So does the entire Big West conference play "beat up on the little schools" this weekend, right before conference play begins? UCI travels to Harvard, but the rest of the men's schedule is Westmont at UCSB, St. Katherine at CSF, Vanguard @ Cal Poly, Holy Names at UCD, St. Katherine (again!) at CSUN, CSULA at Long Beach and San Diego Christian at UCR. On the women's side we have Ottawa (AZ) at UCSB, Hope International at CSUN, Wm. Jessup at UCD, Holy Names at Cal Poly and Westcliff at UCI. Sounds like SEC football scheduling.

And AggieFinn, thank you for taking the reins to this venture of love.

Merry Christmas and other greetings of the season to all.

It won't happen in my lifetime, but NDSU could move right into the B1G 10 or Big XII. They have a recent record of football success against teams in those conferences and they already wrestle in the Big XII. Don't think either of those conferences is looking to move into the Dakotas, though. Not a whole lot of TV viewers there.

Bee article:
https://www.sacbee.com/sports/high-school/joe-davidson/article238278083.html

Not sure what the deal is with the link, or perhaps my computer skills. Doesn't work on my phone, but works on my computer. Kind of the story of my life.

And I think most of us would agree. One of the comments the article makes about Hayden Fry of Iowa is how many of his assistants went on to coaching jobs elsewhere. Same could be said of Sochor. Oregon should send Davis a royalty payment every year.

Thanks! Contribution has been made.

Go Ags!

It may not have been raining at game time, but it rained a lot during the day and was still raining in the area at 4:30. That could discourage people making evening plans. Throw in a late start for a playoff game, what is still largely a commuter campus, a relatively unknown opponent...and after all, it is Sac.

Sac's seating is good for the Causeway game and for big track & field events, but those Rose parade stands are a bit of overkill for the usual Sac audience.

Announced attendance was 5140.

http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/fball/2019-20/boxscores/20191207_81xh.xml

before the Big 10 added Maryland and Rutgers there was a period where there were 12 teams in the Big 10 and 10 in the Big 12.

Never could figure out why Presbyterian moved from D-II to D-I.

Age lost to Pepperdine, 15-12, in their opening round match this afternoon.

"He did let out that being responsible for 100 18-22 year olds isn't easy ... and they make dumb choices."

I guess the helmet rule doesn't have a lot of traction in many programs in the power FBS conferences.

...and Louisville lost to Georgetown in the next round, 5-1.

League teams still get a trip to Florida every other year to play the Stetson Hatters. I imagine folks at Butler, Drake, Dayton, and Marist appreciate the trips to the Sunbelt states.

A couple of articles about his decision:

He’s not “wired” like other coaches:
https://sports.yahoo.com/inside-chris-petersens-stunning-decision-to-step-down-at-washington-232925310.html

Coaching burnout:
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-grind-of-college-football-coaching-has-claimed-chris-petersen-and-its-only-getting-worse/

College of Idaho lost to Grand View, 14-6, in an NAIA quarter final game.

I grew up, or at least grew older, in a Big 10 town, back when there were actually ten teams in the conference. College sports on the West Coast are NOTHING like they are in the Midwest and in the South. A Big Ten school could play East Northern Southwest Dakota College of Education and Agriculture at Sturgis and there would be more spirit in town than you will experience at Big Game.

Worked with a woman who was raised and schooled in the Bay Area and whose husband had received both undergrad and medical degrees from a Big Ten school. (Not from An Ohio State University.) They moved to Columbus for a job change and went looking at pre-schools. Someone at one of the pre-schools they visited told them that on Fridays before games all of the kids wore scarlet and grey. Co-worker's husband turned around and walked out. NOT going to raise his kid to be a Buckeye.

Women's basketball: UCD 77, CSUS 75 (2OT)
Overall Causeway score: UCD 30, CSUS 10
End the year and the fall quarter on a better note. Next up....??? Gymnastic teams meet several times, or are in tournaments together, but unclear which if any will count towards Causeway Cup points.

Just guessing, but relatively minor sport, limited geographical participation, historically the sport has been dominated by the four major California universities. For a long time the entire tournament was just four teams; the winner of the MPSF (think Pac-12 and at one time Big West), the winner of the WWPA, a team from the east coast, and an at-large which was typically the runner up in the MPSF. Several teams (mostly Big West and West Coast Conference schools) broke away from the MPSF, I can only assume because of the domination by the big four Pac-12 schools, and created the Golden Coast Conference. They now get an auto-bid. The very first "Opening Round" or "Play-in" game is now on the Saturday following Thanksgiving and features two east coast teams.

Several small schools left the WWPA a few years ago and play in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Those are the same small schools, mostly the Clarement, Whittier, Mudd, Pomona-Pitzer schools that play in that conference for other sports. As of 2019 they no longer participate in the NCAA tournament. Men's water polo, like men's volleyball, only has the one tournament, theoretically open to all divisions. There is no seperate NCAA sanctioned tournament for what are otherwise D-II and D-III schools. A seperate organization, US Water Polo, is sanctioning a tournament for NCAA Div. III level schools for the first time this year. There are only a handful of D-II schools that play water polo.

But then, this is all a guess on my part.