By Ann Tatko-Peterson
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Legendary coach Bobby Bowden of Florida State immediately makes the connection when he hears "big-time football" and "Berkeley" used in the same sentence.
"You mean Jeff Tedford?" he asks, not waiting for an answer. "He's already there. He's put that program on the college football map." Cal has arrived as a hot-ticket, bowl contending, donor-friendly college football program.
Now comes the hard part -- staying there. Any team that jumps to this level has to fight to retain it as a permanent address. That's an especially crucial challenge for Cal. The university has gotten close to the big leagues before but couldn't make it stick.
This time more is at stake with state funding on the decline, Pac-10 competitiveness on the rise, a long-planned stadium renovation on deck and an inspirational coach on the sideline, at least for now. "There is a sense of urgency to capitalize on our success. Now is the time to get it done," Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour said. "Football is the vehicle for so much that can benefit the entire institution. This is our chance to grow that vehicle."
Building from scratch
Tedford saw potential at Cal when few others did, especially during his four seasons as Oregon's offensive coordinator. "It was always my impression that Cal was a big-time football program, perhaps because of having competed against them," Tedford said. "Really, I think it's a matter of perception how you see a program. Others may not have seen Cal as a big-time football program, and maybe what we've accomplished has changed that perception."
Tedford is too modest. In 2002, he inherited a team that had gone 1-10. The Bears hadn't been to a bowl game since 1996. Tedford had to sell recruits on faith. Donnie McClesky was one of those recruits. He grew up loving Michigan. Steve Spurrier recruited him to play at Florida. Colorado State wanted him, too. Yet, McClesky bought Tedford's sales pitch.
"I could have gone to Florida, but that's not really what I wanted," he said. "I wanted to be part of something new. Playing for the Florida States and Miamis, those schools are already part of history. We're making history." And what a history it's been in three short years.
Year one: Cal won three road games over nationally ranked opponents for the first time ever. At 7-5, the Bears had enough wins for bowl eligibility but had to serve a one-year postseason ban for infractions incurred in 1999.
Year two: Cal upset eventual national champion USC and beat Virginia Tech in the Insight Bowl during an 8-6 campaign.
Year three: Cal staged a BCS run, earned the No. 4 national ranking -- the highest since 1952 -- played in the Holiday Bowl and finished with a 10-2 record.
All of that helped lead to this year's preseason No. 19 ranking in the Associated Press poll.
"Big-time football starts with winning," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said during a spring practice teleconference. "It sounds simple, but it's also true -- everyone loves a winner. On-field success is just a jumping off point for the success of an entire program."
Cal sits on a $40 million annual budget for its athletic department, largely because it maintains the second-largest slate of sports among Pac-10 schools with 27.
Tuition at UC Berkeley rose 30 percent this year. State funding has increased slightly for 2005, but that in no way counters the 15 percent loss of state operating funds over the previous four years.
In such a climate, Barbour has said, she would love to run an athletic department funded entirely by endowments. Until then, she will maximize what she calls, "the financial train" -- football. Last season, Cal averaged 64,019 in home attendance. That 40 percent increase was the highest one-year climb in Division I-A football since the NCAA started tracking attendance in 1993.
"Those are the kinds of dollars from which you can build," Barbour said. "We're looking at potential revenues from the stadium's renovations. The opportunities and amenities are there. No other program presents those opportunities."
The 12th man
In March, Cal sold a record-high 5,054 season tickets in one day, more than double the opening-day sales in 2004. Four months later, Cal sold 10,124 single-game tickets in a day and broke another record.
"They were both mind boggling," said Matt Terwilliger, director of ticket sales and advertising. "We never had experienced that kind of volume before. We never had to make sure every phone line worked in the ticket office before."
Cal has sold about 38,500 season tickets this year. With single-game tickets gone, the only way to see Cal play USC on Nov. 12 is to buy a season ticket.
Despite higher demand, Cal only marginally increased its season-ticket price for the general public (from $157 to $235). That $78 increase is due mostly to the addition of one home game and admission to the Big Game at Stanford, Terwilliger said.
By comparison, Michigan charges $350 for seven games and Washington $345 for six.
Like almost every other big-time school, Cal implemented a required donation for season-ticket holders wishing to retain the seats they had last season. The $50 fee, however, ranks well below average. USC charges between $100 and $4,000, depending on seat location. Most seats at Ohio State require a $200 minimum.
Cal hasn't tried to make a quick buck off its recent success, either. The student section comprises half of the premium 50-yard line seats. Season tickets for students cost $72, well below the $120 Division I-A average.
"Students are the core," Terwilliger said. "If they don't come as students, they are less likely to be season-ticket holders in the future and less likely to donate to the program in the future."
