Tough week-end for the Age. I am sure that the LB game is one that they feel should have been closer and perhaps gone differently. This is a good time to realize that everyone in the top 15 deserves respect otherwise you are going to lose. Looking at their schedule they have no easy wins slated. It is time to get focused for 4 quarters of intense play in every game. School starts this week and that will demand more time and energy from the players. Again I am still hopeful that the Aggies can win the first Big West Men's Conference title.

Riveraggie', Coaches need to get to the recruits, and rankings help. Higher rankings help with the screening process that the families use. UCD is not sexy and usually it is an up-hill battle when recruited are looking at the UC's. Just a quick search today for 22-23. My point is that we are not in the top 3rd. Better rankings will help in the screening process for the ICA programs.
UC Ranked US News Global Ranking T.H.E. World Rankings
UC Berkeley 1 4 8
UC Los Angeles 2 14 21
UC San Diego 3 20 32
UC Santa Barbara 4 67 64
UC Davis 5 73 63
UC Irvine 6 84 95
UC Santa Cruz 7 105 192
UC Riverside 8 186 251-300
UC Merced 9 673 301-350

For many families of athletes rankings are important. In many sports the athletes that are being recruited and brought on campus are 15 or 16 year olds or even younger. Folks tend to lean into rankings as they are quick and easy. In the Big West some of the rankings that are out there have us behind every UC in the Big West--UCSB, UCI and UCSD. If you talk to many CA high school students and their families they would put us behind those other schools. I take rankings with a grain of salt but this is good news for UCD's ICA sports.

Ags lose today vs #2 UCLA 16-7. It is hard to be as sharp as they were on Friday against the Bears. UCLA great front-line 7 but the back-ups might be better than the Bears.

Having 3 games in 3 days will help the Aggies at the Big West tourney where that might be the road to the title and a NCAA berth.

Friday and Saturday were good as the Ags, can gear up for the first Men's Big West polo title.

Went to the game. Age up after the first quarter. In the second with all knotted at 6 and CAL scored a heart breaker that slid in with 1 second to go to give the halftime lead 7-6.

Ags had a good number of breaks go their way but hung with CAL which last week-end kick the snot of USC 12-5 in LA. CAL was resting a superstar but the AGS went toe to toe with them. The AGS getting closer to being a top tier team. This year in the Big West the AGS will have a much more competitive league and I believe that the conference games will be very tough and they need to be ready.

In the end the AG upset crumbled with failing to convert on 2 6 on 4 power plays and in the late 3rd and 4th quarter sloppy passing. BUT they played hard and are a legit top 6 team that on any given day at the pool can pull off a win.

NCagalum. I was at the game also though I did not compete in the run-pass-punt comp. My favorite Stanford connection during that period was Plunkett to Randy Vataha.
As for the Juice he was my favorite player of the 70's with the Bills. I would have been so excited to have his autograph. On a Christmas Eve I was driving to my parents and he came on the radio and was very nice. At that time his favorite Christmas Carol was Nat King Cole's Christmas song. Funny how strong those memories are for me as an old man.
As for that game I remember my father talking about how important the kicking game is in football. I hope you had a great day then.

The FCS and DII and DIII still have regional qualities. A region wants to know that it is important enough to have some teams in the ranking. The thought being that it helps retain interest in the local team and the regional league. When you have play-offs that are large the cream rises, so I just take early rankings and regional basis with a grain of salt.

Aggiefinn2. I agree those are great sports cheap and at the high levels very skilled.

BaseballAtDobbins. My daughters were not teased but verbally accosted outside the stadium. I have been to hundreds of games and 50 or so venues it was by far the ugliest scene I have ever witnessed.

BlueGoldAg, Thanks for sharing.

I follow the thinking that in football emotion has limits and a staff with better plans and coaching will over time beat emotional based teams.

The transfer portal can give but it can take away quickly. Bandwagon teams might fall quickly. The crazy part isI might be all wrong. As a player or a parent I would gravitate toward the more process focused teams and coaches but I do not know.

The loss of regionalism for NCAA football and sports will also play a huge factor in player development. Not sure how teams and players that have crazy travel schedules will improve in season and during their career.

It is truly wild, and new times in the NCAA landscape

AggieFInn2. I think that is a big stretch and would be hard to find a case. NCAA sports are big business and Cal's and Stanford woes are partially to be blamed on themselves. They failed to find a positive future for their departments. What does anyone else think?

