Cal, Stanford have squatters' rights

As the antes and blinds for athletics departments keeps getting ratcheted up, one wonders just how lucky Bob Bowlsby and Sandy Barbour feel right now.As the athletic directors at Stanford and Cal, each has had and generated frustrations over the years, but at least they havent had to go through the humiliation just endured by Oliver Luck at West Virginia.Yes, THE Oliver Luck. As in, father to the man, Oliver Luck. As in Andrews closest male role model. As in Dad.

As the athletic director in Morgantown, he has watched as his home base, the Big East, has been termited into near-extinction, first by the departures of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the Atlantic Coast Conference and the active courting being done by Connecticut to follow the same Underground Railroad route.And he wants out, too.Only reports from Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com indicate that Luck tried to peddle his schools allegiance to both the ACC and the Southeastern Conference and was rejected both times.It makes you wonder, then, whether Cal and Stanford would be profile-y enough to exist in the new world order if they werent already on the lucky side of the fence. And we suspect not.Stanford has tons of resources but not a huge and energetic fan base. Cal has the fan base but until the new Pac-12 TV deal was looking to take out five sports. Neither would be automatically attractive to a new buyer if they werent already positioned well by the current buyer, and not even the size of their shared TV market could save them.And that goes for Barbour and Bowlsby as well. They could if asked raise tons of reasons why Cal and Stanford would have to be part of the new 64-team field, but they wouldnt resonate as well as the one they wouldnt cite: That they have squatters rights.And right now, squatters rights are only good for those who are in. Just ask the Big XII; they have squatters aplenty, and apparently nowhere to squat.