The same philosophy drives Cal's policy of free admission for freshmen and transfer students to the first five home games. Tickets to the USC game cost $12.
Terwilliger said Cal draws about 90 percent of its freshman class to games, which translates into higher sales as those students become upperclassmen.
"We're the talk of the town in terms of what we're doing," Terwilliger said. "Most people never knew where Cal was before. The Floridas and Notre Dames probably wouldn't need to do this, but a program in a market like ours, it's something to consider."
Said Barbour: "Our marketing has been focused on putting fans in the seats. The 12th-man kind of thing. That's directly tied to sustaining success on the field."
The money game
David Rosselli has spent 15 years working in collegiate development, including 15 months as Cal's assistant athletic director of major gifts.
Even he can be caught by surprise. In October, a Cal donor offered him a multimillion-dollar gift during lunch.
"He said to me, 'You're the first person I'm telling, so you can get the credit. I haven't even told my wife,'" Rosselli recalled.
The Bear Backers, which raise money for Cal athletics, set all-time highs this past year with $61 million in gifts and pledges, 1,600 new donors and 7,300 total donors.
No project at Cal was viewed as more important than retaining Tedford.
In November, Barbour fielded calls from major college programs interested in courting the coach. With budget limitations, she knew private donations were the only means to augment the $800,000 Tedford was set to make in 2005.
Faced with a short time frame, Rosselli and his staff had to secure major donations, often in one phone conversation. That money was placed in chancellor Robert Birgeneau's discretionary fund and used to write a five-year, $10 million contract extension for Tedford.
The deal will pay Tedford $1.5 million -- plus a possible $300,000 in incentives -- through 2009. He will receive a $2.5 million bonus if he completes the contract.
Those figures put Tedford into elite company with coaches such as Georgia's Mark Richt and Nebraska's Bill Callahan, both of whom have guaranteed salaries of $1.5 million a year.
The contract also separates Tedford from successful Cal coaches of the past. Said Cal donor Grant Inman in putting the contract extension in perspective: "We want Cal to be a destination instead of being a trainer."
Former coach Bruce Snyder built the program from 1987 to 1991, then left for Arizona State after back-to-back bowl appearances. Steve Mariucci lasted one season (1996) before bolting to the 49ers. In Snyder's case, Cal neglected to offer financial incentives for him to stay.
"There were points in time where the program really was prepared to turn the corner, but the resources kept it from happening," Rosselli said. "Coach Snyder needed those additional resources in order to retain him. The administration wasn't willing to pony up the money for those resources. The Cal community was not willing to let that happen a second time."
All great programs can point to a nucleus. Alabama had Bear Bryant. Penn State has Joe Paterno. Florida State has Bowden.
"Those coaches turned solid programs into powerhouses," said current Washington and former Notre Dame and Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham. "It's one thing to assume control of a giant. It's quite another to create it."
The great rebuild
It was in November 1999 that athletic director John Kasser promised that details about Cal's stadium renovation would be forthcoming.
Memorial Stadium needed a facelift even then. Plunked down on top of the Hayward fault line, the stadium required seismic upgrades. The locker, weight and meeting rooms were outdated as were fan amenities such as restrooms.
Yet, the renovation project remained on the shelf for more than six years -- until a buyout clause in Tedford's previous contract forced Cal's hand. If the university didn't break ground by Dec. 15, 2004, Tedford could leave for a mere $500,000.
He never exercised the option, in part because of the progress Cal has shown. In the eight months since, Cal has hired a lead architect, named former Northern Arizona athletic director Steve Holton as project manager and generated $40 million in private fundraising.
Initial design and cost estimates are expected sometime this fall, Barbour said. Construction likely will begin after the 2006 season.
Rosselli said he is developing the public fundraising plan, set for release when the cost estimates are finalized.
"It's a monstrous endeavor, especially because the other sports still need to be taken care of," Rosselli said. "We can't afford for a major project to cannibalize our money. We need to maintain and raise a huge figure on top of that. It sounds like a lot to ask, but we did that this year."
Much of the support comes from the Bear Backers. For example, to earn possible travel privileges with the football team, a donor used to give a minimum of $50,000. Now the minimum is $60,000. Securing two season tickets has gone up from $350 to $400.
But those inflated premiums are not why Rosselli expects the stadium fundraising to flourish.
"We raised $61 million from 7,300 donors," he said. "When you consider you have 65,000 rabid fans coming out to games each week and 75,000 alumni in the Bay Area alone, we've clearly only begun to scrape the surface of our potential."
