re: Tedford done at Cal? *Update* Tedford Fired

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A school that cares nothing about football is now going to buy out and fire its semi-successful football coach?



Two responses to that:

1. For six of Tedford's first 10 years (the middle years), Cal has been top 30 in FBS attendance

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2. Cal just spent $321 million (a fraction of which actually exists ) on stadium improvements and new training facilities. This is the driving force now. Cal is paying for it with ESP (endowment seating program) where you pay a lot of money to sit on the 50 yard line and enjoy one of three fancy new clubs.

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I'm sure some people will take this the wrong way but should a program like Cal really be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on stadium improvements or tens of millions of dollars for the football coaches?

Certainly there are major programs for whom I think it makes a lot of sense (USC, Oregon, tOSU, Michigan, Nebraska, PSU, FSU, Va Tech, Alabama, Florida, LSU, Tennessee, UGA...) but should the programs that are not bringing in elite money really try to spend as if they are?

My knee jerk answer would be no - no matter how much money the Missouri, Oregon State, Arizona, Iowa, or Georgia Tech kind of programs spend on football they will not likely become elite football programs (earn a real return on their investments).

Isn't there a real virtue in recognizing what kind of athletic program you want to be and being content with being good but not elite?