Cal 2012 Football Schedule Released

Hey all, back from another break and I'll be hitting up a couple of topics including a yearly review for the team, conference, and the Holiday Bowl recap if I'm up to it.

Just wanted to touch on the Cal football schedule that was just released yesterday. Take a look.

2012 Cal Football Schedule

Sat Sept. 1 Nevada
Sat Sept. 8 Southern Utah
Sat Sept. 15 at Ohio State
Sat Sept. 22 at USC
Sat Sept. 29 Arizona State
Sat Oct. 6 UCLA
Sat Oct. 13 at Washington State
Sat Oct. 20 Stanford
Sat Oct. 27 at Utah
Fri Nov. 2 Washington
Sat Nov. 10 Oregon
Sat Nov. 17 at Oregon State

Home games (in bold) at Memorial Stadium

After a quick glance, you might be thinking what I'm thinking: Next year's schedule...well, it blows.

The schedule isn't tough in a "Man we've got a lot of good, tough teams lined" sort of way. It's more tough in a "it seems to want to do everything humanly possible to stack the deck against us" sort of way.

And quite frankly, a few aspects are just flat out wrong. Let's take a look.


1. No Bye Week
That's right. The Bears play twelve straight games without any bye week. To my understanding, they're the only team in the conference to have that misfortune. On top of that, the Bears have a short week as they have to bounce back from playing at Utah on October 27th, before playing Washington the following Friday.

So where did Cal's bye week go? At the very end of the season, so technically the Bears would be the only team with the luxury of having a bye before the Pac-12 conference title game should they earn the honor. And if the Bears do somehow make the conference title game next year, then I will gladly eat crow and enjoy the one week break. Otherwise, I shudder at the idea of playing twelve straight games without a single week to recover mentally and physically. That's brutal.

Moreover, I fully anticipate the Bears being bowl eligible next year. That would be anywhere from a four to ghastly six week reprieve between their last game and their bowl game. I don't care which team is playing, that's a long break that could fully extinguish whatever chemistry the team is feeling to end the season.

2. Tough Opening Road Stretch
I'm a little less critical of this one because I recognize that blocks of tough game stretches happen. Most of it out of a team or the athletic department's control. But take a look at weeks 3 and 4 for the Bears.

That's right, OSU and USC. It's simply rough going to have to make trips out to one of the toughest venues in the conference at the Horseshoe and then follow it up with a trip to the Coliseum to face a likely Top 5 USC team.

It's one of the more challenging back-to-back road tests for the Bears I've seen in a while.

3. No Arizona or Colorado
I understand there's a natural flow to the 9 team rotation that each conference team faces in a 12 person league.

But not facing the two bottom conference dwellers certainly makes the Bears' conference slate far more challenging. The Bears didn't face Arizona last year as well, while Colorado was counted as a non-conference game due to a previous home and home commitment between the two teams.

It just makes it a bit more absurd that teams may spout "better" conference records despite not having to face the top conference teams. Take Utah last year for example. They didn't have to face Oregon or Stanford (two of the conference's best) while getting to play both Arizona and Colorado (losing to the latter). Yet, they still hosted a similar 4-5 conference record as the Bears.

Granted the Bears will benefit from future years, but again, this certainly makes next year's conference lineup more challenging.

4. Oregon State for our season finale
Simple fact: Never play the Beavers late in the season. Never.

5. Big Game in...October?!
Wait, what??

I had heard whispers that the Big Game might be moved in order to accommodate some hub bub with the new conference alignment. But I didn't think the conference would show such utter disregard for conference history by moving one of college football's oldest rivalries to the middle of the season. It was bad enough when it was moved from the end of the regular season.

This? This is just a travesty.

AD Sandy Barbour released this statement yesterday:

"As a conference, we are undertaking many tremendous initiatives, most of which will result in positive contributions and significant improvement to the experience of our student-athletes, as well as benefit our fan communities. Undoubtedly, one of the results is the addition of significant complexities to the scheduling process. I am very disappointed that these challenges have resulted in the moving of our rivalry game with Stanford - one of the longest standing traditions in all of college football - away from its proper place and time in the rhythm of the football season. I believe that college football is unique, in large part, because of traditions like the Big Game, and we believe that those traditions should be carefully protected.

"Although Cal and Stanford were opposed to the schedule that was ultimately adopted because of the placement of the Big Game, we remain a full participant in the conference's decision-making and governance process, working to ensure that our interests are fully considered. We at Cal are dedicated to assisting the Pac-12 in finding ways for future rivalry games for all conference schools to be protected. If that is deemed impossible given all the constraints, then we will be insistent that the burden is shared equitably across all institutions, so that no one school or pair of schools bears this burden alone."

The statement basically states that "Yes, we got F*ed over, but are willing to go along with it to not appear like whiny biatches to the conference." But the ending is key in that it recognizes the need for the "burden is shared equitably across all institutions."

Why that phrase? Because Cal and Stanford are the only schools to have to move their rivalry game. And I don't buy that retaining the Big Game in its rightful place as the season finale was deemed impossible given all restraints. Baloney. You've got smart people working for you Commissioner Scott. Figure it out.