Cal on ESPN's List of Underachieving Football Programs

Golden Bears are placed in the 'Financially challenged tier' in this analysis that includes 21 teams

Cal Golden Bears after beating UCLA last season / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Cal finds itself in a category it would rather avoid as part of an ESPN story with the headline, "Breaking Down College Football’s Biggest Underachievers."

The report includes 21 teams, and Ohio State and Florida State are among the underachievers on the list, so the Golden Bears should not be embarrassed to be part of this article. The article suggests finances are holding the Golden Bears back.

In analyzing why or how each of these teams is considered an underachiever, ESPN breaks the 21 schools down into seven tiers: CFP no-shows tier, Biggest underachievers (per SP+) tier, Basketball or bust tier, Never or rarely won tier, Financially challenged tier, Should have done more tier, and On-notice tier.

Cal is one of three teams in the “Financially challenged tier” along with Colorado and Georgia Tech.  ESPN uses its SP+ ratings to help categorize the teams and notes Cal has not had consistent football success since Jeff Tedford was the Golden Bears’ head coach.

Here’s what ESPN had to say about Cal’s situation:

California Golden Bears

Last conference or national title: 2006 conference (Pac-10)

SP+ expectations vs. SP+ results: 48th in expected five-year average, 68th in actual five-year average. The Bears haven't underachieved at Colorado or Georgia Tech levels, but while they recruit at a top-50 level and pay top-50 salaries, they haven't actually finished in the SP+ top 50 since 2015.

Assets: Elite public school in recruit-rich state; decent NFL pipeline; distant history of national success

Why and where they're underachieving: Cal is the nation's best public school, located in the heart of the Bay Area and in a top state for recruiting. The athletic program is often one of the leaders in producing Olympic athletes, but football has generally been a struggle, not only recently but for more than 70 years. Other than coach Jeff Tedford's stretch of seven consecutive bowl appearances and three straight AP Top 25 finishes, Cal hasn't sustained success. The team hasn't won more than eight games since 2008 and recorded a winning conference record since 2009. Tedford showed that Cal can recruit and develop NFL players -- Marshawn Lynch, DeSean Jackson, Cameron Jordan and Keenan Allen all played for him -- but high-level team success has been much more fleeting.

The primary challenges around Cal, coaches there have said over the years, are finances and motivation to win. The campus is located in an extremely expensive area, and the renovation to Memorial Stadium and construction of a student-athlete performance center in 2010-12 racked up $445 million in debt, 54% of which the university agreed to absorb in 2018. But there's lingering debt and Cal's move to the ACC, especially at a reduced revenue share initially, won't solve the issues any time soon. Cal's athletic department will receive a $10 million annual subsidy from UCLA following UCLA's move to the Big Ten, but hurdles remain for the Bears' football program.

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