Ranking of College Football Coaches Jobs Undervalues Cal

As Cal general manager Ron Rivera begins his search for the successor to fired head football coach Justin Wilcox, one question continues to crop up: How good a job is the Cal head football coaching position?

According to The Athletic’s ranking of the appeal of the current head coaching vacancies at FBS schools, the Cal job is not particularly attractive. The Athletic ranks Cal’s head coaching job eighth among the 12 FBS coaching vacancies, putting them in this order:

---1. LSU

---2. Penn State

---3. Florida

---4. Auburn

---5. Arkansas

---6. UCLA

---7. Oklahoma State

---8. Cal

---9. Stanford

---10. Oregon State

---11. Colorado State

---12. UAB

That seems to undervalue the Golden Bears coaching job. It’s encouraging that the Cal job is rated above Stanford, but the Golden Bears’ vacancy should be ranked ahead of Oklahoma State. Afterall, Oklahoma State is located in Stillwater. Granted the cost of living is considerably lower in Stillwater, but it can’t compare with a job located in the Bay Area. Can it?

Here’s what The Athletic said about Cal’s vacancy

8. Cal

Five-year record: 28-34

Estimated valuation: $158 million (65th out of Power 4 teams)

Job grade: C+

The Golden Bears are going to a third consecutive bowl game, but they’ve won more than seven games just once in the last decade, and the program has only three 10-win seasons since 1950. Roster spending has improved recently, with an administration that actually supports football, led by general manager Ron Rivera. (Does the next coach have any shot at keeping talented freshman QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele?) But the athletic department is saddled with a ton of debt and getting just a small share of ACC TV revenue after scrambling at the end of the last conference realignment. Even in an open ACC, the ceiling here has always been relatively low.

The estimated valuation of Cal at $158 million is somewhat discouraging considering that each of the top four schools on this list – LSU, Penn State, Florida and Auburn – has a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Certainly Cal’s debt and the bureaucratic elements of the University of California provide some added obstacles, but the current administration’s thirst for a successful football program trumps most of the shortcomings.

Cal has never had a chancellor so gung-ho about having a winning football program as Rich Lyons.  And that kind of conviction at the very top of the food chain makes a huge difference over time.  The fact that Ron Rivera, a two-time NFL coach of the year, is basically running the Cal football program has to be appealing to an incoming head coach.

The presence of both Rivera and Chancellor Lyons has aided fundraising for football, making it a bit easier to obtain or retain players via the transfer portal.  Maybe Cal cannot come out of the offseason with a net gain in the portal, but the Golden Bears should improve on the net loss they experienced this past offseason.

The presence of Rivera and Lyons have transformed the Cal football program into something that should appeal to aspiring head coaches. Those two will do all they can to provide the tools and expertise needed for football success, something that has not always been the case at Cal. The fact that they fired a coach who is headed for a bowl game and has a winning record this season shows how serious they are.

And you can make the case that it’s easier to achieve immediate success in the ACC, which has had few dominant football programs recently. Pitt, Virginia and SMU are the three teams vying for the ACC title this season, and Virginia and Pitt could hardly be considered perennial football powerhouses, while SMU was a member of the American Conference just two years ago.

The final piece, of course, is what Cal is willing to spend on its next coach. The school is willing to spend the nearly $10 million to Wilcox to fire him since his contract was scheduled to run through 2027.  Wilcox’s salary of about $4.5 million this season ranked about in the middle of ACC head coaching salaries, but neither Rivera nor Lyons was part of the Cal administration when that contract extension was signed in 2022. You can bet Rivera and Lyons are going make the pot as sweet as possible for the incoming head coach.

The appeal of Cal's coaching job might be reflected in whether Cal can keep freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. If he stays that says something about the Bears' job.

Granted, Cal may never have the football appeal of an LSU or Penn State, but it seems like a better place for a head coach than Oklahoma State. But maybe we are overestimating the appeal of the Bay Area with its high cost of living.