IMO They absolutely do from a non sports perspective. Global top tier academics, billions in annual research, arguably the 2 best libraries in the world… blah blah blah. Conference membership gives the other schools access to all that. Sports wise, removing the rev sports, you’ve got 2 of the top 10-15 programs in the nation. Rev sports have largely sucked in the past few years but Cal BMDs dumped $2m+ into a new bball roster that will win 20 games next season. Football raised ~$5m and spent about $3m in getting a dozen or so transfers that filled in a lot of the depth holes. Football will be better this season and if the QB hits and the OL is fixed to at least “average”, they have a shot at 8-9 wins. They need to revamp the athletic department and get some new blood in which hopefully happens when Knowlton gets fired. But the investment in program relevance is already happening.
so would the Big18 take them at a massive discount? I think so. Especially if Apple gets brought in for 4th tier rights as is rumored. West coast volume inventory is still valuable to some degree