For Cal, it should be. Not for the conference. Cal has already embarassed themselves nationally enough times to where they're not playing for the conference anymore, IMO. If they beat Tennessee this time, and maybe string together some decent bowl wins, then I'll have some respect for them.
As far as the cultural differences that affect the importance of college football in the south vs. on the west coast, that's a long, long, long debate that I think would be more at home in the politics forum. Definitley a lot of comments in there that some could find very culturally insensitive. In short, I'll just say it's the tradition of it.
I found it entirely innacurate how he insinuated that USC has a strong fanbase. They don't. The history of the program is strong, but the fanbase is better described as wishy-washy. Not unlike the rest of the conference.
