The Hotline mailbag publishes weekly. Send questions to [email protected] and include ‘mailbag’ in the subject line. Or hit me on Twitter/X: @WilnerHotline. Please note: Some questions have been edited for clarity and brevity. What percentage of total revenue did the other power conferences disperse to their membership compared to the percentage dispersed by the Pac-12? — @Milkbear79 An … Read more
BERKELEY — California has signed coach Mark Madsen to a two-year extension after he led an impressive turnaround in his first season with the Golden Bears. Athletic director Jim Knowlton announced the deal on Tuesday that will run through the 2029-30 season, saying Madsen has made an “incredible difference” in his brief tenure at Cal. … Read more
STANFORD – Mark Madsen has been involved in plenty of Stanford blowouts at Maples Pavilion. He was on the losing end of one for the first time Thursday night. The Cardinal dominated Cal 80-58, handing the former Stanford All-American a loss in his first game as the opposing coach at the arena and both teams’ … Read more
BERKELEY — UCLA won it at the finish, but Cal coach Mark Madsen said the Bears lost it at the start. “We had a bad first half. They had all the energy. We were sluggish,” Madsen said after the Bears fought back from a 14-point deficit before losing 61-60 at Haas Pavilion on Saturday afternoon. … Read more
The ACC unveiled the locations for its conference championships in a bevy of Olympic sports earlier this week. It’s a geographically diverse list of sites featuring not only Charlotte and Greensboro but also Raleigh and Durham, plus Cary and Wilmington. That’s right: Six years of championships across 10 sports, all of them in North Carolina. … Read more
Cal’s transition from the Pac-12 to the Atlantic Coast Conference won’t come with any momentum provided by a big showing in a bowl game. The Bears, playing in the postseason for the first time since 2019, led early against Texas Tech but stalled thereafter in a 34-14 loss at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, … Read more
The Pac-12 will announce its 2023 all-conference teams and postseason award winners on Tuesday. The head coaches were permitted to wait for the result of the conference championship game before casting their ballots. We see no reason to wait for the official reveal. The Hotline’s selections … Coach of the Year: Washington’s Kalen DeBoer In … Read more
As it turns out, the Cal Bears carried a little extra “juice” into the 126th Big Game. It was provided by Cal offensive lineman Barrett Miller. Miller, who came to Berkeley last spring after four seasons as a starting offensive lineman at Stanford, gave his Cal teammates some inside information leading up to the Bears’ … Read more
Instant reaction to Pac-12 developments on the field … 1. Purple Reign in evening rain We’ll start at the top — the top of the Pac-12 standings and, perhaps, the top of the Pac-12 heap. Washington survived a wet, rowdy environment in Corvallis and held on for a 22-20 victory over Oregon State, the winning … Read more
BERKELEY — Cal heads to Stanford on Saturday for the 126th Big Game with a still-beating postseason pulse and a young quarterback who plans to stick around for a while. Redshirt freshman Fernando Mendoza, a third-stringer when fall camp began, has led the Bears’ offense the past five games, helping them score at least 40 … Read more