was DeSean Jackson

Why don’t you mention that UCLA is more selective than Berkeley? Plenty of friends I have at Berkeley did not get into UCLA and I just graduated.

we here could care less about Cal. We may be their rivals, but they are not good enough athletically to be our’s (and I’m not just talking football and basketball). That’s what $C is for. He should be focusing on the Furd and their 90 something NCAA championships

Let him preoccupy himself with “tormenting” you about how Cal is superior. While he’s busy focusing on that, you’ll be doing the work needed to pass the bar.

When he fails and you pass, you can just tell him it’s okay, you’re still looking for a secretary if he needs a job.

I remember when I was in school (late 90s) and USC couldn’t win a game in any sport; Stanford was the team I most loved to hate. We were on the cusp of a National Championship in football and Stanford would up and beat us with Ty Willingham at the helm. Likewise, in Basketball they were at their peak, with Montegomery at coach and seemingly every year they were in the hunt for the NC. And, we would up and beat them with The Lizard at the helm. I talked about later with a Stanford alum, and she pretty much agreed. We had much better competition than anything Cal could provide.

So, talk up Stanford and what a great school they are, and how great they are in sports, (I believe they are in 3rd behind us in NCAA championships) and how if we truly have a second rivalry it would be with Stanford.

Then compare Cal to Oregon; they have historically stunk up the conference and only now that they are doing relatively well, they want to make some noise.

An acquaintance and I in high school were serious rivals in the classroom. He was a straight-A student, 4.0, Valedictorian, but a total nerd who did nothing else in high school; no sports, no clubs, nada. His first choice was UCLA, then Stanford, then Cal. I was 3.85 but an accomplished athlete and team captain of 2 teams, member of student gov’t and president of Letterman’s Club. I applied to UCLA as well. Guess what? UCLA and Stanford rejected the nerd, but Cal (his 3rd choice) accepted him. UCLA accepted me. The nerd was devastated and despondent.

The moral of that story is that UCLA (and Stanford) would rather have top-notch students with a life than nerdy geeks who have no life. Apparently Cal is okay with 1-dimensional nerds. Or… in the cases of Lynch, Russell White, DeSean; 1-dimensional FB players.

If Cal were so great, why did they ever have to open a southern campus?

Seriously, he seems awfully preoccupied with the “satellite campus” instead of his rival in Palo Alto, or instead od having confindence is his own position.. It seems to be quite the classic inferiority complex.

Berkeley people can only point to academics as an area in which they have an edge over UCLA and there isn’t some huge gap there if you go by the rankings. US News published two sets of ranking lists this past year for colleges. In the “National Rankings,” Berkeley was 20 and UCLA was 25. However, in the “World Rankings,” which use a different methodology, UCLA was 30 and Berkeley was 36.

As for everything else, what exactly does Cal do better? Location and campus – UCLA. Attractiveness of student body – UCLA. No Berkeley goggles needed in Westwood. If your buddy disagrees with this, then he must have had some good weed up north, or maybe he consumed a lot of alcohol during his college days.

Sports in general – UCLA by a mile. Look at how many championships each school has won. Three of the four California Pac 10 schools sit at the top of total team championships won. Which one is the odd man out? It’s Berkeley. But wait. They’re good in Rugby and they just became halfway decent in football. Meanwhile, Dorrell had a winning record against Tedford and they still have not been to a Rose Bowl in decades. That program had nowhere to go but up. They’re not suddenly great just because they have improved.

I guess for the extreme left wing types, UCLA might not be liberal enough, although I consider that a good thing.

Berkeley people seem to have this hatred for UCLA and it really doesn’t make sense. They’re sister schools. Maybe it has something to do with Stanford being such an elite institution in both athletics and academics. Berkeley students can’t say anything to their true rival so they pick on their better looking, more popular (we get the most applications in the nation), younger sibling. Unfortunately for them, that younger sibling is arguably their academic equal based on the rankings and that younger sibling beats them hands down in everything else. Their younger sibling is for the most part superior. On second thought, I do understand the hatred Berkeley people have for UCLA.

