[ColoradoTree]

Speaking of "why would you SAY that?" during a tour at ןɐɔ, when my wife was visiting to check out the grad school they guide would not stop comparing everything (campus, facilities, etc) to Stanford. Meanwhile, the next week at Stanford, no one said a thing about ןɐɔ...

This seems right on, and I'll follow it up with a comment on the Stanford-cal rivalry in general.  Once the fervor of freshman year subsided, and I started to meet more Berkeley students and start thinking about what would be next for me after undergrad, I kept being surprised at how intense the dislike was for Stanford.  At that point, I'd reached the "obviously I want Stanford to win, and it particularly sucks to lose to Cal, but I'd go to grad school there, no problem" stage of the Stanford-Cal rivalry.  I really wanted to win, and that win meant a great deal, but I didn't hate Cal folks.  But the Berkeley students I met simply could not let it go.  Their fervor never seemed to subside, and the fact that we didn't seem to hate them as much as they hated us seemed to make their hate burn even hotter. 

That said, I hope Berkeley can right its fiscal ship, though the situation sure seems dire.  As much as Cal's mediocre performance has diminished Big Game in recent years, we are better served by Cal football existing and Cal athletics existing in as many of our sports as possible.  Every Stanford team should get to experience the joy of that rivalry, even when we're not always on the winning side of it.  Unfortunately, it looks like cutting sports is inevitable. 

I know that baseball, men's and women's gymnastics, women's lacrosse, and rugby were on the chopping block last time around.  If sports are to be cut at Cal, what would be the most/least painful cuts, both from Cal's perspective and from Stanford's perspective?  Selfishly, I hope the Cal women's tennis team survives--our matches with them are almost always incredible drama with both teams having national ambitions.  And the swimming program is useful for our country's Olympic hopes.  What do you folks think? 

[ColoradoTree]

Speaking of "why would you SAY that?" during a tour at ןɐɔ, when my wife was visiting to check out the grad school they guide would not stop comparing everything (campus, facilities, etc) to Stanford. Meanwhile, the next week at Stanford, no one said a thing about ןɐɔ...

This seems right on, and I'll follow it up with a comment on the Stanford-cal rivalry in general.  Once the fervor of freshman year subsided, and I started to meet more Berkeley students and start thinking about what would be next for me after undergrad, I kept being surprised at how intense the dislike was for Stanford.  At that point, I'd reached the "obviously I want Stanford to win, and it particularly sucks to lose to Cal, but I'd go to grad school there, no problem" stage of the Stanford-Cal rivalry.  I really wanted to win, and that win meant a great deal, but I didn't hate Cal folks.  But the Berkeley students I met simply could not let it go.  Their fervor never seemed to subside, and the fact that we didn't seem to hate them as much as they hated us seemed to make their hate burn even hotter. 

That said, I hope Berkeley can right its fiscal ship, though the situation sure seems dire.  As much as Cal's mediocre performance has diminished Big Game in recent years, we are better served by Cal football existing and Cal athletics existing in as many of our sports as possible.  Every Stanford team should get to experience the joy of that rivalry, even when we're not always on the winning side of it.  Unfortunately, it looks like cutting sports is inevitable. 

I know that baseball, men's and women's gymnastics, women's lacrosse, and rugby were on the chopping block last time around.  If sports are to be cut at Cal, what would be the most/least painful cuts, both from Cal's perspective and from Stanford's perspective?  Selfishly, I hope the Cal women's tennis team survives--our matches with them are almost always incredible drama with both teams having national ambitions.  And the swimming program is useful for our country's Olympic hopes.  What do you folks think?