Hopefully this puts an end to the “Cal in the Las Vegas Bowl” lobbying.

…such a “marquee” matchup (and i use the term loosely) in what both teams would consider a less-than stellar bowl… ha!

Obviously, the best case scenario is that we go ot the Holiday Bowl (again), hopefully against a team we can beat :)

Should Oregon State win the Civil War, I for one am like totes stoked to see if Oregon State can only lose by 30 to Penn State.

http://www.athleticsnation.com/2008/11/24/669591/rickey

anyone who enjoys baseball will enjoy 67Marquez’s FanPost…he even has scanned in newspaper clippings!

VBall to take on Oregons:

The No. 7-ranked California volleyball team heads to the Beaver State to close out the regular season with matches sandwiching the Thanksgiving holiday against Oregon State (Nov. 26) and No. 8 Oregon (Nov. 28). The Golden Bears hope to finish strong after nabbing two big wins against No. 10 UCLA and No. 11 USC at home this weekend. The last time Cal tangled with the Ducks and the Beavers in Berkeley, the Bears made short work of their opponents by claiming two 3-0 sweeps to open Pac-10 play. Now on the other end of the conference schedule, Cal has already tied the previous school record for most conference wins in a season with 12. The Bears reached the 12-win mark just three other times in school history; most recently as last season, and in 2003 prior to that. Cal also won 12 conference matches in 1982 under the direction of Chris Stanley when the Bears went 12-2 to secure the first NorPac conference championship; Cal’s only volleyball conference title. Since enduring a short losing slide, the Bears have bounced back to win three of their last four matches entering the weekend.

THE FACTS: No. 7 Cal (22-5, 12-4 Pac-10) completes the regular season with two road matches in the Beaver State. The Bears will meet Oregon State (14-15, 3-13 Pac-10) in a 4:30 p.m. PT match on Wednesday, Nov. 26 at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore. and then travel up the interstate to take on No. 8 Oregon (22-7, 10-6 Pac-10) in a 7 p.m. match on Friday, Nov. 28 at McArthur Court in Eugene, Ore. Live statistics are available for each match via links at www.goducks.com and www.osubeavers.com.

NCAA TOURNAMENT SELECTION SHOW: ESPNU will air the 2008 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship selection show live at 7 p.m. PT on Sunday, Nov. 30. The NCAA will announce the field of 64 teams selected to participate in this year’s national championship tournament and reveal the 16 first and second round competition sites. Please check your local listings for times and availability.

Mens soccer to take on UCSB in NCAA Tourney:

This Week
The No. 9 California men’s soccer team increased its winning streak to four as it heads to Santa Barbara for the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Bears (11-3-5, 5-2-3 Pac-10) will play at No. 19 UCSB on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m. at Harder Stadium. Cal is fresh off a convincing 3-0 victory against San Francisco last Friday at Edwards Stadium.

In the Rankings
The Bears are currently ranked No. 9 in the Soccer Times, No. 11 in the College Soccer News NSCAA polls, and No. 12 in the Soccer America rankings.
At the end of the regular season, junior keeper Stefan Frei led the Pac-10 in goals-against average (0.68) save percentage (.829) and shutouts with eight.
Cal, as a team, led the conference in goals-against average (0.68), goals allowed (13), and shutouts with nine.

Scouting the Opposition
UC Santa Barbara (10-6-5) has not been in the win column since beating Cal State Northridge, 3-1, on Oct. 29. Since that victory, the Gauchos have gone 0-2-3. In its last game, UCSB fell to UC Irvine, 4-2 in the Big West Championship match. Despite not getting the automatic bid, the Gauchos advanced to their seventh consecutive NCAA College Cup and earned a first-round bye in the process.
Chris Pontius leads UCSB with 32 points on 14 goals.

Postseason History Against UC Santa Barbara
Although they have not met in the postseason for a few years, Cal and UCSB have met twice before in the NCAA College Cup. The Bears topped the Gauchos in 2002, 2-1, in Berkeley. It was a historic victory for Cal as it was the program’s first-ever postseason victory and it was also Kevin Grimes’ first postseason win at Cal.
In 2003, UCSB got revenge when it ousted the Bears in Santa Barbara. The Gauchos shut out Cal, 2-0.

Men’s swimming gets 5 new recruits:

BERKELEY – California signed five talented swimmers to National Letters of Intent, Golden Bears head coach David Durden announced on Monday. The signees include second-generation Bears Chris Packer and Nick Trowbridge, whose father, Todd, won an NCAA title as part of Cal’s triumphant 800-yard freestyle relay in 1982, and Tom Shields, who competed in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, Austin Brown and Ben Hinshaw.

