We are unbelievably lucky to have May as our Chancellor. He is doing a great job IMHO. I have heard that Janet Napolitano thinks he is her best Chancellors choice ever for the entire system. You have probably noted that when she speaks/testifies at the Capitol she most often has him at her side as well. Now that may be only a nod to his being the closest Chancellor to Sac, but I doubt it. He is very smart and charismatic and I hope we keep him. I have nor seen any stats, but a case could be made that he has had a major impact on our recent improved recruitment of excellent black athletes. Black presidents/chancellors of top US universities are (unfairly) rare to almost non existent. Chancellor Drake left UC Irvine for Ohio State and got a million dollar raise. So keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t happen to us. I have to add, however, that Provost Ralph Hexter is probably the guy best in the country at his job of actually hands on running a top university. And indirectly athletics. He got us Kevin Blue. Not too bad for a classic Greek scholar, no?

I Wonder why Bob Dunning has not commented (to my knowledge) on these developments. He emailed me that he would “look into this Grad deal” and he never got back to me. This would seem right up his alley. My guess on the Grad situation was that he may have known the owners and it was just too hot to handle for him. But these other closings? Are we watching the gentrification of Davis before our eyes? I know the DE is not staffed like it once was, but Gees, this is a big story in my view. Then we have the big senior developments going up on the periphery of town (seniors love college towns); and the rising rents in the downtown- Avid Reader for sale. This could be a very good thesis subject for an urban planning major. BD is abdicating his once proud role as the Davis “muckraker”. Get with it Bob!

Fug, where are the “filthy restrooms”? I something’s stop off of I80 for a quick tour of the campus and maybe a RR stop. I have mostly been impressed with the cleanliness of the restrooms. Albeit, these are the ones at the Alumni Center, Genome Center, i.re . The public ones. I recall the RRs at King Hall were a mess by the end of the day, but they served 600 kids multiple times a day! Hard to keep those clean. RRs at Aggie Stadium were very good on games days. Also, peeling paint? Where?

Yes. Sean Harlston is a very impressive person. Athlete or not. But I will say I agree with him that Compton is a very interesting and very misunderstood city. My wife and I hired a young UC Davis student from Compton as a business assistant when we were still in Davis in the 1990s. She was Hispanic and from a big family. Her home was under a freeway overpass. Both parents were Mexican immigrant factory workers in LA. Big brother was a gangbanger who lived in the garage because his parents threw him out. Marisol was a straight A student out of Compton HS. She chose UCD because it was clean and safe (she was accepted by UCB as well). Younger sister was a 1600SAT kid who was the notable subject of a fierce scholarship battle between Stanford and Princeton as to who could actually get her. I believe she chose Princeton. Sean Harlston is very insightfully correct: Compton CA is actually a very good town and with great people, welcome to Sean, you made the right choice with UC Davis. I assume he is a WR?

Movie, good point. We are huge underdogs in this game. Hawk will put something together I think that could make this game a close one. Win? Don’t know. But back on the speed thing. Yes, we do have some pac-12 speed on this team, but might be a bit smaller. It will be a very interesting game to see.

So strategy versus the bears. They are very big, but slow. I’m no coach, but I would like to see some of our speed come out to force the bears to run and dodge; and to try and wear out the heavy guys. Then run the FB! Again I’m no coach, but we have speed as a real asset.

Amazing and insightful article. How many ADs in DI sports are able to articulate this very important issue in college sports? Not many. Most do not even care. AD Blue again proves what a classy person he is. We are very lucky to have him!

This just per the recent cal athletic website post. I think UCD students get into all games free. I am not sure how putting 1/2 of the debt into the “seismic repair” column helped them out, but I suspect it just put those repairs in line with all system-wide deferred seismic repairs. It certainly is not in the 2019-20 UC budget for seismic repairs which is only $213.3M and shows Berkeley getting money only to repair university hall, not memorial stadium. In other words, a bit of a case of “cooking the books” to reduce a very, very bad debt situation which is still growing at the rate of $18M annually.

