Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Tensions Between Some Tahoe Residents and Wildlife Workers Become Unbearable

8 hours ago

California Republican Leader Calls for ‘Two State Solution’ Amid Redistricting Fight

9 hours ago

Three Dead in Minneapolis Shooting, Including Shooter, Justice Department Official Says

10 hours ago

Israeli Tanks Close in on Gaza City, Trump to Chair Meeting

11 hours ago

Trump Says Soros and His Son Should Be Charged With RICO

11 hours ago

Wall Street Opens Muted in Countdown to Nvidia Earnings

11 hours ago

Fresno Leaders Voice ‘Full Support’ for Pismo’s Restaurant Manager in ICE Custody

1 day ago

Poll: Katie Porter Holds Early Edge in California Governor’s Race

1 day ago

Just 38% of Americans Support Trump’s Use of Troops to Police DC, Reuters/Ipsos Poll Finds

1 day ago

California Farming Couple Seeks $300 Million for Aspen Estate

1 day ago
Let's Take Cal, Stanford, Fresno State, San Diego State and Start the California Conference
Joe-Mathews
By Joe Mathews
Published 2 years ago on
August 18, 2023

Share

Dear Cal and Stanford,

Why are you running away from California?

Photo of Joe Mathews

Joe Mathews

Opinion

Yes, the collapse of the Pac-12 conference — with eight schools departing for conferences with better TV contracts — leaves you two without a home for your sports teams.

But your desperate appeals to join the Atlantic Coast Conference are pathetic — and a crime against geography.  And when that doesn’t work out (Atlantic schools don’t want to share TV sports revenues with West Coast interlopers), what’s next?

Playing in the Arab League?

Instead, why not take a breath — and a good look at your home state? Do that, and you’ll see that your best athletic futures are right here in California.

You two could bring together universities from across the Golden State to form a new college sports powerhouse.

The California Conference.

It’s feasible. Football is the revenue machine behind college sports, and California now has 11 universities that play in the two highest divisions. Two of these schools — USC and UCLA — have gone to the Big Ten.

But the other nine — you two, Fresno State, Sacramento State, San Diego State, San Jose State, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and the University of San Diego — could make an entertaining conference for football. These California teams could jump from their current, conferences (Mountain West and Big Sky) to a potentially higher-revenue-producing California conference.

For sports beyond football, the California conference could include more than 20 universities, including seven University of California schools, and 10 Cal State campuses.  You’d remain the top dogs, academically and athletically, but by bringing in the California schools, you’d elevate them in a way that might ease resentment of your elite institutions.

You should know, though, that a number of these schools can hang with you. Take San Diego State. Its football team is often better than yours. Its men’s basketball program just made the national finals. San Diego State is also a rising academic power, second in selectivity among the Cal State schools only to Cal Poly SLO, whose graduates make nearly as much money as yours do.

Capitalize on California’s Great Rivalries

A California Conference schedule wouldn’t be a big adjustment, because you already play many of these California schools in many sports. Both of you have a long history of playing football against San Jose State (the Stanford-San Jose State rivalry even has a name, the Bill Walsh Legacy Game, in honor of the late Stanford and 49ers coach, a San Jose State alum).

I, for one, can hardly wait to see Cal or Stanford go to Bulldog Stadium on a Saturday night with a conference title at stake. You’ll see how Fresno State’s storied football program produces more passion than your wine-and-cheese fan bases might muster in a decade.

Sports media executives may question whether intra-state games will draw audiences, but that’s because they don’t understand California. College football is about rivalries between regions, and California’s regions are as populous as most states. I, for one, can hardly wait to see Cal or Stanford go to Bulldog Stadium on a Saturday night with a conference title at stake. You’ll see how Fresno State’s storied football program produces more passion than your wine-and-cheese fan bases might muster in a decade.

The new conference also could spawn cross-cultural local fights—working-class Sac State against hippie UC Davis, or the uptight Catholics of the University of San Diego against loose-living San Diego State.

Reviving the Rose Bowl

A California Conference would have ancillary benefits. For example, it might revive the Rose Bowl, an essential California New Year’s tradition killed off by the same forces that exploded the Pac-12. Instead of becoming just another quarterfinal game in a national college football playoff—its current fate—the Rose Bowl could pit the California Conference champion against the best team it can get from the rest of the country.

And, with any luck, this new athletic union would forge more academic collaboration between California-based schools, who face the same threat —a United States that is increasingly hostile to higher education, non-partisan teaching, and California’s liberal values.

The California Conference would start with one void: It wouldn’t have USC or UCLA. But if the conference could launch and perform well, it’s easy to see those schools leaving the Big Ten and coming home. USC and UCLA athletes, after a few years in the Big 10, may discover that they prefer less travel, fewer missed classes, and better game weather.