The five will join Cal next year to work with Durden and his staff, which includes assistant coach Greg Meehan, head coach emeritus Nort Thornton and strength and conditioning coach Nick Folker.

“We are very pleased to have Austin, Ben, Chris, Tom and Nick join our team for next year,” Durden said. “Greg, Nick, Nort and myself are excited to have the opportunity to work with such quality young men. We are thankful for all of the California club and high school coaches that have impacted and developed these young men into the athletes and people they are today. As these young men leave their legacy on high school swimming in the state of California this year, we are excited that they are continuing to impact California swimming through their performances as Cal Bears!”

As I reported yesterday, Mens XC got 22nd at Nationals:

The No. 18 California men’s cross country team took 22nd place with 477 points at the NCAA Championships hosted by Indiana State University Monday at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. Cal finished fourth among Pac-10 schools, as Oregon won the national title.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t do better than we did last year,” said Cal head coach Tony Sandoval. “We ran so hard at regionals that we weren’t able to come back after that. We still have one of the better distance programs in the country and we’re very proud of that.”

http://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/ncaa_football_2009/

Prof Romer to become key financial advisor:

Economists across the political spectrum cheered the selection of UC Berkeley Professor Christina Romer to head the Council of Economic Advisers as president-elect Barack Obama moved Monday to name his key financial counselors.

Cal women #3 (highest ever):

Cal defeated then-No. 3 Rutgers on Friday at Haas Pavilion. Rutgers then lost by 34 at Stanford on Sunday. So while Cal rose four spots to No. 3 and Stanford rose three places to No. 5, the Scarlet Knights fell to 13th.

Not sure we talked about this…but Cal Poly nearly beat Wisconsin at Camp Randle!

Wilner thinks the difference in the Big Game was “control of emotions.”

Erase all the turnovers and dumb penalties, and Stanford would have been right there until the end …

Obviously, you can’t erase them, and you shouldn’t. Not only are mistakes part of football, they’re a large part of rivalry games. Which brings me to today’s topic:

Managing emotions.

That’s where Cal won the game. The difference wasn’t Jahvid Best or Cal’s defense. The difference was the mistakes Stanford made and the mistakes Cal didn’t make.

Avoiding mistakes is as advantageous (and important) as making them is detrimental.

The Bears kept their emotions in check and, with the exception of one awful pass, didn’t force anything and didn’t let emotion get the best of them.

I think he’s bitter that Cal smoked his pick…Wilner also put Central Michigan in his Top 25…

Rags, perhaps you can help me understand the Big XII pecking order when it comes to bowls?

So assuming there isn’t anymore chaos, Oklahoma goes to the NC Game, and say Texas snatches up an at-large bid. Obviously, that leaves behind an 11-1 Texas Tech team. There’s also a 9-3 Oklahoma State team and a 10-3 Missouri team (loser of Big XII Championship game).

It seems in the past two years, the loser of the Big XII CG picks up the Cotton Bowl bid (Missouri last year, Nebraska two years ago), so does Missouri get the Cotton Bowl or does Texas Tech (by virtue of Texas Tech simply just having a better record)? Next in the pecking order is the Holiday bowl, then the Gator Bowl (usually), then the Alamo Bowl.

So if Texas Tech gets the Cotton Bowl, would Oklahoma State or Mizzou get the Holiday bowl? One team is 9-3, the other is 10-3, but head-to-head, Oklahoma State beat Missouri.

Then, there’s talk that if Nebraska wins against Colorado, they’d get a Gator Bowl bid (ahead of Missouri, mind you). I understand that Big XII #3 means third-pick, not third place, but would the Gator Bowl pick a significantly worse Nebraska team over a better Missouri team because Nebraska “travels better”?

I’m usually good at sorting out all the bowl nonsense, but I am still confused. Please help.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Dickey_Convincing_Big_Game_win_will_only_brighten_Cals_future.html

Cal alums often write me to say they can’t understand why players aren’t attracted to Cal because of the school’s academic stature, its beautiful campus and its location in an area which visitors and residents love — which only proves that they are not 18-year-old males.

Top prep prospects are looking for a school which: (1) Has a team that will showcase their talents for the NFL; (2) Has a lot of attractive (they’d say hot) female students; and (3) Has good beaches nearby, at which the young women in question will be in bikinis. USC is at the top of the charts in all categories. Cal ranks fairly high in the first two categories but is virtually shut out in the third.

For those who don’t know him, he’s a columnist for the examiner now after a long tenure with the Chronicle where he thought the niners destiny was ending ever since 1990. He’s a HUGE cal homer and most definitely an Old Blue. He was a student when Pappy was the coach…he sort of looks like father time but without the mustache (yes, he rocks this look with a beard and no stache).

