I guess I haven't been in 10 years, but I remember their breakfasts being on par with diner food while their dinners were above average. Hard to beat the price-to-portion ratio when you're a weary traveler looking for simple, but I'll agree it's not the best place for a steak. I share your opinion that too many restaurants are too frozen. I don't even go to places like Chilis anymore (unless Mrs. Fugawe pushes the issue for the chips and margaritas) because they literally hawk their frozen dinners in the grocery store and it's the same thing. It's kind of a sad state of affairs that it turns out food quality is not a great predictor of success for a restaurant, while location, parking, speed of service, and consistency are. Arguably the Super Bird sandwich at Denny's is not great, but it has been extremely consistent across thousands of restaurants over multiple decades and people like that. And when my boss declares optional (read: mandatory) happy hour, they pick a place based on ample parking and willingness to do split checks, not food quality. I have a Texas Roadhouse I could walk to from my house. Never been, I'll have to try it at some point.

Jurassic Park was far fetched in the 90s, though I think biotech is getting us closer, for better or worse. Just remember, nature always finds a way! I just looked at Black Bears website and it has become a big chain! I remember when it was just a handful of units mostly north of Sacramento. My only complaint about the Davis location is how busy it always is, for good reason. Tough to get a table on any sort of parents weekend. One of the few food spots in Davis that isn’t a pizza joint where I feel confident pronouncing all of the menu items.

Indeed land is a finite resource and the societal best use isn't always the most profitable use. While the campus probably isn't where I would have put it, it is what it is and I hope it can develop into something notable. I'm just not sure what its specialty is either academically or culturally. It's kind of just there. Maybe traditions and reputations were just easier to organically establish 100 years ago.

The land was owned by the Virginia Smith Trust, a charity providing college scholarships. The David and Lucille Packard Foundation donated $11M to UC to buy out the trust's land. The trust had operated a golf course on the part of the property where the University now sits. The original plan had been for 30,000 students and a neighboring village to be developed by the trust, but an endangered species was discovered on the property so development may be somewhat limited to the area previously disturbed by the golf course.

Yeah, I get wanting to increase accessibility to valley students (which, let's be real is academic-speak for wanting to increase Hispanic enrollment). I think Fresno or Bakersfield area would have made more sense, even if you put it in a suburb like Clovis in order to not share a name. But even choosing Merced, they bought property where there isn't really the opportunity for a "college town" to spring up adjacent to campus, nor is there good access to 99. I had a friend who went there when it first opened and it was a pretty lonely outpost when I visited. The locals welcomed the idea of a university, but weren't as keen on a bunch of traffic headed down quiet rural roads.

Not sure I understand the part about EDM festivals. I would put a decline in concerts and live events on college campuses into three main drivers - 1. University facilities haven't kept up with what promoters are looking for to make a show profitable in terms of venue size and equipment, 2. Universities have become difficult to deal with because of red tape and to some degree the thought police wanting to moderate the show's content, and 3. The average age of show-goers is now mid-30s instead of college students. Hard to say if this is due to changing tastes or just that show tickets have gotten too expensive for students. Either way, universities have become more squeamish about encouraging non-affiliates to visit campus because they can really only police behavior that is illegal, whereas on students they can enforce made-up things like principles of community codes in their internal kangaroo courts.

Merced just finished a new competition aquatic complex so I’d imagine swimming and water polo might be the next adds. I’d love more football in California because at that rate we leak players to other states there is clearly supply. But I don’t think the dollars will line up for that at Merced unless a billionaire type took it on as a vanity project - and so far they have cultivated the Gallo wine family as a major benefactor, so you never know. Not sure what the NAIA or D3 scene is but with zilch on the D2 stage the path to FCS is nonexistent not mention the title IX imbalance created for a small ICA program. You’d know better than me the baseball/softball scene. Not sure if demographics influence potential sports interest, but they differ from the other campuses in that it is substantially more Hispanic and has less than 1% out of state or international. They draw students roughly 25% from each of LA area, Bay Area, San Joaquin valley, and “other” parts of CA

UC Merced is an interesting study. Their gym is a joke for the size of the campus - again not necessarily because their athletics team commands a facility of size but because any campus designed for 10,000 students should have the ability to host an event (not necessarily athletic) with more than a couple hundred attendees. UC Merced is approaching parity with Eastern Washington and Montana in size, though is unlikely to ever have that kind of sports following. My two cents is that it was the wrong location because there is not much to make it a destination, nor is it really that close to the valley population centers. The perception is that it is the repository for people not accepted to the other campuses, a distinction I'm sure Riverside was pleased to shed.