It’s also going to be hard to justify, to the state of California and on-campus constituencies, the climate impacts of burning all that additional jet fuel. Teams in the California Conference could get to most games by train or electric bus.

So that’s the pitch: save the planet, save college sports, connect California. Why not take a swing?

About the Author

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.

 

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Israeli Official Accused of Nevada Sex Crime Ordered to Appear in Court via Zoom

DON'T MISS

Think You Can’t Afford College? Go Online and Get a CalKIDS Scholarship

DON'T MISS

US CDC Director Ousted Weeks Into Job

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Mario Garcia

DON'T MISS

Shooter Kills Two Minneapolis Schoolchildren in Church, Injures 17

DON'T MISS

Did Fresno Restaurateur Bobby Salazar Commit Arson? Feds Lay Out Their Case

DON'T MISS

Hanford Police Arrest Two Teens After Shootouts Leave 17-Year-Old Wounded

DON'T MISS

US CDC Director Being Ousted Weeks Into Job, Washington Post Reports

DON'T MISS

Israeli Foreign Minister Saar Says There Will Not Be a Palestinian State

DON'T MISS

All UN Security Council Members, Except US, Say Famine in Gaza Is ‘Man-Made Crisis’

UP NEXT

Israel’s Gaza Campaign Is Making It a Pariah State

UP NEXT

Wilted Lettuce. Rotten Strawberries. Here’s What Happens When You Round Up Farmworkers.

UP NEXT

Noble Credit Union Teams With Bulldog Foundation to Provide Full-Ride Scholarships

UP NEXT

Renewal of CA Cap and Trade Program to Cut Emissions Fraught With Issues

UP NEXT

Entz: Bulldogs Must ‘Learn, Burn, Return’ After Kansas Loss

UP NEXT

Joe Castro: A Life Cut Far Too Short, but His Legacy Marches On

UP NEXT

From Visalia to the Big Leagues: Dave Flemming’s Journey to Giants’ Broadcast Booth

UP NEXT

Why Epstein’s Furious Grip on Washington Holds

UP NEXT

Fresno State Bulldogs Can’t Find Answer for Daniels in Loss at Kansas

UP NEXT

I Was Preyed On for My VA Benefits. California Can Stop It

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Mario Garcia

3 hours ago

Shooter Kills Two Minneapolis Schoolchildren in Church, Injures 17

4 hours ago

Did Fresno Restaurateur Bobby Salazar Commit Arson? Feds Lay Out Their Case

4 hours ago

Hanford Police Arrest Two Teens After Shootouts Leave 17-Year-Old Wounded

4 hours ago

US CDC Director Being Ousted Weeks Into Job, Washington Post Reports

4 hours ago

Israeli Foreign Minister Saar Says There Will Not Be a Palestinian State

4 hours ago

All UN Security Council Members, Except US, Say Famine in Gaza Is ‘Man-Made Crisis’

5 hours ago

Trump’s Tax Bill Expands 0% Capital Gains Eligibility in 2025

6 hours ago

Second-Highest Unemployment Rate Still In California

6 hours ago

Trump Holds Gaza Policy Meeting With Blair and Kushner, White House Official Says

6 hours ago

Israeli Official Accused of Nevada Sex Crime Ordered to Appear in Court via Zoom

An Israeli official accused of trying to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex outside Las Vegas has been ordered to appear via videolink next wee...

2 hours ago

The flag of the U.S. state Nevada is seen in this illustration taken, August 21, 2024. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
2 hours ago

Israeli Official Accused of Nevada Sex Crime Ordered to Appear in Court via Zoom

3 hours ago

Think You Can’t Afford College? Go Online and Get a CalKIDS Scholarship

Susan Monarez, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 25, 2025. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

US CDC Director Ousted Weeks Into Job

Mario Garcia is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for August 27, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
3 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Mario Garcia

Law enforcement use K-9 dogs to search a nearby neighborhood, after a shooting at Annunciation Church, which is also home to an elementary school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. August 27, 2025. REUTERS/Tim Evans
4 hours ago

Shooter Kills Two Minneapolis Schoolchildren in Church, Injures 17

Bobby Salazar motorcycle gang fire restaurant Blackstone fresno insurance fraud
4 hours ago

Did Fresno Restaurateur Bobby Salazar Commit Arson? Feds Lay Out Their Case

A 17-year-old boy was shot and wounded in Hanford, and police arrested two juvenile suspects in connection with the shootings. (Hanford PD)
4 hours ago

Hanford Police Arrest Two Teens After Shootouts Leave 17-Year-Old Wounded

Susan Monarez, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 25, 2025. (Reuters File)
4 hours ago

US CDC Director Being Ousted Weeks Into Job, Washington Post Reports

Search

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Send this to a friend