Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

2 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

2 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

3 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

3 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

3 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

3 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

3 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

3 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

3 days 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

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

DON'T MISS

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

UP NEXT

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

UP NEXT

Boxer Chavez Jr Expected to Be Deported to Mexico to Serve Sentence, Mexican President Says

UP NEXT

July 4th Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the Founding Fathers

UP NEXT

Presidential Election Reveals Big Shift in California Voting Patterns. Will It Last?

UP NEXT

From Victims to Perpetrators: Israeli Soldiers’ Nazi Comparisons and the Unfolding War Crimes in Gaza

UP NEXT

Dear Mayor and City Council, Fresno’s Housing Bottlenecks Are a Modern Form of Redlining

UP NEXT

How Wimbledon Is Tackling Its Hottest Opening on Record

UP NEXT

A Path Forward on Immigration Reform That Strengthens America

UP NEXT

Israel Faces Genocide Accusations Amid Gaza Food Aid Killings

UP NEXT

I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

2 hours ago

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

3 hours ago

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

3 hours ago

California’s Politics Drifts Right While New York’s Leans Left

3 hours ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

1 day ago

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

1 day ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

2 days ago

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

2 days ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

2 days ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

2 days ago

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

A suspected DUI driver crashed into a parked California Highway Patrol motorcycle and tow truck along Highway 99 near North Avenue, missing ...

2 hours ago

A 22-year-old suspected DUI driver crashed into a parked CHP motorcycle and tow truck on Highway 99 near Fresno, narrowly missing an officer and bystanders, CHP said Saturday, July 5, 2025. (CHP)
2 hours ago

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

A service member of a drone unit of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces controls a heavy combat drone while it flies over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine June 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

An Israeli tank maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 6, 2025. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
2 hours ago

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

The Madre Fire near New Cuyama has burned nearly 80,000 acres as of Sunday, July 6, 2025, morning, prompting widespread evacuation orders and warnings across three counties. (CalFire)
2 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gets in a Tesla car as he leaves a hotel in Beijing, China May 31, 2023. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

A search dog operates at Camp Mystic after deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, U.S., July 5, 2025. (Reuters/Sergio Flores)
3 hours ago

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

2024 Democratic National Convention
3 hours ago

California’s Politics Drifts Right While New York’s Leans Left

Solar Farm in Riesel, Texas
1 day ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

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

Search

Send this to a friend