A huge problem with really all state property is that it gets built with one-time bond money but then has insufficient funding for maintenance and operations so the facilities degrade until really expensive renovations are needed. Turns out that paint, carpet cleaning, and toilet paper aren't sexy sells in Sacramento. Case and point is that the Rec Pool at Davis had to be completely bulldozed and replaced because ordinary routine maintenance was deferred so long that it became unrepairable. An odd take from a university so concerned about the environment they don't allow candy in the stadium (due to plastic waste), when in real terms the construction and demolition of structures typically has a greater carbon footprint than the lifetime operation. UC Merced is trying a new concept where the campus facilities are a public-private partnership and they have contracted a private firm to build, operate, and maintain the facilities for the next 35 years. I guess we will have to wait and see the results, but I am by default skeptical of schemes that promise more for less while also delivering profits for investors.

I'll put my reply to the OT board so we don't get toooo far off the topic of the football roster here!

You're probably right. I went to games religiously in the 90s and 2000s and remember some of those tense nights at both Sac and Poly. I haven't been in person much in the last 10 years so I suppose my perception is frozen in time, which is probably early onset of me becoming an old fart.

I guess I'm alone in wrinkling my nose about a Davis man putting on green. I'm not sure how the Covid eligibility relief works... he has graduated from UCD, but Sac's roster lists him as a Sr transfer. So does he have to take classes at all, does he take some non-degree seeking undergrad classes, or is he going to be taking graduate courses? His profile says he wants to be a PE teacher (and coach), so in my mind, if he is legitimately pursuing a teaching credential or master's degree through Sac State then it's weird but checks out. If he's not there for a legitimate academic purpose, it would be a shame that some other student is being denied a seat. Also curious when players or coaches transfer to opponent teams, is there any sort of gentleman's accord about divulging internal team info or is that considered fair game?

I’m not going to say it’s the primary driver, but I’m sure somebody in student affairs will put this on their annual review as a commitment to equity. Self defense classes will skew female, swim lessons will skew toward people who grew up without access to pools (read socioeconomic disadvantaged). Want to increase program representation of women and pell grant recipients? Add programs like this and delete programs that may overrepresent the other end of the spectrum. And by all means I’m not against swim lessons or self defense, but to remove or substitute amenities that people have been paying towards without notice, input or justification, its like when a tech company changes the terms of service to your disadvantage on a product you’ve already purchased.

indeed times are changing, in many ways for the better, though not always. Promise I’m not a ranting old man and I don’t mean to sidetrack this conversation about PE to include band politics (though happy to discuss elsewhere!). My point is that good public leaders are transparent because the people’s business shouldn’t be a secret from the people. George Pardee, the governor that signed UCD into existence, famously removed the door from his office and refused secret meetings. He might be a good role model for these troubled times.

MU was recently renovated. Took space from games area to expand bookstore so they could lease space to Amazon. The bookstore used to be owned by ASUCD, but the administration took it (and the profits) over in the 80s. Not a ton of transparency for where the profits from $80 sweatshirts go.

For kdvs situation see savekdvs.org . The newspaper had to move off campus as well.

There is a new VC of student affairs. I don’t know much about him. I believe this PE thing was set in motion with Galindo before him.

Fair point, I didn’t know Emil Mrak or Stanley Freeborn personally. Maybe they were terrors, I don’t know. But people from those eras tended to be career folks and had big visions for excellence. I met Vanderhoef and really liked him. Katehi was a jerk in real life. I haven’t met May personally but I agree he seems likeable. But at the same time, I haven’t seen him take out the trash, and the buck does stop with the boss.

sure the band stuff was personal to me, but there have been other things. Years ago they tried to bulldoze the domes without warning. Bonfire was eliminated. MU Games Center a ghost of its former self. Different chancellor but a lot of the same Vice chancellors. More recently all the stuff with Freeborn Hall and now they are trying to can KDVS.

