Opinion | How the Cal Golden Bears took over X and college football

One of the side effects of college football’s ongoing wave of conference realignment has been the melding of universities and fan bases that were once completely foreign to each other. Football teams that once had little to no history are now competing with each other for conference supremacy, and fans are now trading barbs despite knowing nothing about their opponents. 

On Sept. 1, 2023, the Atlantic Coast Conference voted to add three new members — Southern Methodist University, formerly of the American Athletic Conference, University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University — from the imploding Pac-12 conference. The odd combination of these schools and their departure from the ACC’s eastern roots created an interesting problem for fans of the three schools and those who have called the ACC home for decades. 

In particular, the merge highlights political divisions between the two California schools and some of the universities they now compete against. California, and especially UC Berkeley, is one of the most liberal and left-leaning parts of the country compared to the largely conservative Carolinas and Florida, which house some of the ACC’s member universities. Given the current political climate, these fanbases may hold some negative stereotypes about each other and their beliefs. 

Depending on where you stand on the political spectrum, you may see the other side as “woke and oversensitive” or “bigoted and backward” if you have limited exposure to different political opinions. 

The unique mixture of political divisions, conference realignment and unfamiliarity with their opponents created the perfect recipe for fans of the Cal Golden Bears to make the most out of their situation and endear themselves to their new conference mates.

Following Cal’s 21-14 upset win over the Auburn Tigers in week two, Cal fans took to X to celebrate their victory and poke fun at the negative perceptions that Auburn fans had about them and their politics. 

X user Don Grizzell posted a meme following the upset stating that Auburn had “lost to the woke agenda.” From that point, the “Calgorithm” was born, and in the following weeks, Cal fans flooded X with various memes depicting comical instances of the Golden Bears enforcing progressive policies on the teams and fans of their opponents. 

The biggest week for the “Calgorithm” came the week ahead of the Golden Bear’s contest against the Florida State Seminoles. FSU’s poor start to the season and largely conservative fanbase made it an easy target for the Golden Bears’ fan base, who had plenty of memes and posts ready for the occasion. User Admiral Bear made a post depicting Cal’s mascot giving a participation trophy to Seminole fans coping with their team’s struggles. User Not Fernando posted a meme leaning into the political divide, renaming Doak Campbell Stadium to “Woke Campbell Stadium” and creating an AI-generated image of FSU students having a critical race theory discussion at midfield. 

While political in nature, these posts by Cal fans are mostly amiable and humorous in their intent, largely meant to poke fun at preconceived notions of their beliefs and character. As the season progresses, many more fans inside and outside of the Cal sphere have gotten in on the joke, hopefully dispelling the negative perceptions of Cal and its fan base. 

Cal fans just may have made a good first impression and dispelled their perception as nerds who are apathetic about football. 

The “Calgorithm” was able to go supernova as ESPN chose Berkeley as the site for “College GameDay,” ESPN’s popular pregame show, usually reserved for big rivalries and ranked matchups. However, the popularity of the “Calgorithm” meme likely influenced ESPN’s decision to air the show from Berkeley for the first time in series history. 

Bears fans and students took advantage, using their newfound national prominence to create an electric environment filled with plenty of humorous signs referencing the popular meme and Cal’s identity as a progressive “nerd” school. 

As the already crazy 2024 season progresses, fans can expect more memes, Jaydn Ott-inspired parodies of Chappell Roan and plenty of “Calgorithm” inspired jabs of your favorite school. The Golden Bears visit Pittsburgh to take on the Pitt Panthers at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.