rests in the hands of Carol Christ and Jim Knowlton.😬😬😬😬😬😬

Hope you all have a great holiday.

If anyone knows what's going on it's Wilner.

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Jaeden Moore took official visits to Cal, Washington and Arizona in June plus he took an unofficial visit to Oregon as well. He's keeping things pretty close to the vest at the moment and didn't give me a ton of information, but I did catch up with him to talk about the recent official visits. Cal had him on campus last, which is always a good spot to be, and it's clear there is a comfort level with the Bears that is different than the other schools in pursuit.

Oregon could definitely make things tricky here moving forward, but it feels like he is getting closer to making a decision now that he has been able to see the unofficial top contenders in his recruitment. His planned OV to Washington State didn't happen and is not likely to happen.

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The big entertainment networks don't have to worry about logistics. They can move a broadcast team to any location for any time period. But actual schools do have to worry about how their student-athletes in the non-revenue sports are going to survive in a league spread from coast to coast. Getting back and forth to Champaign, Madison, Lincoln, University Park and New Brunswick is going to be a huge problem for athletes who are real students and trying to complete a degree. This will be our best bet for being included in the end. There has to be some sort of critical mass in the West for any new configuration of schools to make sense from a logistical standpoint.

There is a reason that college conferences have always been regional and not national. After the initial euphoria of the big football contract dies down, you are faced with the reality that you are a university that happens to have a pro football team and not a pro football team that happens to have a university.

Ok, this is definitely not my preferred route. I prefer begging and groveling to join the B10. But I don’t see that as a likely outcome. Barring that, I’d like to see P12 expand by adding 6 teams:

BYU and Boise St…this creates a 4 team rivalry among Mountain teams.

San Diego St and Fresno St…losing Southern California market is tough and these schools don’t fill the shoes. But the conference can’t be without representation in the area and both are legit football programs. Plus, creates a 4 team California rivalry.

Need to hold on to Oregon and UW…you have a 4-team Pacific Northwest rivalry in place.

Houston and SMU or TCU…TCU is probably a notch better but SMU has more Dallas clout. That area is booming! Same with Houston. Those two with Arizona and ASU gives you a somewhat natural 4-team cluster.

In short, you save some eyeballs in So Cal…you add interest from the two largest cities in Texas, you get two consistent winning programs in BYU and Boise St, each with a unique following.

The point of the clustering is not to create 2 or 4 divisions (just 1)…but for scheduling, the teams play their “cluster” every year. You play the other 12 teams once every other year for a total of 9 conference games. Top 2 play in a championship game.

This assumes Oregon and UW are lost.

Cal and Stanford make the most amazing pitch ever to lure Notre Dame into a conference that truly cares about academics. The D1 Ivy, in other words.

With Notre Dame on board, we try to pry Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, Rice and Georgia Tech to form an 8 team league. Maybe UNC, Boston College or even Florida to get us to 10?

Frankly, being part of this league elevates the prestige of each as well, which is part of the pitch. Plenty of top programs, with national appeal (less about metro markets, more about a true national conference) to be able to sign a lucrative TV deal.

And I just talked to Brad. I’ll have that story and the Cam Cook interview for you guys this afternoon.

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Vegas must not be reading our spring recaps

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I don’t know the time. I’ve reached out to him.

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More positive feedback from last weekend. It sounds they legitimately have a chance with Robinson:

I think Cal did what it needed to do here to stay right in the mix, but there's a long way to go as Crawford would make a decision until sometime in the fall.

Sorry for the delay there. Still working on all of the other visitors, hope to have more for you tonight.

The final official visitor weekend is set ...

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Fun fact — didnt see any mentions of this kid in the Shocksters thread.

Jim Knowlton must be circling the wagons and looking for an escape route while wishing that he pursued the AD job at Northwestern more seriously

I’ve been trying to talk to him but haven’t gotten a response yet.

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One time Cal recruit and potential member of Cal’s “monster class” has passed away at 25. Tragic. RIP.

There it is — I have more coming with him as well.

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