And if he tells you that UCLA stole Cal’s colors, song, and mascot, you can tell him that we improved upon them and made them famous. Cal uses ugly shades of blue and gold, an old looking, ugly mascot, and a bad version of “Sons of Westwood.” They can either get over it or cry about it from now until the end of time. Friggin’ Hippies. Get a job. Vietnam is over.

…is kind of telling about this “rivalry.”

I don’t think most Bruins care that much about Cal.

John Yoo

I guess it struck a nerve and I had a feeling it might. In hindsight, I probably should have kept it to myself. It’s not that I don’t believe what I wrote. I chose UCLA over Berkeley and some other UCLA Alums I know did the same because we thought UCLA was a better place overall. I will stand by my opinions on how the two schools compare. Aside from the “friggin hippies” part, which was a joke, and the parts about the colors and songs, I stand by just about everything I wrote there. I respect UC Berkeley as an academic institution, but I love UCLA and I think we’re better in most ways.

I would take my post back because this negativity just creates more negativity on the other side. As a Bruin, I initially respected and liked Cal because it was a sister school. Then I read a lot of hateful things from Cal fans on the web concerning UCLA and I saw some Cal fans beat up one of their own at a football game because they thought he was a Bruin. His blue shirt was too light. This type of stuff created a hatred in me for that school that might rival any negative feelings I might have for USC, our true rival and the school we’re supposed to hate. In fact, I almost respect USC fans more because our rivalry is a natural one. We’re not sister schools.

My post above will instill hatred for UCLA in Cal fans that might not hate UCLA already and that bothers me. In that way, I’m no better than the Cal fans that sent me down this path or the Cal fan mentioned Seas98’s original post. I would like UCLA fans and Cal fans to respect each other, but my anger got the best of me and I just added to the problem.

…wouldn’t that make UCLA the standard?

Seriously though, the animosity is comical. I think Cal is a great school, has some great athletic teams. Sure, I think UCLA is better in most ways, but I’m biased because that’s where I went to school. But Cal is probably my second favorite team in the Pac-10. I may not be a fan of the hippie scene, but then again I spent enough time in Venice Beach while in school to contradict myself. So all in all, the only thing I have a problem with is the obnoxious Cal fans. Really, it’s their fault for getting everyone riled up. Our rival is U$C* and that’s whom we spend time deriding and mocking. Cal should do the same to Stanford, but their problem is that Stanford is in another stratosphere compared to U$C. Even more obnoxious fans than Cal, possibly the most obnoxious in the Pac-10, but other than that, it’s a pretty great school all-around. So I guess Cal’s problem is that they can’t rag on Stanford enough and it spills over to the only other school with which they think they have a “rivalry”…

Fine responses all around, but my favorite is:

“Face of UCLA – Coach. Face of Berkeley – some pathetic person living in a tree.”

Tell that hippie to take a shower!

You can name the top 10 athletes in UCLA history, throw them out, and UCLA’s second set of 10 would still destroy Cal’s.

This was SI.com’s top 10

10. Flo-Jo
9. Ashe
8. Lisa Fernandez
7. Reggie
6. Troy
5. Ann Meyers
4. JJK
3. Jackie
2. Walton
1. Kareem

This still leaves, among others:
Gail Goodrich (2x NCAA champ, leading scorer on 71-72 Lakers, Naismith HOF)
Jimmy Connors (8 grand slam singles titles)
Karch Kiraly (greatest volleyball player ever, 3 Olympic Gold medals)
Evelyn Ashford (4x Olympic Gold medalist)
Gary Beban (1967 Heisman Trophy winner)
Gail Devers (3 Olympic Gold medals)
Rafer Johnson (1960 decathlon gold medalist)
Jonathan Ogden (9x NFL All-Pro, 11 Pro Bowls, future HOFer)
Kenny Easley (3x consensus All-American, 4x NFL All-Pro, 1984 Defensive POY)
Bob Waterfield (3x NFL All-Pro, 2 time NFL POY, Pro Football HOF)

Cal might have some swimmers (Biondi, Coughlin) that might crack that list, and maybe Jason Kidd. But that’s about it. And keep in mind that’s our JV team.