As far as I understand, PE was a condition of the student referendum that allowed D1 athletics. Clicking some of the links, it looks like funding is being diverted to other “wellness” initiatives - hiring more psychologists and offering free swim lessons, CPR, and self defense classes (but not for academic credit). It’s fine if needs have changed and those other things make more sense for today’s students. But make it a public conversation with enough time to consider all sides. My take is that when you do things in secret, it usually means you think people will be more angry if they know the supporting facts in your decision than they will by just a straight blindsiding. Which is fine in private business but not cool when you’re doing the people’s work.

On this particular decision, I’m not sure we know the why. Could have been any of the reasons you mentioned or something else. Either way I think people have a right to know the facts and be present for the process.

My observation is that UCD no longer attracts the Freeborn and Mrak types who are dedicated to long term service and vision. Instead we get people who are always interviewing for the next job instead of doing their current one or people who recognize they’ve peaked and are looking to ride out a career of mediocrity on easy street. Both types try to sweep the unpopular decisions under the rug rather than address them head on, albeit for different reasons. I should say that athletics has appeared well run over the past few years compared to most parts of the university.

Good. I hate to say it but I encourage as many people as possible to sue UCD for as many reasons as possible for huge damages. The reality is that massive settlements are the only way to get the attention of the legislature that wholesale firings are needed from middle management up. I don’t have passion around PE per se but I have passion around the idea that a public university should be run fully in the sunshine without sudden or back room decisions. Over and over again this crop of administrators makes secret policy decisions and then implements without warning to effectively castrate any discourse or protest effort as too late. Fundamentally, students, taxpayers, faculty, etc should have a direct voice at the table beyond the distant premise of electing a governor who appoints regents. A few years ago, dining services held several public forums and took a year to consider whether to use fresh or packaged guacamole in campus food outlets. Why is it that stupid things like that can be considered out in the open but more meaningful things are done in secret?

good background. My understanding is that inning pitch limit was new for COVID, but not automatic. Had to be invoked and some teams manipulated it in ways that disappointed fans (like bases loaded no outs). Which the outcome doesn’t matter, so let the fans see the runs. But ending games early is not new, at least in Grapefruit League. If I remember right I think it just ended at the 7th inning stretch if home team was up by 3. Wasn’t uncommon for visiting team to throw the game if traffic was getting bad.

I think any sport with no time limits to it is destined for failure in the long run. — 69aggie

As evidenced by MLB spring training, where innings can end after 20 pitches regardless of outs, and the game can end several innings early if the home team is ahead. Never seen professional athletes in such a hurry to not play.

I would think the ESPNU games will have better quality than +. When I originally read the release I thought it meant two ESPNU games per school, but rereading I think it means two for the conference. Odds probably against us getting one of those slots. If the production quality for + is all on the school, it doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t invest at least in the low hanging fruit. Like having a stable internet connection and muting hot mics when Scott thinks he’s off air. I suppose nothing is cheaper than the Davis High School AV Club, but in terms of hired production, renting time from a well equipped remote engineer can be a cost cutter over deploying lesser equipment to the site. This is how they do North American coverage for titillators like Romania vs Lithuania women’s soccer.

if that’s the case, hopefully we take the opportunity to avoid embarrassing ourselves to a wider audience. If it is too costly to get proper production tractor trailers out, ESPN does have technology where they can do the engineering and production remote from their Orlando control rooms with limited onsite equipment. Can be more cost efficient if Rocko is reading.

Net positive or negative depends on your starting position. If you already have both services, it's probably a positive to improve production quality and technical reliability. Also gets at least the ESPNU games on several thousand sports bar screens across the country. Maybe not the "main" screen, but still exposure. Personally, I already have ESPN+ as part of a Disney bundle. But I do not have cable and do not want it for $60-100/mo because there would be so little I watch. So the ESPNU games present a problem for me. I guess I could go to a watering hole or listen to radio.