CAL Fans Reintroduce Themselves to the College Football World
Written October 4th 2024:
As a college football fan, there has been plenty to be excited about this season. From a personal standpoint, Deion Sanders and my alma mater Colorado Buffalo are 4-1 going into their bye week, with a defense that has not given up more than seven points in the second half of any game, and an offense that is one of the most explosive in college football. From a national perspective, Georgia vs Alabama turned out to be one of the best games in recent memory, Texas has two dominant quarterbacks who have skyrocketed them to their first number-one ranking in the college football polls since 2008, and the teams of the former Pac-12 have shown that they will be a force in every conference they have joined.
One team has completely slid under the radar for most of the season, up until now that is. Cal has largely been a program that has been looked over in favor of other major powerhouse programs in the Pac-12. In recent years USC, Oregon, and other Pac-12 powerhouses took the spotlight away from the Golden Bears, which left their fanbase, who had seen players like Aaron Rodger, Marshawn Lynch, and Desean Jackson play in the blue and gold, wondering when their next opportunity in the spotlight may come. That opportunity to be in the national spotlight finally came back, and it is in large part thanks to their fans.
In their first year in the ACC, Cal is currently 3-1, with a massive win on the road in primetime vs Auburn, which helped them gain exposure on a national level, and while yes this was already great for Cal, their fans decided to play every card they potentially could, reintroducing the nation to the power, and passion of their fanbase.
After their win in Alabama, Cal fans started not only trash-talking Auburn fans for their team, but started talking about Alabama’s politics as well. California and Alabama are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, and Cal fans wasted no time making sure Tigers fans knew it.
On X (formerly twitter) the sleeping giant that is the Cal fanbase started creating memes, which are usually used to scrutinize other teams, in support of their team, and in support of their political candidate. Images started surfacing that depicted cal players like Jayden Ott, Mason Sterling, and Fernando Mendoza photoshopped with Vice President, and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, who served as San Francisco’s District Attorney. These images were usually accompanied by a short message, making fun of right-wing talking points made. An example being “You just lost to the woke agenda”
Image from Cal Twitter, now known to many of their fans as the CALgorithm.
Via r/berkeley
This craze did not die down for their game two weeks later vs Florida State in Tallahassee. With their team deep in another right-leaning state, while Cal ended up losing the game in a close defensive battle, the entire week leading up to kickoff was dominated by Cal fans creating these hybrid political/football images.
Even though they lost in Tallahassee, Cal fans have woken up from what feels like an all-to-long slumber. ESPN’s College Gameday is going to be in Berkeley for the first time in the show's 30+ year history when Cal plays the number eight ranked Miami Hurricane on Saturday October 4th. While Cal is a clear underdog in the game, Bears fans are already showing off the signs they have made for gameday, many feature images and sayings straight from what Cal fans are now calling the CALgorithm.