LA Times good article about Stanford and Cal

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-09-01/stanford-cal-acc-studen-athletes-broken-sports?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=promo_module&utm_campaign=rss_feed

Bottom line decreased income by a lot and increase cost by a lot. Recipe for both the schools having their athletic Department implode.

The football stadium is a sunk cost and I do not see how they could get out of that debt.

On the board the salary cost is what they look at as the price of doing business at the FBS level and that falls on the AD shoulders as does the swim coach. The current AD is Jim Knowlton and many on the board direct a lot of anger at him and put the blame on their current problems right on his shoulder.

I have not followed the situation closely so I do not have a strong opinion but will say the personal issues in particular the women's swim coach and the hires fall on his duties..

My family and I were at the Fresno state game. The score was ugly for the Aggies, but the experience for my family was even worse. We wore Aggie gear and my beautiful daughters were screamed at and taunted as we walked into the stadium on the North side. Both had tears in there eyes and my wife was upset but I told them to just keep on walking. It was the worst college football experience, I have ever had. Hopefully the Bulldogs have cleaned up their fans some.

Yes from what I read it's 8 million dollars not 30 million. The Bears and Cardinals are in a world of hurt.

Had some time tonight so I went to the Bear athletic board. WOW, They are truly hurting, with some crazy thoughts of what they can do. These included cutting football and many other sports.. As an outsider I think the most likely is that they will not cut football but a handful of other sports.

Cal has had serious problems in the athletic department with huge deficits and many under performing sports. Stanford will be able to keep its head above water but the Bears are going to be hurting. I thought for a moment that they would stay on the West Coast and then Stanford and Stanford join the MWC. Going to the ACC really hurt those Cal and Stanford teams that will have home and away commitments.

I am sad that the Pac 12 is gone. As a Northern California my father followed great NCAA QB's. We went to most home Stanford games to watch Jim Plunkett and then letter to Cal to watch Steve Bartkowski. They made huge impressions with me and I loved the games with all the Pac 8 schools.I enjoyed both venues and I had a better time at college games than when we went to see the Raiders or the 49ers. My brothers on the other hand went for the NFL teams and have stayed with the 49ers. My youngest brother loves being part of the "faithful". Hard to be faithful when the college game has changed so much.

The move to the FBS is not easy. Here is the link for any that are interested.
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/AMA/Division%20I%20Forms/2010-11%20FBS%20Forms/Football%20Bowl%20Subqa%2012%208%2010.pdf

As I read it you must make changes to Aggie stadium and then prove that you can average 15,000 paid spectators. This will not be easy and expensive. I just do NOT see a plan that Chancellor May would approve of.

I do love the deep game notes. As a fan I love knowing as many stories of the players on my team. If I just wanted football I could watch the NFL network. I know the families and athlete love every bit of print that happens.

Winning on the road in Texas is a challenge. Let's see what the Ags can do tonight. Go AGS!

A dream start for the team. Long Beach who has a storied history in Women's Volleyball upset Texas the #1 ranked team. The Big West might be a very strong conference and lets hope that the Aggiies can contend for a title.

Wow. The loss of the Pac-12 blows my mind away.

My first thought is this. I competed as a NCAA athlete and my children did. I doubt if my grandchild will.

I have read several times that many administrators are using the phrase that changes that help the student-athlete's wallet are what they support. That makes me angry, as the biggest winners of these giant sums of money are going to be the ICA administrators. Sure some athletes are going to do well for a short window. A child of mine at a Pac 12 school benefited last year for 5,000 dollars and will make a little more in their last year. But this is peanuts compared to the starting salary and lifelong earnings with a great degree. Meanwhile the administrators are going to get pay raises because the department earns more money. Not that they have done a good job.

What about the 16 year old that committed to play in the Pac -12 and the conference is gone? Should they be allowed to get out of their commitment just like if the coaching staff was changed. Even if they are allowed to the challenge with that is the burned bridges and lack of scholarship dollars for them.

FBS College football is really minor league football that is doing a tremendous amount of damage to the NCAA landscape. Even NCAA basketball is being hurt by these changes and I never thought anything would hurt the NCAA basketball brand;, but crazy travel and loss of regional games does that.

I am still processing all of this and fear for the majority of the student athletes at every level of college sports..