Here

Just use it as an opportunity to say things about Marshawn Lynch.

Our Holiday Bowl hopes are slightly dimmer now that Jacquizz Rodgers will most likely not play in this weekend’s Civil War.

Multi-purpose athlete Adam Hall (Tucson, Ariz./Palo Verde) visited Cal last weekend and said he could definitely see himself wearing a Bears jersey.

Hall is a tremendous talent and could play multiple positions in college. Most schools like Hall as a safety or receiver, but the Bears prefer him for defense.

“They feel I could play a lot right away a safety,” Hall said. “I prefer receiver and asked if I could get a chance to start out there and they said they’re totally fine with that. I actually like both positions but I prefer receiver by just a small percentage so it’s not that big of a deal for me either way.”

Hall listed a number of things he enjoyed about the visit.

“The environment was great and I loved the game atmosphere,” Hall said. "I met a lot of the professors and really like the academic setting there. The food was incredible, I ate like crazy and honestly, I think I gained five pounds over the weekend.

“I got to hang out with my boys from Arizona, Marc Anthony and Cameron Jordan. They hosted me and I hung out with Devon Kennard a lot too and we’re pretty close as well. We have some schools in common and we’ll be taking another trip together when we visit USC and it would be cool to play with him in college.”

So, I play badminton. A lot. Last night I was playing in a club in Emeryville when I noticed a fairly large african american guy with all Cal gear playing on one of the courts. (I only mention his race because badminton is played 90% by asians in the US). Needless to stay he stood out. He also had a Cal Football sweatshirt.

Problem was, I didn’t recognize him, so that rules out most of the starters. I checked the sign-in sheet at the front desk. Uh-oh, I see someone named Garrett signed in, with a scribble for the first name. Or are those initials? I did not want to meet RJ Garrett (the guy who was kicked off the team for armed robbery).

So I asked to use the computer behind the front desk for a second, and google-imaged RJ Garrett. Whew, it wasn’t him. Then I noticed someone also signed in with the first name of Sean. Sean Young? I asked the cashier if someone named Sean Young had paid by credit card. Sure enough, it was him. Sweet!

Now, I am more or less the worst person when it comes to talking to sports people. I saw Steve Young in the supermarket near my house with his little kid and all I could think to say was “daaahh your kid looks a lot like you.” daaaah. And he said “yeah.” Retarded conversation, yes, but it was Steve Young. To this day the greatest moment of my life.

So I went up to Sean and asked, of course, “are you Grecian?” K not really. I basically asked what the heck he was doing playing badminton in Emeryville on a Monday night and he said some friends took him there to play for the first time. “Man, I suck,” he said. (He did, but badminton is tricky. And I’m probably equivalently terrible at football so I wasn’t one to talk smack.)

I didn’t really know what to say…he hadn’t played at all since what…La Tech? I should have asked whether he was gonna try and enter the draft and go to the combines, or talk about the sweet catch from MSU. But instead I congratulated him on the Stanford game (he probably thought I’m a dumbass fan and didn’t know that he didn’t play) and the season, and suggested he bring the rest of the team down to play. He gave me the biggest “lol yea fuckin right dude” look you’ve ever seen in your life. Damn. Jahvid Best I bet would WRECK anyone at badminton.

Either way, it was pretty cool, and definitely caught me off-guard, in a “this is the last place I expect a Cal fb player to be” kind of way. Like if I had seen Slash from Guns n Roses picking out a tea set at Bed Bath n Beyond.

And now let’s all enjoy a nice, cool glass of turnip juice.

This DBD could use more Gossip Girl references.

No matter who wins the Texas-Oklahoma debate, the loser will at least meet a better bowl fate than the Bears did. If either Texas or Oklahoma finishes third or fourth in the BCS, which they’re virtually assured of doing if they don’t lose again, they must receive a BCS bid.

Oklahoma State will upset Oklahoma this weekend, pushing Texas Tech to the Big XII CG.

It’s not logical. After all, Texas Tech destroyed Oklahoma State and Oklahoma dominated Texas Tech. Hence, Oklahoma State shouldn’t come close to Oklahoma, right?

But then a funny thing happened – I was reading about all the Big XII controverseis already and then I see Bob Stoops politicking for Oklahoma (then saying he’s "done"). We see this happen all the time – coaches pre-emptively complain about the BCS screwing them over, then they themselves get screwed over.

So, I’m going on the record: Oklahoma State will upset Oklahoma this weekend.

It shall be posted in tomorrow’s DBD.