So a significant change has been made to the 2008 Cal Football schedule.  The October 11th game against Washington has been moved to December 6th.  Here’s the 2008 schedule below (the 2009 and 2010 scheds can be found here).

2008
Aug. 30 - Michigan State
Sept. 6 - at Washington State
Sept. 13 - at Maryland
Sept. 27 - Colorado State
Oct. 4 - Arizona State
Oct. 18 - at Arizona
Oct. 25 - UCLA
Nov. 1 - Oregon
Nov. 8 - at USC
Nov. 15 - at Oregon State
Nov. 22 - Stanford
Dec. 6 - Washington

Big Game is November 22nd.  Meaning, we have our last game of the season two weeks after Big Game.  Yay?  I dunno.  I really liked ending the season against our rival.  In my opinion, having a non-rivalry game after a rivalry game is always a little dangerous.  What I think happens a little more often than not, is that the team gets so pumped up and juiced for the rivalry game, that the week after they’re emotionally drained and much more prone to losing.  I think it might be a little harder for Pac-10 teams to cope with a rivalry loss since we all only have 1 official rival.  On the other hand, some teams have up to 3 official rivalry games.  I think those teams are mentally tougher and able to move on after a big emotional rivalry loss because they have to in order to finish out the season.  In other words, they don’t let it keep them down if they lose because they can’t let it affect their season.  But what does work in Cal’s favor, is that we have a bye week after Big Game to forget about it should we… lose… again…

There is a bright side to this schedule change.  On the bright side this change to the schedule does give Cal 3 bye weeks next season!  Here’s the schedule below with the added bye weeks.

2008
Aug. 30 - Michigan State
Sept. 6 - at Washington State
Sept. 13 - at Maryland
Sept. 20 - BYE WEEK
Sept. 27 - Colorado State
Oct. 4 - Arizona State
Oct. 11 - BYE WEEK
Oct. 18 - at Arizona
Oct. 25 - UCLA
Nov. 1 - Oregon
Nov. 8 - at USC
Nov. 15 - at Oregon State
Nov. 22 - Stanford
Nov. 29 - BYE WEEK
Dec. 6 - Washington

I think the Bye week after Maryland is at a convenient time.  That bye week after Maryland will allow the team to rest up from the cross-country travel, and heal up from the big OOC game - as well as just heal up from the previous 3 games.  

The October 11th bye week is our last big rest-stop before we jump into a long and tough 6 straight weeks of football.  At Arizona may not be a cake walk, not after the way Arizona begin to play later in the 2007 season.  UCLA is our sort of mini-rivalry game, or unofficial rivalry game.  Then big games against Dixon-less Oregon, the always daunting $C, the scrappy Oregon State, and then Big Game.  Needless to say, this stretch of our season will be tough.   It’d be nice if that 3rd Bye week was a little sooner to break up this long stretch… but it’s not.

And so the November 29th Bye week occurs near Thanksgiving.  So while it is a bye week, it’s only like half a bye week.  The team will get rest, but it’s not like they’ll get a full 2 weeks of practice in before UW.  Nevertheless, it’s more time than usual and so I’ll take it.  

Also notice we have 7 home games next year.  The most critical of which are starting out the season in Memorial against Michigan State, then against Arizona State, Oregon, and Big Game.  Wow, lots of good home games next year.  Well, at least they look good right now.

What say you about the 2008 sched?  I really like the OOC games.  Good mid-west and east-coast exposure.