(11-08-2021, 01:39 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote: Bob, Cal sucked that year as it does most years, which is my point. Has the game ever been played with the winner winning the Pac? I know "ever" is a long time, so I don't rule it out, but I am not aware that it has ever been played for all the marbles.
As an aside, it has been my dream ever since 1990 that the game would ONE TIME be played with the winner going to the Rose Bowl, or now at least winning the Pac-12 North. It's never happened since then, and I know not in the 80's. It seemed like it might happen some time, a few years ago, but now it seems as unlikely as it ever has.
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(11-08-2021, 02:21 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote: Cal was so bad in 1999 that its best "offensive" play was a Deltha O'Neal pick 6.
Anyway, my point stands. The Big Game is not now and never has truly been a Big Game. It might have once attracted a large crowd, but the game itself has never been between two teams playing in a truly big game for a conference title, and certainly never national implications.
It should be called something else. It's just embarrassing to continue calling it the Big Game. It's not a credible representation, and nobody in the Bay Area cares about the game now anyway.
David Shaw is party to blame because he was the one who basically stopped doing the traditional promotional silliness that kept the game's relevance alive in some form or fashion, for the Bay Area writ large, the week of the game.
It was the biggest annual sporting event in Northern California for decades. I can remember the days when a neighborhood “split” family would have a brobdingnagian party every year with cakes decorated half red and half blue. It was a veryhuge deal back in the day…
It will always be The Big Game…