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After road loss to USC on short rest, Cal coach calls Pac-12 scheduling a 'travesty'

Cal played a double-overtime game on Friday in Week 8. (Getty)
Cal played a double-overtime game on Friday in Week 8. (Getty)

Cal coach Sonny Dykes wasn’t pleased with his team’s schedule following its 45-24 loss to USC on Thursday.

The Bears traveled to Southern Cal after playing Friday night at home vs. Oregon. That game went two overtimes before Cal won 52-49. After losing to the Trojans in a game Cal played with one fewer day of rest than normal, Dykes didn’t mince words, calling it a “travesty” and also a “disaster.”

“The schedule has just been a disaster,” Dykes said via the Los Angeles Times. “It’s been a mess. It’s been incredibly hard on our kids from an academic standpoint.”

It wasn’t a typical short week either. Cal is in the midst of fall midterms, so players had a short week and also had to worry about exams. And USC played the game after spending Week 8 on a bye. Cal had a bye before it played Oregon.

USC ran all over the Bears in the 21-point win. The Trojans had 48 carries for 398 yards; an average of over eight yards a carry.

While Dykes’ frustration with the schedule was obviously compounded by his team’s loss, it’s not simply a case of sour grapes after the game either. Here’s what he had to say Tuesday:

“When you sit down and look at the schedule, clearly it’s not ideal,” Dykes said via the AP. “It’s one of those deals where you just go, ‘How in the world did this ever happen? How could somebody let this happen?'”

The game, of course, was played Thursday night because of television. It was broadcast on ESPN, which carries Thursday night college football games nearly every week of the college football season. And most college football fans know that athletic departments’ primary source of revenue comes courtesy of television contracts.

From the Times:

The conference’s schools agree on a set of parameters for when and how games must be scheduled, [Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott] said, and “we haven’t done anything in this case that’s not within an agreed parameter with all of our schools.”

Television obligations leave “not a lot of flexibility,” Scott said

Cal fell to 4-4 with the loss and its four remaining regular season games are all on Saturdays. USC is now 5-3.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!