Expanding horizons
Private donations alone won't pour the concrete for the stadium renovations. Barbour sees possible revenue streams from corporate sponsorships, naming rights and enhanced amenities -- concessions and perhaps luxury suites -- provided by a renovated stadium.
Cal found a powerful ally in the revenue-generating business when it partnered with North Carolina-based ISP Sports on June 1. The sports marketing company, which has a network of schools that includes Auburn, UCLA and Miami, recently installed a new sign system at Memorial Stadium to better recognize the more than 65 corporate sponsors.
That's one way sponsors benefit from the football team's success, said Solly Fulp, former assistant athletic director for corporate development. Where before he handled marketing with just one assistant, he now has a general sales manager, two sales associates and an intern.
"We couldn't keep up with the success of the football program," said Fulp, now ISP vice president and general manager overseeing Cal. "It was me and one assistant, and we nearly doubled revenue in two years. Basically, we grew beyond our means. The success of the football program commanded a larger sales staff networked nationally."
ISP isn't just marketing. The company has a media division that recently signed Cal flagship radio station KGO to a five-year extension and Comcast Sports Net to a five-year television deal. As part of those deals, Cal will air a 30-minute postgame show, "The Fifth Quarter," on KGO, hosted by Rosselli and former color analyst Lee Grosscup.
KGO's network of stations also means that Cal football games will air from San Diego to Redding.
The Comcast deal will put Cal football games on television up to twice a year, starting with the Sept. 3 season opener against Sacramento State. The cable channel also will televise a weekly, in-season show with Tedford, six men's basketball games and a minimum of four other Cal sports teams each year.
Cal already has received a taste of national visibility. Last season's Holiday Bowl drew 63,711 and earned a 4.0 television rating, making it the fourth-highest rated bowl game on ESPN.
This year, ABC will televise the Big Game as part of its regional package for the first time since 1991. Fox Sports Bay Area also will resume the Cal Football Report, a 30-minute highlights program that gained popularity last season.
"A university can't buy better publicity," said Frank Miller, editor of "The College That's Right for You." "Every time the (football) team is on television, it gives the university name recognition. A student chooses a school not just for academics but also the college experience."
Football is quickly becoming an integral part of the Cal experience.
The Cal Student Store recently completed an expansion that added a floor dedicated to apparel. The top seller is "True Blue," the official game-day football T-shirt promoted by the athletic department, said store director Greg Kiryakakis.
Brick by brick
What will it take for Cal to stay on top? Fans in the seats? Donations? Marketing and media opportunities?
All of the above, and those are made possible by winning.
"Continuity is extremely important," Tedford said. "We all support the vision of moving forward with this program and taking it as far as it can go."
Not an easy goal when you consider the competitiveness of the Pac-10. Two-time defending national champion USC enters the season ranked No. 1 in every major poll. Arizona State is ranked No. 20 in the AP poll.
Tough schedules make a run at the BCS more likely. If a team can win.
And winning means landing top recruits.
In February, Cal signed 24 players, including 12 high school All-Americans. Rivals.com ranked it the nation's No. 8 recruiting class. Eight high school players have verbally committed for 2006.
Winning means having players academically eligible, not a simple task at a university where incoming freshmen have an average grade point average of 3.81 and score between 1,200 and 1,500 on the SAT.
At Cal, Tedford has implemented the "Academic Gameplan," a program that monitors players' academic progress while making them personally accountable for their work. The program seems to be working. The combined GPA of players has risen .2 since its implementation in 2002.
Winning also means keeping the coaching staff intact.
In three seasons, Tedford has lost only two assistant coaches, one to retirement. All of his assistants from 2004 are back. Tedford insisted that his contract extension include additional compensation for his staff.
With winning comes an intense spotlight off the field as well as on it. Cal discovered that twice in the past year.
In December, receiver David Gray was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon outside a San Francisco night club. No charges were filed after a police investigation cleared him.
In February, defensive back Bernard Hicks was arrested for marijuana possession and receiver Robert Jordan was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. That charge was later dropped. Both players were suspended -- Hicks for the first three games of this season, Jordan for the season-opener.
"The players may have more focus on them, but we always make sure they understand how they need to act and to not expect any favors," Tedford said. "We try to be proactive, not reactive. We didn't wait for success to make that part of our lessons."
Tedford has given Cal a face to present to the world of big-time college football -- with a voice to match.
With help from Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen, Tedford lobbied for full disclosure of the 62 votes cast in the USA Today coaches poll. That's because last season, when votes were cast in secret, Texas jumped over Cal in the final regular-season poll, denying the Bears a BCS bowl.
Final poll balloting will be made public this season, a fact not lost on Paterno.
"When others listen," he said, "you know you have arrived."
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