There is probably not a large-scale school basketball fan base that is more enjoyable these days than Berkeley’s. Before the soccer team takes on No. 1, the California Golden Bears will host ESPN College GameDay. 8-8 in its first house conference game as a member of the redesigned ACC.
And, of course, there’s the” Calgorithm”, a tongue-in-cheek view on social media that plays on the school’s left-leaning political standing for some good conventional football fan teasing. This circumstance led to GameDay’s first trip to Berkeley, and it may draw in a few more people for their late Saturday night contest with the” Batons.”
All of that may offer to dimly overshadow the economic tumult at the school’s athletic department. The increase in training costs, governmental difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, declining media revenue from the Pac-12, and debt that was built up in a pricey stadium renovation completed more than ten years ago are the causes of Cal’s budget woes.

Cal has the most remarkable sport loan of any common school in the nation, according to Sportico’s college sports financing database, at$ 439.6 million as of 2022-23, almost five times the national average sports debt. ( The debt is over$ 126 million more than the second-highest school, Arizona State. )
A required but costly remodelling of California Memorial Stadium was the biggest contribution to Cal’s debts. With stunning views of the San Francisco Bay and Memorial Stadium’s groundbreaking in 1923, it has long been regarded as a traditional college basketball facility. Additionally, it was constructed over the Hayward Fault Line in a particularly vulnerable spot. The school chose to restore the venue in a job that included a$ 200 million-plus geological upgrade and a limited gutting of its interior as opposed to building a new venue away from the wrong column.
That renovation, completed in 2012, cost the school nearly half a billion dollars ($ 474 million, to be exact ). Cal borrowed around$ 445 million –94 % of the costs–to finance the construction, with debt-service payments of$ 18 million that will escalate to$ 37 million in 2039. The payment schedule runs until 2112, a full decade after the construction was finished ( this is not a mistake ). As recently reported in Sportico, the school misread the need for decades-long season ticket plans, which it hoped would paid off much of the loan.
Cal also realized that the media deal’s cut of income from the Pac-12 would not be sufficient to cover some of the rising costs associated with college sports. The school could still compete in the Power 4 ( then 5 ), but Stanford and SMU were both joined in the ACC.
By defecting to the ACC, the three decidedly-not Atlantic Coast institutions were willing to accept smaller stock of the league’s advertising revenue. Each will receive full stocks in the last three decades of the ACC’s agreement with ESPN, which expires after the 2035-36 educational time, in exchange for partial shares fair$ 25 million over the course of the next nine years.

If Florida State and Clemson somehow cross the SEC or Big Ten, perhaps it wo n’t take long for Cal football to rise through the ranks in the ACC while the conference itself could be drastically altered. Berkeley’s hardly any changes, and its almost also-ran position in the last decade of the Pac-12, make it possible for it to do the same in the ACC. Golden Bears sport, no matter how you slice it, has a lot of high hopes and large debts to show off on the field in this fresh time.