The current Cal ICA numbers are: $439M in debt. Mostly due to the football stadium renovation and low revenue sports. Cal admin (very questionably) took on 1/2 of that debt for the stadium “seismic issues involved.” Very many TIX issues remain at Berkeley to be dealt with and which are not now. Still Cal’s ICA is still running an $18M deficit. And I might add: UC students no longer get free tics to UC football games. Do we want this model?

Just google uc davis athletics budget and play with that for awhile. It’s all there online. But its not that current. Newest info is 2016-17. A lot of numbers here and you can parse what you want from them. Extreme bottom line is this revenue was: in 2016- 33M and change. In 2017 34M and change. A mere .63 percent increase in revenue. Interesting that there was a +29% increase in ticket sales in a very poor football season. 88Aggie does good job with these numbers. I would think that 2018-19 numbers would be significantly higher because of the FB and WBB success. Bottom line. No FCS athletics programs make money or can support themselves without student or institutional funding. Sad but true. But. Then there’s cal with an enormous athletic deficit of millions. Do we want to go there?

Great kid. Great family. Great recruit by the Hawk. As a former Chico guy I can tell you Butte players are not to be underrated. They tend to be very hard nosed athletic players. 3.85 GPA!

Wow. They talk about keeping the “streak alive.” That is, not ever playing a FCS program, like its some sort of undefeated stretch of games or seasons. They would rather play any FBS team than us, i.e. Middle Tennessee State, Fresno or woeful San Jose State just to keep the “streak alive”. Very weird indeed.

For those that have never been there- don't go there. The Spokane/Pullman urban area of Eastern Washington State is not in any way like the Seattle area of Western Washington. It is like Ruby Ridge country in neighboring Idaho mixed with the very athletic players and staff at WSU. They do not mix well. Niece at WSU was told to always carry at least a $20 in her pocket when she went to the car park outside of WSU Medical Unit so she could pay off a mugger, of which there were many. A seriously very unsafe place. I suppose there are nice parts of town, but not close to campus.

After the terrible USC stories this year, I doubt that you will be USC shamed or bullied by this news. We are not totally squeaky clean but we are damn close. Hold your head high Z! But we do feel your pain. . .

Agree. Lena and Kenedy can take the year off to work on their game. And Shoot the THREE!!

And what a coup for our recruiters! So, you want to be able to tell your grandkids “I played against SC?” What a great endorsement for the program. WOW indeed!!!

Good information from the DE. I agree with BGA the team does have some real depth despite the loss of the twins and Morgan. That Konrad was a real stud at the end of the season and not at 100% is quite amazing. I am very curious about whether Jen will RS some of the freshman coming in. She sat Morgan for a year and look how that played out. So probably Lily will sit? Your thoughts?

Thanks Sportsfan. Your input is much appreciated and coming from a player parent 100% solid. Your post also says a lot about the class and character of the Aggie WSB program for not whining and bitching about Brookes decision but for supporting her. I do believe that the last chapter of the Transfer Portal issue has not yet been written. A lot of folks are still very upset about it; but it will not be Woman’s softball that might bring it down. D1 football and basketball coaches will have the last say on this issue. Many are obviously very unhappy about this new rule. A lot of changes are coming to college sports! Thanks again

Sports fan I don’t know where you get your information but apparently its from the inside based on your post. I don’t believe anyone doubts she will do well at Oregon. The PAC-12 is certainly a stronger conference for her to play in but Oregon is no where near the academic equal of UC Davis (or any UC school for that matter). So “better program” I’m not really clear on that point. Did Oregon fans feel betrayed when their former coach left Oregon for Texas with 6 players and their star pitcher? You bet they were and rightly so. I doubt that Brooke’s Aggie team mates were as you say “happy” that she didn’t leave sooner than she did. So why did she transfer? It must be the scholarship issue. She deserved a “full” and the Aggies probably could not do that at this point. Most mid-majors can’t either. Oregon probably could. Anyway good luck to Brooke. We wish her the very best.
Thanks
A Brooke Yanez fan where ever she is.

N. I really don't have a clue as to what you are talking about. Please elaborate for all of us.