Golden Nuggets: Can the Bears be Ranked this Season? (Also, WBB Non-Con Schedule)

Golden Nuggets are now on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This will make it easier to be more consistent with my articles. Only a handful of articles today.

Football

• What are the chances the Bears can make the Top 25 this year? Nam analyzes.

Scenario One: The Hot Start -- Beat UC Davis, @ #12 Washington, North Texas, (@ Ole Miss)

This is a toughie, but not impossible. Jacob Eason didn’t quite take off this spring the way UW would have hoped, and Haener, Cal’s already seen a bit of last year (Brief note, Eason has looked reportedly better in fall camp so far). The UW skill position depth is still being rebuilt, and while it’s guaranteed to be ugly regardless -- not to mention on the road -- coming out on top of another defensive siege of a game isn’t out of the question.

Because Cal didn’t start out with votes in the poll though, just beating Washington is likely only to move them up into the receiving votes category, unless they do so by way of boatrace. That’s why I’ve added the last two games into this scenario as well. 3-0, you’re probably creeping up on the polls; start 4-0, though, and getting ranked is guaranteed, regardless of how bad Ole Miss is projected to be. You have two tough road wins under your belt before September’s even out.

• Golden Bear Reports’ team previews continued with the Special Teams and Defensive Backs (if you missed the others, I linked them in last week’s GN, they are all linked in both articles)

Women’s Basketball

• The non-conference schedule was released and it includes a home game versus Kentucky and of course the road matchup against UConn. Harvard is on the road non-con lineup this year as well and will be the season opener on November 8. Cal Bears Maven has a good analysis of the schedule.