gaps to make the Bears a strong contender for the conference title next season, with what I think is a pretty good schedule to make it. Maryland at home, USC at home, Oregon State at home, and Arizona at home. The only issue is Oregon away, and I think we can take those guys (particularly since the entire Oregon football staff seems to be falling apart).

The Women's basketball team is fighting to maintain perennial top 10 status, becoming a national fixture in recruiting.

Water polo, Women's Volley Ball, Crew, Rugby, Softball, are at the top of the nation in each sport year after year. Baseball, Men's and women's soccer and Gymnastics are almost there. Same with Field hockey, Tennis, and Golf.

So, in almost all major sporting endeavors, the Bears are at the top of the nation, or in the top 25. In fact, Track and Field is the only sport where there is much room for improvement is track and field, where the addition of Jahvid best and Shane Vareen would improve the team considerably.

The Student Athlete High Performance Center is going up,which will not be just a gym, but a fully integrated physical, nutritional and emotional / psychological training facility - the first of it's kind in the US for college athletics. It will bring state of the art training and conditioning to a whole range of athletes at Cal.

The funding for the University Athletic programs are in place, which essentially means that Football is stabilized. Jeff Tedford just signed a long term contract extension - he is here until 2015. He also has put in place at Cal a deferred compensation plan which means to me that he does really want to stay until retirement, because that is not the kind of plan you use to defer comp when there is no expectation that you are going to be staying. He has said that Berkeley is his home, and he has turned down other colleges, as well as the NFL. In fact, I could see him here for another 20 years, bring Cal multiple BCS games and perhaps a few national championships. Recruiting is actually picking up, I think, for the Bears. There are few institutions that offer what Cal can - world leading education, as well as top level athletics, in a top living destination. I would count on one hand the number of Universities that can offer that - maybe Texas. UCLA if it had a decent football team and not a scumbag coach. USC if it actually offered academics. Michigan and Ohio State if they were in a nice part of the world. Stanford if they had a football team.

Football drives the funding, and the new sales process for the seat plan will definitely put the cash in the Athletic Department's pocket. And we have confidence that we can build it all because we have a good team, which will be a great team, and will continue to drive the success of the other programs at Cal.

I see a time in the not too distant future where Cal wins the Sears cup year after year - even though we do not count crap like fencing. The Bears will win multiple National Championships, and will be a strong contender in every sport. It all comes down to the money that football raises, and the investment in the right talent in coaching. And because of the investment in Jeff Tedford, the Cal football cash cow will soon drive all of the athletic programs to the top of the charts.

What does that mean to the University? Frankly, it means that when all of the sports are endowed with a quarter billion dollars, the athletic department will be on solid ground. That athletics will start to support educational missions, rather than the University funds supporting athletics. That more and more donors will be putting funds in both the school and athletics, since success breeds familiarity, and in fundraising, that breeds cash.

What Sandy Barour has done to set the table for the Bears over the next decades has been tremendous. She deserves every bit of praise that she gets. These past few years have been years of great growth and success and it will only grow from here.

GO BEARS!!