[OutsiderFan]

Sorry if I am a broken record, but every California citizen should have been outraged when Barbour, et. al. let Tosh Lupoi go to Washington at such a delicate time for the football program. Let me explain...

Barsky is a broken record, academic blowhard, with no understanding of or appreciation for just how valuable an asset well-performing football and men's basketball programs can be for the school.  He is a product of a tax payer funded, no accountability bureaucracy with a sense of entitlement, and no concept of how college sports properties are only going to become more valuable as live programming and sports properties become the primary platforms on which to deliver advertising media. 

ESP seats were dreamed up as a way of financing the CMS renovation.  They might have worked at some other school, but California is a temple to mediocrity and operates with no accountability to anything or anyone.  The original plan was to make donors pay up-front for their seats, but the market reality was nobody was going to make a commitment to give their money to an AD who oversees 5-7 or 7-5 programs and has exactly zero Rose Bowl appearances in 50+ years.  So, California decided to make the seats payable annually.  People can lock in their seats, but they have no obligation to pay more than a year at a time. 

One would think the UC leadership might recognize a cause-effect relationship between the lousy performance of the football program and the lack of ESP-based funding.  One would think someone at the UC executive branch would look at the amount of money potentially poised to be saddled on the backs of California tax payers, and take pro-active action to make sure the conditions were in place to make the Cal football program perform at a level that would increase ESP commitments.  Of course, one would be wrong. 

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program.  California was blessed with one of the best recruiters in the country, a guy poised to stockpile California's roster with talent never before seen in Berkeley.  The guy was even an alum who grew up near the campus.  Yet the very first time someone from another school tried to hire him away, Cal let him get away, to a conference and division rival no less.  It's bad enough that Tedsel was given his contract extension with no buyout the school could afford in the event he turned in the types of seasons that would make the ESP CMS renovation financing plan a failure, but letting the ace recruiter on the West Coast go just absolutely validates why nobody should trust California's AD with its money.  They could not have done a better job to ensure the failure of the ESP plan than if they junked it when Lupoi left and just said "California tax payers, you got it covered."

Making matters worse, alums are so indifferent to whether California wins in football because the team has almost always underperformed during their years on campus, that there is never any pressure put on the administrators to win.

Tedsel, Barbour, the chancellor, the regents, all need to be told that they either come up with the revenues to pay for the stadium renovations, or it comes out of their personal hides, the university budget, and/or the UC system's budget.  Tell UCSF they can't hire a promising young doctor because Cal let Tosh Lupoi go. Tell UC Davis they can't buy a new microscope technology because California's football team went 5-7 this year and season ticket sales have dried up.  Unless California's AD, school leadership, and UC regents are held accountable for their performance, there is no chance anything is every going to change.

[OutsiderFan]

Sorry if I am a broken record, but every California citizen should have been outraged when Barbour, et. al. let Tosh Lupoi go to Washington at such a delicate time for the football program. Let me explain...

Barsky is a broken record, academic blowhard, with no understanding of or appreciation for just how valuable an asset well-performing football and men's basketball programs can be for the school.  He is a product of a tax payer funded, no accountability bureaucracy with a sense of entitlement, and no concept of how college sports properties are only going to become more valuable as live programming and sports properties become the primary platforms on which to deliver advertising media. 

ESP seats were dreamed up as a way of financing the CMS renovation.  They might have worked at some other school, but California is a temple to mediocrity and operates with no accountability to anything or anyone.  The original plan was to make donors pay up-front for their seats, but the market reality was nobody was going to make a commitment to give their money to an AD who oversees 5-7 or 7-5 programs and has exactly zero Rose Bowl appearances in 50+ years.  So, California decided to make the seats payable annually.  People can lock in their seats, but they have no obligation to pay more than a year at a time. 

One would think the UC leadership might recognize a cause-effect relationship between the lousy performance of the football program and the lack of ESP-based funding.  One would think someone at the UC executive branch would look at the amount of money potentially poised to be saddled on the backs of California tax payers, and take pro-active action to make sure the conditions were in place to make the Cal football program perform at a level that would increase ESP commitments.  Of course, one would be wrong. 

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program.  California was blessed with one of the best recruiters in the country, a guy poised to stockpile California's roster with talent never before seen in Berkeley.  The guy was even an alum who grew up near the campus.  Yet the very first time someone from another school tried to hire him away, Cal let him get away, to a conference and division rival no less.  It's bad enough that Tedsel was given his contract extension with no buyout the school could afford in the event he turned in the types of seasons that would make the ESP CMS renovation financing plan a failure, but letting the ace recruiter on the West Coast go just absolutely validates why nobody should trust California's AD with its money.  They could not have done a better job to ensure the failure of the ESP plan than if they junked it when Lupoi left and just said "California tax payers, you got it covered."

Making matters worse, alums are so indifferent to whether California wins in football because the team has almost always underperformed during their years on campus, that there is never any pressure put on the administrators to win.

Tedsel, Barbour, the chancellor, the regents, all need to be told that they either come up with the revenues to pay for the stadium renovations, or it comes out of their personal hides, the university budget, and/or the UC system's budget.  Tell UCSF they can't hire a promising young doctor because Cal let Tosh Lupoi go. Tell UC Davis they can't buy a new microscope technology because California's football team went 5-7 this year and season ticket sales have dried up.  Unless California's AD, school leadership, and UC regents are held accountable for their performance, there is no chance anything is every going to change.