California Golden Bears are one of the few teams remaining in the Pac-12 right now. However, they have seemed to come up with a plan to reach the Atlantic Coast Conference by declaring they would accept zero conference money to join for an unknown amount of years. This is something interesting as they owe north of $400 million.
All of this comes from UCLA's decision to join the Big Ten. Jon Wilner of Mercury News, mentioned in his report that UC Regents could force UCLA to subsidize the athletic department of Cal.
This would force the Pac-12 to lose millions as a result, as they no longer have the Los Angeles market with the USC Trojans leaving as well. At this time, there is no answer on where the money is to be allocated to, or if UC Regents have the ability to go after Big Ten revenue.
If that were to happen, Cal would be one of the universities that are hit the hardest in the move as they would have a huge financial burden on their hands.
"The California Golden Bears are currently faing nine-figure athletic repayments due to their financially imprudent debt service on Memorial Stadium. Although UC Berkeley central campus has already taken on half the debt service to cut the $440 million to just over $200 million, it isn't likely much relief is coming in the coming years." h/t Write for California
If that is what happens, it is difficult to imagine them surviving on zero revenue coming into the athletic department.
What is the next move for California Golden Bears?
The Golden Bears seemingly cannot expect to be able to survive without conference revenue. To be frank, they are not a Power Five team in the college football or college basketball ranks. Joining a Group of Five Conference like the Mountain West seems to be the more realistic option for them.
The only way they can stay in a Power Five conference would be if the Pac-12 is able to expand the league outside of the four remaining teams. Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff cannot afford to see another team leave the conference.
It will be interesting to know what the Golden Bears decide on.
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