Merry Christmas, Cal fans! I hope those who don't celebrate Christmas had/will have a great Festivus, a happy Hanukkah, or a crazy Kwanzaa!

After another blowout loss to a quality team, the Bears continue to raise doubts about their ability to challenge for the conference title. Thankfully (for us, at least), the rest of the conference has raised doubts that anyone will win the conference this year.

— Can they compete on the road? They are 10-3 overall, but 1-3 in games outside Haas Pavilion.

— Can they hang with high-level teams? In two tries against Top-25 opponents, they have been outscored by 56 points.

— Are they capable of winning the Pac-12 title? A tougher question, in my opinion.

Given that the Pac-12 remains winless in 12 tries against Top-25 teams, asking whether there are any high-level teams in the conference is a fair question.

But there will be road games, nine of them to be exact. And teams such as Arizona and Washington will come at the Bears with the same quickness, length and athleticism they saw against Mizzou and Vegas.

And they were not competitive in either of these games.

All that being said, the Cal basketball team would like to wish you a Happy Holidays.

(via calathletics)

After the jump we have a couple presents and some lumps of coal: the football team arrives in San Diego after a mid-flight interruption, Dallas waives Jerome Randle, and Jack Clark talks about rugby's decision to withdraw from the USAR Premier Division.

Football

• The team flight had some engine issues which delayed the Bears' arrival in San Diego. They arrived safely and began a full slate of activities starting with a trip to Sea World.
  
• Texas site Barking Carnival previews the Cal offense and the Cal defense in anticipation of the Holiday Bowl.
  
• Jake Heaps will not contribute to the QB logjam at Cal, as he has decided to transfer to Kansas. Faraudo reports that Cal was not interested in Heaps.
• CalBears.com has another set of player profiles: D.J. Holt, Marvin Jones, and Mitchell Schwartz.
  

Basketball

• Jerome Randle was waived by the Dallas Mavericks.
• CalBears.com recaps the Bears' loss to UNLV. BearTerritory.net also recaps the loss.

Rugby

• The Bears have withdrawn from the USAR Premier Division, though it will not have much of an impact on their schedule.
• Jack Clark talks about the decision and talks about the upcoming season.
  

Baseball

• The Bears are ranked 22nd in the preseason poll.

Lacrosse

• The Cal Lacrosse team invites the public to participate in the 4v4 Queen of the Turf Play Day fundraiser and Clinic at Berkeley High on January 29th.

Soccer

• Betsy Hassett was named an NSCAA Scholar All-American.