Re: The last statement of principle requires

You may not believe this. Not because it's so hard to believe, but it's so hard to fathom.

Recently a financial planner from Sacramento vacationed in my town, and visited in my church. (I've talked casually with before because he's here to spend time with grandkids.) I was asking him the reasoning behind this bill that is going to wreck college football; we have seen the governor posturing that CA is a friend of the oppressed, undercompensated student-athlete, but no one believes liberals actually care about them. It's got to be about money somehow, so which angle is it that's driving this bill?

His response: he doesn't know. Nobody in CA knows about or cares about this bill, because nobody in CA even pays attention to college sports anymore. But being a Californian, he guessed that the state legislature had one, maybe two primary goals: since the state is always looking for new sources of revenue, if you pay the "undercompensated" student-athlete, then you can tax them. Win-win.

Additionally, CA is still more lucrative then anyplace else in the nation. The state's GDP is about 20% of the national GDP. So all those home grown CA athletes that go to Oregon, Utah, Nebraska, Clemson and everywhere else can be paid more when they attend their own state schools instead of leaving. They're plugging the talent drain.

So what can't you believe, you ask? The fact that the CA state legislature is wrecking a wonderful sport nobody in CA cares about, because they can't balance their checkbook; and in making sure the "undercompensated" athletes can make plenty of money, they are denying the students a level educational playing field.

To be sure, we can't just blame CA. FL was going to do the same thing, and FL colleges are generally more inferior academically than CA schools.

Rw43

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Re: Lots of people in California care about college football

Oct 30, 2019, 12:03 PM

JK, I didn't say the words. The Sacramento-based successful financial planner, who has lived in the state his entire life, said the words.

obviously the distinction is in the definition of the word "nobody."

But just check some stats: the average FBS home game in CA draws fewer than 35K fans.
Except for the 2 big rivalry games, NO FBS football game will host more than 75K.
In SC, USC and Clemson will exceed that number at least 12x.
The Rose Bowl doesn't count; in spite of its 100K attendance, all paying fans come in support of the two teams. All locals in attendance get free tickets as rewards for their volunteer labor in making the Rose Bowl parade the huge event that it is.
The Rose Bowl is half empty for every UCLA home game.
CA has 40 million people
2 million college students
Fewer than 1 million different individuals will comprise the entire attendance at ALL college athletic events hosted in CA this school year.
That is about the same number--about .95 million-- of South Carolinians--who will attend college sporting events in SC with a total population of only 5 million.
FCS schools with an enrollment of 25K usually draw no more than 1500 fans
The fans who do attend don't spend the day tailgating; they come and stay awhile, and leave early.

Californians are the ultimate bandwagon fans, because life is too busy to follow a losing team.

When I discussed the best high school teams in CA, this man stared at me blankly. Only a few people care, and most of them live back east. We Clemson fans know more about Mater Dei and StJohn's Bosco than almost anybody in CA.

I can go on. My in laws have lived there for 40 years and don't pay any attention to college sports unless someone is having a great year. There is simply too much going on, and every household primarily cares more about professional or the youth sports their kids are playing. That's all they have time for.

When I lived there I was appalled how ignorant my East Coast friends were of events that happened in CA while I was there. Until I moved back South and realized how hard it was to follow sports out there. It's two different worlds. If I stayed up really late, I could talk to sports with my FiL .

BiL lives in Barstow but he's from Anaheim. Huge Dodgers and Rams fan. Never spends a dime on them. Hasn't been to a game in years. Last time I went to a baseball game in Oakland, the stadium was about 2/3 full--from the third to sixth innings. You'd think fans would either come late or leave early:nope. They did both.

Of course, ATL has become the same way.

My point is that college sports in particular, and high school to a degree, get squeezed out for Californians' attention, and especially for their attendance. They don't have enough time or concern enough to care about all of it.

So, yes, I am totally saying that if they wreck our sports, they don't care.

CA has 7 schools that play FBS football. I bet the governor of CA can't name them all.

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The last statement of principle requires