Can Ron Rivera save Cal football?

An overreaction? Maybe not.

As the college football landscape continues to undergo seismic shifts, the Golden Bears are striving for more than an improved win-loss record.

They’re fighting for survival as a major-college program.

Rivera, the long-ago Cal All-America linebacker and more recently an NFL head coach with two different franchises, was hired in March as general manager of the Bears’ football program.

This is part of a growing trend across the country, with schools including Stanford, North Carolina, Notre Dame, USC, Alabama, Texas Tech and Texas hiring GMs to deal with the ever-growing complexities of running a modern college football program.

The job involves managing the recently approved profit-sharing payments to athletes and the mushrooming challenge of player movement through the transfer portal, which has wreaked havoc on the Bears’ roster. It’s a lot.

But for Cal, there is a big picture that looms over everything.

Realignment, which splintered the Pac-12 Conference and led Cal to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, is ongoing, and the expectation is that the powerful Southeastern and Big Ten conferences will eventually, perhaps soon, force the creation of one or more super-conferences.

Exactly what that will look like remains to be seen. But it’s expected to involve an exit from the NCAA to become a separate entity, with its own media rights deal and playoff system.

How many schools will be part of the new world order is up for grabs. Cal, which has not had a winning football season since 2019, is not guaranteed a spot at the table.

Cal chancellor Rich Lyons hired Rivera for the purpose of helping position the Bears to continue playing with the big kids.

FILE – Former Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera looks on before an before an NCAA college football game between the Army and Navy, in Landover, Md., Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr., File 

“That’s the whole goal, to make sure that we’re there and we are relevant. To be relevant, you have to win,” said Stephanie Rivera, Ron’s wife of 40 years, a former Cal basketball player and a trustee with the UC Berkeley Foundation, which helps generate private philanthropy in support of the university.

For Rivera, 63, the return to the college game for the first time since 1983 has been an eye-opener.

“It’s changed unbelievably,” said Rivera, who last fall attended his first Big Game since his playing days.

He understands the assignment with his alma mater.

“The biggest thing we’re learning is when there is a realignment, they’re going to look at probably three things: (win-loss) record, butts in the seats, eyeballs on the TV set. That’s how they’re going to measure you,” he said.

Rivera added, “Everything from ticket sales to marketing to looking for different revenue streams, we have to be much better. Everything that touches football I’m working with.”

Rivera will focus heavily on fund-raising and fan engagement, but he also has full authority over the entire program, from coach Justin Wilcox on down.

Rivera spent 35 seasons as a player, assistant coach or head coach in the NFL. He won a Super Bowl as a player with the Chicago Bears in 1985, coached the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl and twice was named NFL Coach of the Year.

So why has he taken on this task?

“Because it’s Cal,” he said. “It’s about coming back to the University of California and giving back. I have the opportunity to be here and make an impact.”

The hiring has super-charged much of Cal’s fan base. Asked about the enthusiastic fan response, Rivera said, “I think it’s cool, I really do. I was a little surprised, and sometimes, it’s embarrassing.”

Lyons, sold on Rivera’s deep-rooted passion for the university, called his hiring the latest step in “leveling up the importance of football at Cal,” labeling it “an investment in excellence.”

Unlike many college programs, where the GM reports to the head coach, Rivera oversees Wilcox and his staff. He reports directly to the chancellor.

Wilcox, who has led the Bears to four bowl appearances in eight seasons but has a 42-50 record, has embraced the relationship.

“I am very excited to have Ron in this role,” Wilcox said in a statement to this news organization. “Ron has a passion for Cal football and loves this university. To have him help guide our program during this new era of college football will be critical to our success.”

In one of their first conversations, Rivera asked Wilcox why he turned down the 2021 job offer from Oregon, his alma mater.

“Ron, I can win here,” Wilcox told him. “I was here (as an assistant) when we won. I was here with coach (Jeff) Tedford. That’s why I believe we can win.”

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That was just what Rivera wanted to hear.

“I kept thinking, this guy’s seen it. And he’s been so close,” Rivera said. “What I want to be able to do is get him the resources, give him that opportunity to succeed. Because we’re on the precipice, I believe, of taking the next step.”

One day last season gave him a glimpse of the program’s potential but also its shortcomings. Rivera watched as the Bears started the season 3-0 before losing four in a row by a combined margin of nine points. In the most painful of those, on Oct. 5, Cal built a 35-10 lead over Miami late in the third quarter in front of a capacity home crowd before collapsing in a 39-38 defeat.

Rivera also saw a community that packed Memorial Glade on campus for an early-morning visit by ESPN’s popular College GameDay show. ESPN called it one of its best GameDay programs, and Rivera labeled it “a three-hour commercial” for Cal football.

“Our student body, our faculty, the alumni and the fans came through,” Rivera said. “It showed this university has the ability to support major college football.”